If a machine could predict how you would die, would you want to know? This is the tantalising premise of THIS IS HOW YOU DIE, the brilliant follow-up anthology to the self-published bestseller, MACHINE OF DEATH.
The machines started popping up around the world. The offer was tempting: with a simple blood test, anyone could know how they would die. But the machines didn’t give dates or specific circumstances – just a single word or phrase. DROWNED, CANCER, OLD AGE, CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. And though the predictions were always accurate, they were also often frustratingly vague. OLD AGE, it turned out, could mean either dying of natural causes, or being shot by an elderly, bedridden man in a botched home invasion. The machines held onto that old-world sense of irony in death: you can know how it’s going to happen, but you’ll still be surprised when it does.
This addictive anthology – sinister, witty, philosophical and fascinating – collects the best of the thousands of story submissions the editors received in the wake of the success of self-published sensation MACHINE OF DEATH, and exceeds the first in every way.
The machines started popping up around the world. The offer was tempting: with a simple blood test, anyone could know how they would die. But the machines didn’t give dates or specific circumstances – just a single word or phrase. DROWNED, CANCER, OLD AGE, CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. And though the predictions were always accurate, they were also often frustratingly vague. OLD AGE, it turned out, could mean either dying of natural causes, or being shot by an elderly, bedridden man in a botched home invasion. The machines held onto that old-world sense of irony in death: you can know how it’s going to happen, but you’ll still be surprised when it does.
This addictive anthology – sinister, witty, philosophical and fascinating – collects the best of the thousands of story submissions the editors received in the wake of the success of self-published sensation MACHINE OF DEATH, and exceeds the first in every way.
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Reviews
A brilliantly addictive book that reads like a series of existential, death-obsessed Twilight Zone episodes. It's a book that can somehow make "brain toxoplasmosis" jump right off the page. It's fun and twisted, but also surprisingly deep and almost meditative in parts. Very highly recommended.
This volume takes the already cool concept and pushes it in dozens of fantastic new directions.
Funny, frightening, clever; no one in these stories emerges unscathed.
This Is How You Die is a celebration of creativity, exploring how impressively far one idea can be stretched without breaking.