This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death is a 2013 anthology of science fiction short stories, which is a follow-up to Machine of Death, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews called it "funny, frightening, (and) clever",[1] while Publishers Weekly found it to be "fun, thoughtful, and sometimes dark".[2]The A.V. Club noted the many "strikingly different perspectives" of how society would be affected by the Machine, and lauded the book as "a celebration of creativity, exploring how impressively far one idea can be stretched without breaking".[3]
Table of contents
There are 31 stories contained within This Is How You Die:[4]
"Old Age, Surrounded by Loved Ones" written by Nathan Burgoine • illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
"Rock and Roll" written by Toby W. Rush • Meredith Gran
"Natural Causes" written by Rhiannon Kelly • Leela Wagner
"Shiv Sena Riot" written by Ryan Estrada • Ben McSweeney
"Zephyr" written by George Page III • c.billadeau
"Execution by Beheading" written by Chandler Kaiden • Mike Dawson
"Lazarus Reactor Fission Sequence" written by Tom Francis • Les McClaine
"Drowning Burning Falling Flying" written by Grace Seybold • Carla Speed McNeil
"Conflagration" written by D.L.E. Roger • Sam Bosma
"Screaming, Crying, Alone, and Afraid" written by Daliso Chaponda • Greg Ruth
"Apitoxin" written by John Takis • Indigo Kelleigh
"Blue Fever" written by Ada Hoffmann • Alice Duke
"Tetrapod" written by Rebecca Black • Carly Monardo
"Machine of Death" written by Karen Stay Ahlstrom • Alexandra Douglass
"Monsters from the Deep" written by David Malki • Mike Peterson
"Toxoplasmosis of the Brain; Candidiasis of the Esophagus; Candidiasis of the Trachea; Candidiasis of the Bronchi; Candidiasis of the Lungs; Kaposi's Sarcoma; Pneumonia; Tuberculosis; Stab Wound in the Belly; and Bus Accident" written by Gord Sellar • Nick Abadzis