Bionic Punchline at Immerse or Die

This week, I was pleased to discover that Bionic Punchline has been reviewed as part of Creativity Hacker‘s Immerse or Die series. As the name might suggest, these are no ordinary book reviews. In fact, they’re not so much reviews as the book equivalent of those How long would you survive locked in a wardrobe with a polar bear? quizzes that turn up on Facebook.

The process goes something like this: Jefferson Smith, the reviewer, hops on a treadmill and starts reading. Either the book immerses him for the duration of his 40 minute workout, or (upon accumulating three strikes for “WTF” moments) it dies, with its survival time becoming a sort of score. As the banner says: 1 book, 40 minutes, 0 mercy.

So how did Bionic Punchline do?

12 minutes, 4 seconds!

Based on the other reviews, that’s actually not too bad. Out of more than 200 books, only something like 21 have made it through the entire 40 minutes, and many don’t make it through the first one. It’s also just nice to see a detailed, critical review.

Though I’ve quoted such gems as “Most of the stories are pretty good” on the back of the book itself (and I’m hugely grateful for any review, no matter how brief), it’s great to know that there are people out there willing to take the time to explain precisely what they do and don’t like. The treadmill test might sound gimmicky, but actually the scores it provides feel like a more practical gauge of a book’s quality than an overall star rating. I don’t insist that every book keep me riveted for hours at a time (and Jeff himself suggests he might go back to Bionic Punchline at some point), but as a rule the best ones do, so that’s definitely something to look out for.

With that in mind, if you’re looking for a really great read then the Immerse or Die Survivors would probably be a good place to try. And if you want to see the full review of Bionic Punchline, you can find it right here.

Flash Fiction Day Sign-upJune 22nd is fast approaching, meaning there's just two weeks until Flash Fiction Day!
With that in mind, I figure now would be a good time to start getting organised. The basic premise of the event--write as many flash fiction pieces as you can in 24 hours--doesn't really need all that much planning, but it seems sensible to get a rough idea how many people are interested in doing this and who they are. If it looks as though a lot of people want to get involved, I may start an actual group for it, but at the moment the plan is as follows:
Before June 22nd:
Comment on this journal letting me know you want to take part.
I put together an "official" Flash Fiction Day journal listing all the participants.
On June 22nd:
The event begins at the very start of June 22nd, your local time. You can start writing any time after that.
Write your first piece of flash fiction. Maximum 1,000 words, minimum 1 word. (I have read every conceivable 0 word story and am now bore