Strange Labour, Robert G. Penner
Strange Labour, Robert G. Penner
List: $17.00 | Sale: $11.91
Club: $8.50

Strange Labour

Author: Robert G. Penner

Narrator: Zoé Beaulieu Prpick

Unabridged: 7 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Radiant Press

Published: 08/06/2020

Categories: Fiction, Dystopian


Synopsis

"With this brilliant debut, Penner thoughtfully upends the tropes of postapocalyptic fiction" -- Publishers Weekly

Strange Labour is a powerful meditation on the meaning of humanity in a universe that is indifferent to our extinction, and a provocative re-imagining of many of the tropes and clichés that have shaped the post-apocalyptic novel. Most people have deserted the cities and towns to work themselves to death in the construction of monumental earthworks. The only adults unaffected by this mysterious obsession are a dwindling population that live in the margins of a new society they cannot understand. Isolated, in an increasingly deserted landscape, living off the material remnants of the old order, trapped in antiquated habits and assumptions, they struggle to construct a meaningful life for themselves. Miranda, a young woman who travels across what had once been the West, meets Dave, who has peculiar theories about the apocalypse.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Alexander on March 10, 2025

The apocalypse came and never went away - a future where when people become adults, they suddenly leave their families and society as a whole, walking zombielike to the country, starting their 'strange labour' of digging endless trenches. A few 'survivors' (and children) never get the call, and stay......more

Goodreads review by Grady on October 30, 2020

Stepping into the heart of darkness: a post-apocalyptic view into a possible tomorrow Canadian author Robert G Penner, now living in Pennsylvania, is the founder and editor of Big Echo, a free online journal of critical science fiction (‘science fiction that provides the interested reader with a cons......more

Goodreads review by Matt on September 13, 2021

This is another post-apocalyptic story. It is incredibly unique and nothing you have ever thought about before. Unfortunately, the mystery is never explained and the solution is never hinted at. It's a good thing that the author knows how to write! The main characters are believable (if not a little......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on September 25, 2020

In Robert Penner's illuminating debut novel, we follow Miranda, who, along with the few other remaining neuroatypical adults and pre-adolescent children, is somehow untouched by an affliction that has otherwise devastated society as we know it. Most have become drones, compelled to take part in mass......more

Goodreads review by Tim on March 17, 2021

How much you like this will depend on how you approach it. As a regular reader of SF, I like my puzzles explained, and Penner has decided not to do that. Fine, that's his call, and since there isn't enough data for us to even guess what has happened, we are forced to stay with Miranda as she, well,......more