One year ago today, Kurt Vonnegut died. He's up in heaven now, but that hasn't stopped him from sharing his thoughts on this comedy we call the human condition. His new book, Armageddon In Retrospect, is a collection of 11 short stories about war.

It doesn't sound like his best work, according to The Onion's A/V Club anyway:

The stories that make up the bulk of the volume are a mixed bag. In the best of them, "Guns Before Butter," a group of American POWs debate what their first meal will be once they're released. It's funny and low-key, and it manages to make its point without didacticism. The rest don't succeed nearly as well. "The Unknown Soldier," a short piece about the first baby born in the new millennium, is slight and mean-spirited, while "The Unicorn Trap," about a family in the Middle Ages forced to make a difficult choice, is overwritten to the point of self-parody. As always, Vonnegut pleads for understanding and decency, but here, the message is muddled by clunky prose and predictable plots. A little context might've helped, but as is, Armageddon strives to be a middle finger to the heavens, and winds up more like a shrug.

It's probably not a great idea to publish every scribble he left behind. Even Vonnegut had bad writing days. Still, it's at the least a nice reminder of what was.

So it goes.