| Machine of Death | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki, editors |
| Cover artist | Justin Van Genderen |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Bearstache Books |
| Publication date | October 13, 2010 |
| Pages | 452 |
| ISBN | 9780982167120 |
Machine of Death is a 2010 collection of science fiction short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki.[1]
All of the stories center around a device which, when provided with a blood sample, can identify the way a person will die. The machine relays this information by printing a short word or phrase, which serves as the title of each story, on a small card. The machine is never wrong, but often vague or cryptic.[1]
The premise was inspired by an episode of Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics.[2][3] The three editors solicited submissions, many of them from novice and unpublished or unknown writers, in early 2007. After failing to find a publisher willing to accept an anthology containing material by so many unknown authors, the editors self-published the book in late 2010.[4]
Shortly after the book's publication, the editors announced "MOD-Day", encouraging buyers to purchase the book en masse on October 26 in an effort to reach #1 on the bestseller list on Amazon.com.[5] The effort was successful. Malki described the feat as the literary equivalent to winning the Super Bowl.[3] October 26 was also the release date of Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth, and Treasure by conservative Fox News commentator Glenn Beck. When Beck's book failed to reach #1 on that date, he complained that the anthology was part of a liberal "culture of death".[6]
In November 2010, the editors released the anthology under a Creative Commons Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 license.[4] Readings of stories from Machine of Death are currently being released in podcast form on the book's website. They collected submissions for a second volume from May through July 2011.[7] [8]
Additional artist contributors whose illustrations are not tied to specific stories include Katie Sekelsky and Mitch Clem.