This is one of the first books I bought for a Kindle I got in 2010. I don’t know why, but it popped into my head recently and I decided to reread it. Filled with a post-election feeling of wanting to do something amid all this powerlessness, I decided to buy a DRM-free ePub off Gumroad instead of reread the Kindle version, since it was pretty cheap and I want to further reduce my support for Amazon.

This book is great. Like some of the best science fiction, the stories take a simple premise (the invention of a machine that can infallibly if ambiguously tell someone how they will die) and explore all of the implications of that. What does it mean for elite kindergartens? For anticipating natural disasters or world conflicts? How would it change relationships or culture or schools? Some of the stories are funny, others are sad, and the authors collectively get a lot of mileage out of a very simple idea. I’m glad I came back to this after 14 years!

• Machine of Death
• Ryan North
• David Malki !
• Matthew Bennardo