I am in my second year of membership at Darkfuse and novellas like Marrow’s Pit are the reason why I joined and am still a member.

Central to the story is “the machine”—a world-sized mechanism so vast that no one is familiar with more than a few sections and so old that its creators, even its purpose, is lost to history. The machine provides all that one needs to live, and, to some extent, all of society lives to provide for the machine. Marrow’s Pit is a hellish central deposit area that takes all discards, organic and inorganic and somehow processes this matter to feed the machine itself.

Interestingly, and as noted in other reviews, the machine is not so much part of the plot as much as it creates the setting, the landscape. Some were disappointed, and I understand this feeling, but for me all stories, whether sci-fi or horror, or any genre really, are about the people---because human nature never changes. I found the story riveting and the world-building first rate.

I hope that this is only the first story of this dark and fascinating world. I feel that we have not even scratched the surface---the world of the machine would easily support a whole series of compelling novels and novellas.

5 stars.
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4.5 stars!

The Machine. As in Pink Floyd's Welcome to. But this is Mr. Deininger's Machine and it is unlike any other.
I'm not even going to go into the plot at all, because the book description and a bunch of other reviews already do that. I'm just going with my impressions of this novella here:

Science Fiction
Automatons
Murder
Wastefulness
Laziness
Spousal Abuse
Dark Fantasies
Death of imagination and creativity
Slavery
Endless Boredom

In my mind, this book was about all of the above and more. This is the type of tale that can (partially) morph into whatever you might think it is about. And if you don't feel like thinking, you can do that too and still come away impressed. Which, to me, is impressive by itself. I've read one other book by Mr. Deininger, and to be honest I thought it was just okay. I am so happy that I gave this one a shot, because I would have missed something special. Welcome to the Machine, reader. You are in capable hands with Keith Deininger.
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I can't really say too much without spoiling things, since this is a novella after all, so I'll keep things short.

Marrow's Pit was a well-written novella, but not exactly what I was expecting. Let me explain. The synopsis led me to believe that The Machine would be the main focus of this story. That I would be lost in Ballard's struggle to overcome his prison, and escape to the outside. In a way, I was given this story.

However the main focus was on an entirely different prison that I thought it would be. Again, I can't say too much but Ballard is definitely locked up. It's just much more personal than you would think. I kept hoping for more action. For more descriptions of the world this book was supposed to be built around. I know this is a novella, but I still feel there could have been more.

I feel like the ending was supposed to be poignant, but I honestly didn't get it. So points to the writing, because it is good, and points to the fact that this is an easy read despite its faults. Three stars it is. ( )

This was outstanding, reading like a cross between Edgar Allan Poe's [b:The Tell-Tale Heart|899492|The Tell-Tale Heart|Edgar Allan Poe|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1317724096s/899492.jpg|19034527], Harlan Ellison's [b:I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream|415459|I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream|Harlan Ellison|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1423672898s/415459.jpg|1055429], and Hugh Howey's [b:Wool Omnibus|13453029|Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1)|Hugh Howey|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349614200s/13453029.jpg|18979356].

The only drawback I would note is that it wasn't long enough. This could easily be expanded into a series of stories/novellas based on the world of the Machine and the Maelstrom.

Good stuff! ( )