Plot: 2/9. It entailed specifications of various bizarre applicants held in an infinite hall. Frankly speaking, it resembled an art gallery on machinery to me. No wonder it’s a work of an artist.

  • A machine that could circulate water by bumping endlessly
  • a machine of which compositions were interlocked tightly and unpredictably
  • a large, delicate clock of which the dial and hands facing the wall
  • a stinky machine exuding blood
  • a large, complicated, vibrating machine that held lethal blades dancing with each other reminiscent of copulation
  • a machine that led to a small chamber called Auschwitz located in a bleak, dismal and enormous area
  • a machine that gave birth to two kinds of machines: One for construction of the outer walls, the other for their demolition. This is why the hall seemed to be infinite in size.
  • The electric machine that hummed in strange configuration sounds
  • rusted machines
  • a dead machine dissolving into dust once the narrator approached

Core: 4/9. Where is contagious emotion? It’s meaningless in writing disconnected specifications. Jone’s writing style reminded me of Lem’s Solaris sometimes, but Lem could wrote more brilliant plots for intricate settings! It would be better if Jones used some elements of SCP like investigators and classifications and made this hall more horrible than ever.

Character: 2/9. Just the narrator’s infodumping.

World and Others: 4/9. Those machines had some disturbing properties of human. But today such tedious and picture-like descriptions could be easily given by AI because they didn’t possess much logic.

Overall: 3/9. I think one’s work inevitably reflects their personality and perspective. So did this work created by a composer and artist. Jones clearly applied much of his own unique life experience into this work such as his obsession with clock and nervousness towards interlocked machines. So although he didn’t provoke much of my enthusiasm and touch the right chord of mine, but I didn’t dislike his distinctive perspective and would not reject his further work.