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Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast (Machine Mandate Book 2) by [Benjanun Sriduangkaew]

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Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast (Machine Mandate Book 2) Kindle Edition

by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

227 ratings

Book 2 of 5: Machine Mandate

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Vishnu’s Leviathan: a half-beast, half-machine warship famed for its speed and might. The great prize that armies across the galaxies will kill to possess.

Admiral Anoushka was once a ghost. Now she's the universe's most brutal commander with a debt to a godlike AI. To repay it—and to complete her long revenge—she’s set her sights on the leviathan. Neither the warship’s flesh horrors nor its ruthless ruler will stand in her way.

But all her plans couldn't prepare her for what waits in the belly of the beast: a foe that matches her in ferocity and thirst for vengeance . . . and a deep treachery that may prove her undoing.

Set in the same universe as And Shall Machines Surrender.

Print length

86 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 1, 2020
File size

343 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book exudes power, from the first chapter to the last... radical and timely, but completely unpretentious. I'm not sure if I'll read a better book than this in 2021. It's fast-paced, exciting, and does everything right. Check it out―you won't be disappointed."
―Aurealis Magazine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08FYZDP7Q
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prime Books (December 1, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 343 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 86 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #107,614 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #221 in Two-Hour Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads
- #750 in Two-Hour Literature & Fiction Short Reads
- #1,486 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
227 ratings

About the author

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Benjanun Sriduangkaew

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Benjanun Sriduangkaew writes science fiction and fantasy with a particular interest (both reading and writing) the queer, the post-colonial, the resistant. She was a finalist for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and her first novella, Scale-Bright, was a finalist for the British Science Fiction Association Award. She's lived in Hong Kong, Jakarta, and Bangkok.

She can be found at

Twitter: twitter.com/benjanun_s

Website: beekian.wordpress.com

Newsletter: www.getrevue.co/profile/benjanun

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
4 star		26%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Greta Gill

An incomplete shucking of one's skin.

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

This review contains heavy, heavy spoilers.

Now Will Machines Hollow The Beast is a highly compressed, condensed sort of story. One could imagine a full-length novel at the typical speculative fictional standard of 100k words or more that covers the same ground. But this density provides something that the novel would lack- the impression of its being an episode. One could envision, in some alternate timeline of sapphic domination, an entire series of short novels in the popular Admiral Anoushka franchise, the sort of thing Americans tend to call "light novels" because there are far more weeaboos reading fan translations of Dirty Pair novels than Deutschophiles reading fan translations of Perry Rhodan novels. But I digress, as these short novels do not exist, but Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast draws upon the strength of that kind of ongoing serial fiction- the normality of the beginning situation- without the typical flaws of the medium- reading 50 books of uneven quality to find out what's going on.

All this so far has been about structure and medium- what about the plot? Well, if you're looking for information about the plot, you won't find it here! Instead, let's talk about the heart beating merrily away beneath the plot. Let's talk about... theme.

Now Will Machines Hollow the Beast is a book wherein all the characters have pasts they wish to leave behind them, but that they cannot. They have peeled themselves out of their skin and put on a new one, or, in Anoushka's own version of this, she has cut out the organs that chained her to a biological destiny she did not desire, that she was kept in slavery to. Which is to say, the queerness and the transness of the story is very upfront. But these characters have not, and possibly cannot, truly sever their pasts. And so Anoushka seizes eagerly on her chance for brutal revenge against Vishnu's Leviathan, and Numadesi dissembles about her true astounding and incredible abilities, and Xuejiao decides to die rather than be forgiven, and Seung Ngo tries to transform themself into a living starship, because they're a peripheral character and exist primarily to literalize this metaphor. And Benzaiten in Autumn continues to try and reinvent herself endlessly, her past so thoroughly erased that while she knows each of the other characters' pasts, they know nothing except what she lets slip.

It would be tempting to suggest that Benzaiten is thus the ideal that these other characters aspire to, the perfect being, but Benzaiten exists in a state of isolation, unable to ever really trust anyone, and the novella ends on Anouskha and Numadesi clinging to each other, neither able to truly expose themselves fully to the other, both fully known by the other in the ways that matter. Perhaps this is sufficient- the ability to confront the past, and then have someone to console you afterwards.

5 stars. Read it!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dreadful revenge, mindless love.

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

Benjanun Sriduangkaew's Machine Mandate narratives leave a lasting strange feeling.

There is really only one true character to this story, the Alabaster Admiral.
And Alabaster is the vengeful war "goddess" of the Mandate's galaxy. Will made Flesh.

Yet, this "fearless strong woman" is nothing more than a sociopathic mass murderer and a relentless privateer. A destroyer of worlds to the best bidder.

Her wife Numadesi represents unconditional love to a degree that she seems not to have a true self.
In fact all the "characters" are just complementary to Alabaster depiction. They are fixtures to Alabaster's fetishism.

And as "love" is a variation of fanaticism, so revenge, coming from a direction that not even the great Alabaster will ever expect, is absolute. This utterly diminishes the all female characters (there are no male ones, though AIs are gender ambivalent).

Krissana is now just a vessel to Benzaiten, a baffling AI with unfathomable "magic like abilities" in that fictional universe.

Even so, Benzaiten commissions Alabaster, much to her trouble, and it is Benzaiten itself that saves the day AI-ex-machina-wise. Why commission Alabaster in the first place when one's able to draw new resources from the magic hat as needed?

The main opposing character lacks the depth to be truly independent from Alabaster characterization. Which is pathos upon pathos upon violence justified by a difficult "childhood".

Finally, any woman sexually immature that crosses Alabaster's path becomes "madly in love" with that legendary "war goddess" and wonderful lover, albeit utterly dominant.

I really don't know. The prose is rich, the story has strong foundations. And yet characters seem as emotionally naive as ten year old over protected girls. Again, there is not a single male Character.

So, revenge can be as absolute as mindless self annihilating "love".
It is Young Adults material. And maybe it's ok.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lorel

Perplexing to Say the Least

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2021

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This story was interesting. I felt a lot of excitement to understand and learn the setting and hear about all the tiny details as it unfolded. But as I kept reading and reading I found there really wasn't a moment where I felt like I was understood more than I didn't.

There are a lot of amazing lines and descriptions. The level of imagary was vivid and astounding at points. The use of diction and the unique way in which people and scenes were depicted always excited. This book is filled with fun and wild ideas that really took my breath away.

But it's still a two star review from me.

I'd say my biggest concern for this book is the tense. I realize this may be a profoundly surface level concern for some but the story is written in present tense. Meaning things can only be happening. It means characters and actions don't really get a moment to truly linger. Nothing gets described before it needs to be and nothing feels truly meditated upon. Everything just keeps unfolding. Not only that but the pacing compounds this concern, scene move so fast it's almost uncomfortable.

But honestly, I dislike that I feel this way. I wish I could feel differently. Because I did read it, and I did enjoy a lot of it. In fact, I enjoyed it even in spite of the hammy 14 year old nature of it all. I am a trans lesbian myself and the characters made me feel really seen in a lot of ways. But nothing feels more than surface level. Not even all that amazing prose. In fact, that amazing prose feels... Squandered. Not because of the setting or the content but because it doesn't further anything.

Much like the people of a cyberpunk future:
It's a whole lot of glam, and nothing else.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Andy B.

May be my favourite release of 2020

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

Wow. I had pre-ordered this as I love all of Benjanun’s work, and this truly did not disappoint.
A brilliant read from start to finish, and a glorious continuation of a fascinating setting.

Letizia M-S

Loved it!

Reviewed in France on December 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

Morally grey (REALLY grey) queer characters fight inside an organic ship while AIs troll each other.

Bought it to quench my thirst for queer space operas and ended up reading it twice just to bask in the lush and intricate writing.

Highly recommended!

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