"And yet… AM has won, simply… he has taken his revenge… I have no mouth. And I must scream."
Even though this book probably includes more stories, I only read the I Have No Mouth story from a pdf and this is the only book that comes up when I search the story, so I will be only writing about this story and not the actual book.
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream is probably hands down the best sci-fi short story I've ever read along with "Answer" by Fredric Brown. It is very graphic, violent, raw and disgusting. Even though it makes me question the sanity of the writer as I read the graphic depictions of AM's torture of humans - or what's left of them - I cannot help but be amazed at how great the story is at making me feel such an inexplicable horror beyond imagination. It is very hard to make someone feel such an existential horror, especially through the medium of writing. And yet this story thoroughly encapsulates the feeling of utter despair in a time and world unimaginable to us for creatures that no longer can be called human. And despite all it has done, probably for the way he "feels" an immense hatred, the machine AM is merely a shadow of the worst parts of humanity despite surpassing its creators in the ways it can create wonders. The machine is more man than any of the humans left in the story for the way it seeks a meaningless revenge and plays with humans the way humans play with ants. Sadistic at best like a child-god.
