What do you think?
Rate this book
Bishop Rider #2
The Big Machine Eats: Stories
Life has never been easy. Life has never been kind. It is always hungry. It is never full. Enter the struggles within the pages of The Big Machine Eats. Where fathers clash with sons, cannibals turn on cannibals, and sometimes sandwich meat is far from the worst choice a person can make.
These stories, along with the continuing adventures of Bishop Rider, make up the bulk of this collection. They are not for the faint of heart. They are not for those who fail to believe one should get what one deserves. We must help ourselves. We must help those who find themselves unable. If not, it’s as the sign says: The Big Machine Will Eat.
Praise for THE BIG MACHINE EATS:
“Beau Johnson has put together a collection of stories so compelling that you will want to set aside a few hours each time you come to it. One just isn’t enough, and the next thing you know you’ll be grumpy at work because you stayed up way past your bedtime.” —Paul Heatley, author of Fatboy
“Beau Johnson takes you to dark places and shines a light on the ugly things that happen there. His perfectly created, bigger-than-life Bishop Rider is a modern-day anti-hero and Johnson writes the surrounding stories with savage suspense. The Big Machine Eats is the perfect follow-up to his debut A Better Kind of Hate.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 and May
“These deliciously dark stories will stay with you long after you've read them. Johnson is a natural storyteller—insightful, empathic, and, above all, brutally honest. He takes readers places they really don't want to go, drawing them into a grubby underworld of bad guys doing very bad things to very bad people. Retribution is a common theme, and Johnson never shirks from the grisly details as his characters come up with even more inventive ways to settle old scores. Revenge, here, isn't just served cold—it's delivered on ice, and then some. The Big Machine Eats is a gripping collection from a writer at the top of his game.” —Gary Duncan, author of You're Not Supposed To Cry
“An extremely entertaining and clever collection of stories from one of the biggest names in the game. He invites readers along for a wild ride through the seediest neighborhoods of his twisted mind in this fantastic follow up to A Better Kind of Hate. He holds your heart in his hand as he introduces you to some fascinating characters, then rips it out as the world is turned on its head, so you can see that everything bad can touch even the most beautiful. No matter how safe you feel. Let him help you see the demons that walk among us and shine some light through the darkness. Clearly the best collection you will read this year.” —Kevin Berg, author of Daddy Monster and Indifference
“Beau Johnson has a way of luring you in with his sharp wit, discerning eye, and conversational voice. You’d follow him anywhere, even after you careen off a cliff and plunge into the darkest depths of the human psyche—and sometimes not so human. A helluva brutal collection from a ferociously twisted mind.” —Sarah M. Chen, author of Cleaning Up Finn
“Beau is back, once again proving he is the alchemist of conflict as he continues to peel back the fingernails of human frailty and forces us to stare into the darkness found there.” —Tom Pitts, author of American Static and 101
“Beau Johnson excels at the base, those twisted places we don’t want to go. Whether that is sexually motivated, or fueled by revenge or something more sinister (if not all three at once), Johnson puts his subjects beneath the microscope. What we get is, yes, the truth, but more than that: we get an extreme close-up of the horrifically beautiful.” —Joe Clifford, author of The Jay Porter thriller series and the The One That Got Away
These stories, along with the continuing adventures of Bishop Rider, make up the bulk of this collection. They are not for the faint of heart. They are not for those who fail to believe one should get what one deserves. We must help ourselves. We must help those who find themselves unable. If not, it’s as the sign says: The Big Machine Will Eat.
Praise for THE BIG MACHINE EATS:
“Beau Johnson has put together a collection of stories so compelling that you will want to set aside a few hours each time you come to it. One just isn’t enough, and the next thing you know you’ll be grumpy at work because you stayed up way past your bedtime.” —Paul Heatley, author of Fatboy
“Beau Johnson takes you to dark places and shines a light on the ugly things that happen there. His perfectly created, bigger-than-life Bishop Rider is a modern-day anti-hero and Johnson writes the surrounding stories with savage suspense. The Big Machine Eats is the perfect follow-up to his debut A Better Kind of Hate.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 and May
“These deliciously dark stories will stay with you long after you've read them. Johnson is a natural storyteller—insightful, empathic, and, above all, brutally honest. He takes readers places they really don't want to go, drawing them into a grubby underworld of bad guys doing very bad things to very bad people. Retribution is a common theme, and Johnson never shirks from the grisly details as his characters come up with even more inventive ways to settle old scores. Revenge, here, isn't just served cold—it's delivered on ice, and then some. The Big Machine Eats is a gripping collection from a writer at the top of his game.” —Gary Duncan, author of You're Not Supposed To Cry
“An extremely entertaining and clever collection of stories from one of the biggest names in the game. He invites readers along for a wild ride through the seediest neighborhoods of his twisted mind in this fantastic follow up to A Better Kind of Hate. He holds your heart in his hand as he introduces you to some fascinating characters, then rips it out as the world is turned on its head, so you can see that everything bad can touch even the most beautiful. No matter how safe you feel. Let him help you see the demons that walk among us and shine some light through the darkness. Clearly the best collection you will read this year.” —Kevin Berg, author of Daddy Monster and Indifference
“Beau Johnson has a way of luring you in with his sharp wit, discerning eye, and conversational voice. You’d follow him anywhere, even after you careen off a cliff and plunge into the darkest depths of the human psyche—and sometimes not so human. A helluva brutal collection from a ferociously twisted mind.” —Sarah M. Chen, author of Cleaning Up Finn
“Beau is back, once again proving he is the alchemist of conflict as he continues to peel back the fingernails of human frailty and forces us to stare into the darkness found there.” —Tom Pitts, author of American Static and 101
“Beau Johnson excels at the base, those twisted places we don’t want to go. Whether that is sexually motivated, or fueled by revenge or something more sinister (if not all three at once), Johnson puts his subjects beneath the microscope. What we get is, yes, the truth, but more than that: we get an extreme close-up of the horrifically beautiful.” —Joe Clifford, author of The Jay Porter thriller series and the The One That Got Away
ebook
Published November 26, 2018
2 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 26, 2019
After more than a decade of concocting, carving and spicing his unique blend of twisted tales, Canadian crime and horror writer Beau Johnson’s got an entire buffet of stories under his ever-expanding belt-line—and he offers voracious readers 39 specialty dishes in his second short story collection THE BIG MACHINE EATS.
Revenge served colder than gazpacho is one soup du jour we typically find on the menu. While this soup bleeds blood red? It ain’t for vegetarians. Not for a minute will you wonder: Hey, where’s the meat? As for dessert? Well, on one darkly festive occasion bones are referred to as “hard candy.”
Mr. Johnson’s also keenly aware that events from our past often perversely possess the power to “eat away at us.” We meet some fucked up families caught in strange power struggles … and the tragic tale “Father Knows Best? My Dad Knew Jack” ignites the tastes of sadness and anger in roughly equal portions.
Readers who’ve already acquired a taste for Beau Johnson’s brand of fiction—either by indulging in free-to-read stories published in online zines like Shotgun Honey, Out of the Gutter Online and The Molotov Cocktail—or his debut book collection A BETTER KIND OF HATE, will likely enjoy feasting on these 39 tales as well.
The key question for those of you who’ve never read Beau Johnson? Or met his tortured character Bishop Rider: a former policeman and soldier whose mother and sister have been brutally and callously murdered? How dark do you like your chocolate melting on your tongue and sitting in your stomach???
While these tales don’t drip graphic blood and gore from their pages, the punishments meted out prove violent and sometimes “inventively” gruesome. While some characters are “likeable” some are amoral … driven by harsh appetites like “professional pride.” Got a “delicate constitution?” Some of these dishes may prove hard to swallow. Short most of them may be—but creams puffs they sure ain’t. Trying to digest them takes a bit of chewing.
But if you enjoy “horror” and “revenge” stories you’ll find your share of them here—and will also meet an entourage of cannibals with strange culinary practices … and food preferences. Not all are human. And some like “playing” with their food.
If you’re looking for a tale to really sink your teeth into, you may wanna save the story “Resty Acres” for last. This tale’s spun differently than any story I’ve read by Beau Johnson and involves a ghoulish creature—aided by some heartless bastards. Dark chocolate without doubt.
For diehard Beau Johnson fans, his third story collection ALL OF THEM TO BURN is scheduled for release from Down & Out Books in February. And these tales again include Bishop Rider. So you may wish to consume The Big Machine collection before his latest hits the streets.
Anyone looking to get a taste of Beau’s tales without forking over any hard-earned cash can easily read these two recently published stories for free at the Links below.
https://spelkfiction.com/2019/12/18/b...
https://www.shotgunhoney.com/fiction/...
Cheers and best wishes for a rocking 2020,
Crime Writer Jesse Rawlins
Revenge served colder than gazpacho is one soup du jour we typically find on the menu. While this soup bleeds blood red? It ain’t for vegetarians. Not for a minute will you wonder: Hey, where’s the meat? As for dessert? Well, on one darkly festive occasion bones are referred to as “hard candy.”
Mr. Johnson’s also keenly aware that events from our past often perversely possess the power to “eat away at us.” We meet some fucked up families caught in strange power struggles … and the tragic tale “Father Knows Best? My Dad Knew Jack” ignites the tastes of sadness and anger in roughly equal portions.
Readers who’ve already acquired a taste for Beau Johnson’s brand of fiction—either by indulging in free-to-read stories published in online zines like Shotgun Honey, Out of the Gutter Online and The Molotov Cocktail—or his debut book collection A BETTER KIND OF HATE, will likely enjoy feasting on these 39 tales as well.
The key question for those of you who’ve never read Beau Johnson? Or met his tortured character Bishop Rider: a former policeman and soldier whose mother and sister have been brutally and callously murdered? How dark do you like your chocolate melting on your tongue and sitting in your stomach???
While these tales don’t drip graphic blood and gore from their pages, the punishments meted out prove violent and sometimes “inventively” gruesome. While some characters are “likeable” some are amoral … driven by harsh appetites like “professional pride.” Got a “delicate constitution?” Some of these dishes may prove hard to swallow. Short most of them may be—but creams puffs they sure ain’t. Trying to digest them takes a bit of chewing.
But if you enjoy “horror” and “revenge” stories you’ll find your share of them here—and will also meet an entourage of cannibals with strange culinary practices … and food preferences. Not all are human. And some like “playing” with their food.
If you’re looking for a tale to really sink your teeth into, you may wanna save the story “Resty Acres” for last. This tale’s spun differently than any story I’ve read by Beau Johnson and involves a ghoulish creature—aided by some heartless bastards. Dark chocolate without doubt.
For diehard Beau Johnson fans, his third story collection ALL OF THEM TO BURN is scheduled for release from Down & Out Books in February. And these tales again include Bishop Rider. So you may wish to consume The Big Machine collection before his latest hits the streets.
Anyone looking to get a taste of Beau’s tales without forking over any hard-earned cash can easily read these two recently published stories for free at the Links below.
https://spelkfiction.com/2019/12/18/b...
https://www.shotgunhoney.com/fiction/...
Cheers and best wishes for a rocking 2020,
Crime Writer Jesse Rawlins
August 27, 2018
An extremely entertaining and clever collection of stories from a rising name in the game, one which you should already know. He invites readers along for a wild ride through the seediest neighborhoods of his twisted mind, in this fantastic follow up to A Better Kind of Hate.
One of his main returning characters, Bishop Rider, is the broken man this world needs to get right. The not so perfect solution. His thrilling story is sprinkled throughout the book tying the tales together, even connecting them to the first collection, yet the pieces are so well-written they can all easily stand on their own. In The Big Machine Eats, experience the stunning ability of the author to sit you beside the characters in any of his tales, see the absolute evil that pollutes this world as he wakes your inner badass, and then lets you feel everything burn to the ground around you. Join the fight with Bishop Rider and Batista, as they scrape the filth of this earth from the bottoms of their shoes on the road to retribution.
But that’s only a piece of this extremely intricate thing that Johnson has laid before you. Yes, it’s a collection with many different types of tales, but there is an underlying theme that most of the stories hold for me. Hope. He lets this delicate thing called hope dangle in front of you as he dissects the worst kind of bad guys, showing you what evil means, and then exposing its weakness - the few remaining good people willing to stand up for what’s right. He holds your heart in his hand as he introduces you to some fascinating characters, then rips it out as the world is turned on its head, so you can see that everything bad can touch even the most beautiful. No matter how safe you feel. Let him help you see the demons that walk among us and shine some light through the darkness.
Clearly the best collection you will read this year.
One of his main returning characters, Bishop Rider, is the broken man this world needs to get right. The not so perfect solution. His thrilling story is sprinkled throughout the book tying the tales together, even connecting them to the first collection, yet the pieces are so well-written they can all easily stand on their own. In The Big Machine Eats, experience the stunning ability of the author to sit you beside the characters in any of his tales, see the absolute evil that pollutes this world as he wakes your inner badass, and then lets you feel everything burn to the ground around you. Join the fight with Bishop Rider and Batista, as they scrape the filth of this earth from the bottoms of their shoes on the road to retribution.
But that’s only a piece of this extremely intricate thing that Johnson has laid before you. Yes, it’s a collection with many different types of tales, but there is an underlying theme that most of the stories hold for me. Hope. He lets this delicate thing called hope dangle in front of you as he dissects the worst kind of bad guys, showing you what evil means, and then exposing its weakness - the few remaining good people willing to stand up for what’s right. He holds your heart in his hand as he introduces you to some fascinating characters, then rips it out as the world is turned on its head, so you can see that everything bad can touch even the most beautiful. No matter how safe you feel. Let him help you see the demons that walk among us and shine some light through the darkness.
Clearly the best collection you will read this year.
June 29, 2021
This book punches you with a fistful of concrete and never apologizes. Mr. Johnson is on his way to becoming legendary with his collections of ultra-violent short stories like the ones collected in The Big Machine Eats. Not all of the stories are related, but they weave a tapestry that if you squint your eyes, feels like a loosely written novel. I'm a fan of that sort of thing; stories creating a patchwork narrative utilizing various themes and subjects. Speaking of which, the core topic amongst these stories is VIOLENCE. HELL. REVENGE. And lots and lots of it. Sustained, ritualistic violence that would give Marvel Comics' The Punisher second thoughts. At times I was reminded of the violent novels of Shane Stevens (Dead City) or the books of Don Pendleton, with occasional takes at Marquis de Sade or even Samuel Delany's Hogg. These stories weave in and out of bloody violence and the literal fires of hell. Bishop Rider is a recurring character out for revenge for the terrible things that happened to his family at the hand of some very evil people. Apparently there is an upcoming new novel with this character. I look forward to a full Bishop Rider book.
Although the violence borders on torture porn, I accepted that it serves the purpose of the stories. It puts you there, in the place, the time, the idea as to why this ugly violence must happen. Why revenge is a necessary human response. There are ugly, bestial things that happen in the world and we have no control over them. Mr. Johnson's writing rages against these awful, unimaginable things, but he serves them up with audacious courage.
Although the violence borders on torture porn, I accepted that it serves the purpose of the stories. It puts you there, in the place, the time, the idea as to why this ugly violence must happen. Why revenge is a necessary human response. There are ugly, bestial things that happen in the world and we have no control over them. Mr. Johnson's writing rages against these awful, unimaginable things, but he serves them up with audacious courage.
July 20, 2023
I am (slowly) making my way through my Beau Johnson collection. The Big Machine Eats is much more polished than A Better Kind of Hate, which just proves that Beau is just getting better, because I liked ABKH. Some stories in The Big Machine Eats were not for me, and that is going to happen, especially in collections with so many stories. But, overall, the stories are gritty and violent; a great way to fulfill second hand revenge fantasies-by that I mean, read the stories instead of going to jail, maybe, even if the punks deserve it. I am filled with rage over the increasing madness of the current world we live in, and some of these stories are a balm to that rage; there is a certain amount of glee associated with the bad guy getting theirs, and this book is full of stories where it happens again and again. Of course, there is trauma here as well, so take care if you need to. I think my favorite story of the bunch is Resty Acres, which was a bit off the beat down path, but interesting in its differences. Just shows that Beau has some range in his writing.
March 21, 2020
This collection of stories packs a series of rapid, vicious and well-placed body punches that you may think you can withstand because the other boxer in the ring is slight and wiry and there was no big knockout punch swung at your noggin' but let me tell ya you're gonna end up on the mat regardless. Down for the count, bloody, dazed and impressed at the speed with which the punches flew. Not for the faint of heart this one or weak of stomach. Unflinching, vengeful crime fiction.
March 4, 2019
Beau Johnson does it again! The continuation of Bishop Rider's stories left me literally breathless at times. Seriously...I actually had to remind myself to breathe (it's THAT good). I was happy to find that one of my favourite stories from A Better Hate (Beau's first book) rears it's fugly face again in The Big Machine Eats, and delivers just as much "What the fuck?!" as the first time around.
This book leaves you crawling in your skin, wondering what the hell you just read and how you can get your hands on more! LONG LIVE BISHOP RIDER!
This book leaves you crawling in your skin, wondering what the hell you just read and how you can get your hands on more! LONG LIVE BISHOP RIDER!
June 15, 2019
Great collection of short stories that was thrilling, humorous and very clever. A must read. Looking forward to more collections and stories from Johnson.
April 6, 2024
Another fulfilling book by Mr. Beau Johnson. Well written and holds my interest. Leaves me feeling satisfied after reading the tales of how people are delivered the day they deserve.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews