Suck it, Glenn Beck.

I'm just going to come right out and say it: I'm a whore for short fiction. Everyone loves novels and the like, but there's something incredibly elegant about a well-executed miniature. It's sleek; it doesn't have too much time to meander or get bogged down (unless it's written by H. P. Lovecraft); it gets right to the damn point. If I were a prostitute, I would most likely accept payment in the form of short fiction anthologies.

And here, you should probably keep in mind that I'm talking about good short stories. You know, with interesting plots and unique narrative styles - not just strings of declamatory sentences which happen to describe a series of events. It's why I'll take Neil Gaiman over Stephen King any day: even in my least favorite of his short stories, Gaiman is still a deeply inventive writer with an approachable but sneakily florid style. King, on the other hand, could be described as the Renee Fleming of fiction - he's famous and well-liked and his prose style is perfectly functional, but his writing has no soul. He writes mechanically instead of artistically, and so I could give a damn about his work.

So! Finally, we come to the point. I'm reading a lovely little book called Machine of Death, a collection of stories about people who know how they're going to die. The premise is simple: there's a machine which takes a sample of your blood, and tells you (with complete accuracy) how you're going to die. No time, no place - just a little slip of paper with a word or a phrase on it. The machine seems to enjoy fucking with people, though, because the predictions are often vague or have ironic double-meanings. But, long story short, if the machine tells you how you're dying, that's how it's gonna happen.

This anthology is the brainchild of a few webcomic artists who came up with the idea and asked for submissions on the theme. Out of 700+ stories, they chose 30, and added a few of their own. After unsuccessful attempts to find a publisher, they decided to publish the damn thing themselves, and started a grassroots internet campaign to get readers to make MoD the number one book on Amazon for a single day. It worked. They even beat Glenn Beck's new book, much to the whiny bastard's on-air dismay.

That was reason enough to be glad I bought the book - but now I'm actually reading it, and damn.

It's good. It's really good.

I've read six or seven of the stories so far, and I've been impressed with all of them. Each has a different take on the machine and how it affects the people who use it, and they range in tone from amusing and lighthearted to horrifically bleak - but they don't conflict with each other so much as give you a more three-dimensional picture.

This book is seriously awesome. You should order it, or read it online. Read a story or six, or listen the podcasts. It's good stuff.

Become part of the liberal culture of death - all the cool kids are doing it.