This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death
If a machine could predict how you would die, would you want to know? This is the tantalizing premise of This Is How You Die, the brilliant follow-up anthology to the self-published bestseller, Machine of Death.

THIS IS HOW YOU DIE
Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable 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, existential, and fascinating--collects the best of the thousands of story submissions the editors received in the wake of the success of the first volume, and exceeds the first in every way.
1113742243
This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death
If a machine could predict how you would die, would you want to know? This is the tantalizing premise of This Is How You Die, the brilliant follow-up anthology to the self-published bestseller, Machine of Death.

THIS IS HOW YOU DIE
Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable 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, existential, and fascinating--collects the best of the thousands of story submissions the editors received in the wake of the success of the first volume, and exceeds the first in every way.
31.99 In Stock
This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

Unabridged — 15 hours, 38 minutes

This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

Unabridged — 15 hours, 38 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$31.99
FREE With a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
$0.00

Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime

START FREE TRIAL

Already Subscribed? 

Sign in to Your BN.com Account


Listen on the free Barnes & Noble NOOK app


Related collections and offers

FREE

with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription

Or Pay $31.99

Overview

If a machine could predict how you would die, would you want to know? This is the tantalizing premise of This Is How You Die, the brilliant follow-up anthology to the self-published bestseller, Machine of Death.

THIS IS HOW YOU DIE
Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable 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, existential, and fascinating--collects the best of the thousands of story submissions the editors received in the wake of the success of the first volume, and exceeds the first in every way.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for THIS IS HOW YOU DIE:

"THIS IS HOW YOU DIE is 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." -Seth Grahame-Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Unholy Night

"This volume takes the already cool concept and pushes it in dozens of fantastic new directions." -Brandon Sanderson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mistborn trilogy and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series

Praise for Machine of Death:

"Machine of Death is a marvelous collection, riddled with intelligence, creative reach, and a frankness that makes the best use of the central gimmick."
The Onion A.V. Club

"Recalls the best writings of Harlan Ellison and Charles Beaumont.... Machine of Death brought me laughs, terror and tears....Highly recommended."
Paradox Magazine

Kirkus Reviews

In this anthology, contributions from authors across a spectrum of genres yield stories about a fantastical Machine of Death, "which can predict anybody's ultimate fate based on a simple blood test." This is the follow-up volume to the popular self-published anthology Machine of Death (2010). To recap, in 2007, Bennardo, Malki and North solicited stories from contributors, with one caveat: Each story had to involve the Death Machine, a device that would analyze a drop of blood, then would generate a slip of paper telling the person how he or she would die. In this second volume, the editors narrowed over 1,700 submissions down to 31 stories, punctuated by 13 comics. While readers might expect a wide swath of sci-fi, the entries (with names like "Bite Wound," "Got Too Extreme" and "Massive Blood Loss") are more diverse than that. "Apitoxin" unreels a classic Sherlock Holmes whodunit, while "Lazarus Reactor Fission Sequence" is old-school sci-fi in the flavor of Harry Harrison or Martin Caidin. One of the great stories, "Cancer," tells the tale of a woman whose cells hold a secret à la Henrietta Lacks, and "Your Choice" offers a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure mortality story. Whether the cause of death is "Screaming, Crying, Alone, and Afraid," "Blunt Force Trauma Delivered by Spouse," "Peacefully" or "Old Age," none of the stories unravel in the way one might think. Funny, frightening, clever; no one in these stories emerges unscathed.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940170119318
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Publication date: 07/16/2013
Edition description: Unabridged
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews