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Orphans
With Orphans , Ben Tanzer continues his ongoing literary survey of the twenty-first-century male psyche, yet does so with a newfound twist, contemporary themes set in a world that is anything but. In this dystopian tale of a future Chicago, workers are sent off to sell property on Mars to those who can afford to leave, leaving what's left to those who have little choice but to make do with what's left burnt out neighborhoods, black helicopters policing the streets, flash mobs, the unemployed in their scruffy suits, robots taking the few jobs that remain, and clones who replace those workers who do find work so that a modicum of family stability can be maintained. It is a story about the impact of work on family. How work warps our best intentions. And how everything we think we know about ourselves looks different during a recession. This idea is writ large in the world of Orphans , where recession is all we know, work is only available to the lucky few, and this lucky few not only need to fear being replaced on the job, but in their homes and beds. It is also a story about drugs, surfing, punk music, lost youth, parenting, sex, pop culture as vernacular, and a conscious intersection of Death of a Salesman or Glengarry Glen Ross with the Martian Chronicles . Looking to the genre of science fiction has allowed Tanzer to produce something new and fresh, expanding both his literary horizons, and the potential market for his work. Tanzer also looks to the story of Bartleby the Scrivener with Orphans , and the question of what are we allowed as workers, and expected to be, or do, when work is fraught with desperation. Ultimately, Orphans is intended to be a contemporary story about manhood and what it means in today's world, told from the perspective of work and family, and how any of us manage the parameters that family and work produce; but it's a story told in a futuristic world, where our greatest fears are in fact already realized, because there isn't enough of anything, and we are all too easily replaced.
- GenresFictionScience Fiction
170 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Ben Tanzer
40 books265 followersEmmy-award winner Ben Tanzer's acclaimed work includes the short story collection UPSTATE, the science fiction novel Orphans and the essay collections Lost in Space and Be Cool. His recent novel The Missing was released in March 2024 by 7.13 Books and was a Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year finalist in the category of Traditional Fiction and his new book After Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema, which Kirkus Reviews calls "A heartfelt if overstuffed tribute to the author’s father and the ameliorative power of art," was released by Ig Publishing in May 2025. Ben is also the host of the long running podcast This Podcast Will Change Your Life and lives in Chicago with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 15, 2016
Rating: 4.125* of five
My review of the book is over at my blog for a week or so: http://tinyurl.com/h6xxut3
Ben Tanzer finally FINALLY delivers a dystopia sans zombies! Switchgrass Books gets big kudos for seeing good SF lit.
My review of the book is over at my blog for a week or so: http://tinyurl.com/h6xxut3
Ben Tanzer finally FINALLY delivers a dystopia sans zombies! Switchgrass Books gets big kudos for seeing good SF lit.
March 23, 2016
I think I’m in synchronicity with Ben Tanzer as I just finished his Orphans and it resonated on so many levels. Seriously, Melville, corporate insanity, isolation in the rat race of consumerism, and a man who just wants to provide for his family- themes and ideas that I love, dwell on, obsess over. Is the first person narrator represented by Norrin Radd’s “I” you, Ben Tanzer, or the orphans of the American dream?
August 16, 2013
I was lucky enough to receive an uncorrected proof of this beast and I've gotta tell you, it's nothing like I thought it would be and everything that I expected Ben to deliver.
Ben's a phenomenal writer. Most...if not all of the people who've had the pleasure of reading him can agree. But...there's always a little but, I was terrified when I received my copy and on the back it started out, "In Ben Tanzer's futurist science fiction novel..." Everything I've read of his up until this point was very literary and for some reason when I read the words "science fiction" I thought that would be lost. I was pleasantly surprised.
This book has everything that I could have asked for, surfing, punk music, sex, pop culture, E.C's (electronic concierge), trips to Mars, space travel, and new 'future drugs!' Where do I get me some of that SynthKhat, Ben?
The best part of this book is that without a doubt, the book is about love. The love a man has for his wife, his child and the way he goes through his life tortured by the decisions he's made and what he must do to take care of his family and his future.
I can't wait to pick this up again in November, when it's released, do yourself a favor and put it on your "must read" list.
Ben's a phenomenal writer. Most...if not all of the people who've had the pleasure of reading him can agree. But...there's always a little but, I was terrified when I received my copy and on the back it started out, "In Ben Tanzer's futurist science fiction novel..." Everything I've read of his up until this point was very literary and for some reason when I read the words "science fiction" I thought that would be lost. I was pleasantly surprised.
This book has everything that I could have asked for, surfing, punk music, sex, pop culture, E.C's (electronic concierge), trips to Mars, space travel, and new 'future drugs!' Where do I get me some of that SynthKhat, Ben?
The best part of this book is that without a doubt, the book is about love. The love a man has for his wife, his child and the way he goes through his life tortured by the decisions he's made and what he must do to take care of his family and his future.
I can't wait to pick this up again in November, when it's released, do yourself a favor and put it on your "must read" list.
October 26, 2013
If you've read Ben Tanzer's work you will understand, perhaps more than you would otherwise, what a marvel this book is. It is very much a work of science fiction, but it is Ben Tanzer above all things. The way some bands become their own genre after decades of making music and evolving their sound, Tanzer is himself irregardless of the window dressings. Futuristic setting? Space travel? Clones and robots? None of this deters Tanzer's voice. And he manages to hit the science fiction notes without the miscues of so much of the genre that gets on my nerves. There is no lingering here on the "elements" of the genre, Tanzer gets right to the heart of his story, which when you get down to it is an allegory about the struggle of the father who travels for work. It is Blade Runner directed by Terrence Malick.
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July 1, 2020It changed my life.
March 9, 2014
As I read Tanzer’s novel, Orphans, I was reminded of the main thoughts behind Literary Darwinism. As Literary Darwinists read, they search for the innate patterns in human behavior, especially those that resonate with them in a work of fiction. Tanzer has carried his knack for honing in on those innate patterns in human behavior from his realistic fiction into the science fiction realm, thus taking the idea of Literary Darwinism to another level, skipping across genres into the future. I have been a fan of Tanzer’s writing for awhile now; what I have most appreciated about his work is the human element that never fails to be at the core of all of his fiction. I was very pleased to find that human element in Orphans. It was very refreshing to find such an effective character driven novel in the world of science fiction.
January 11, 2014
It's my fourth Tanzer and it's the best thing I've read from him, closely edging his short story collection SO DIFFERENT NOW. Many reviewers pointed the dissonance between the very contemporary family life and the hostile outside world and they are right. See, I'm not sure how deliberate this was and it's what makes ORPHANS so great. Tanzer puts a lot of energy into portraying the impossibility of leading a traditional family life in the age of corporate dominance, but it's only part of the interest of ORPHANS.
What truly struck me is the actual willingness of the protagonists of ORPHANS to actually adapt to the hideous reality they created with their bare hands and the gaps between their imperfection and the well-polished world they made. Ben Tanzer created something greater than he imagined with ORPHANS. It is one of the most relevant dystopias since 1984 and I am barely using hyperbole now. Quirky, dissonant and friendly of approach, ORPHANS will creep up on you and make you see dystopia for what it is : something not so distant.
What truly struck me is the actual willingness of the protagonists of ORPHANS to actually adapt to the hideous reality they created with their bare hands and the gaps between their imperfection and the well-polished world they made. Ben Tanzer created something greater than he imagined with ORPHANS. It is one of the most relevant dystopias since 1984 and I am barely using hyperbole now. Quirky, dissonant and friendly of approach, ORPHANS will creep up on you and make you see dystopia for what it is : something not so distant.
December 28, 2013
I love how Tanzer balances the unfamiliar with the familiar in this book. What I really mean by this is that the reader thoroughly gets caught up in this exotic possible future only to realize shortly thereafter that these are fears that the reader already has. It is not our world to a dramatic degree that is captivating, but it is so easy to see us getting there. Some things like clones might be a bigger leap, but some things wouldn't be so much of a real change after all. Reading is both gratifying and chilling when that shock of the hidden familiar hits.
January 28, 2014
Ben Tanzer is one of those mind-numbingly talented writers who makes it all look so effortless and easy, when in fact what he's doing, what he's done here, is hardest to pull off. Orphans is a marvel. Forget genre. I do not know anything about sci-fi, but I do know this is a book of taut, muscular prose, impeccably paced, so you can't you won't want to put it down, propelled as it is by a story that is all human heart.
January 21, 2014
Not my typical read, but I am happy I picked this one up. Takes place in what used to be Chicago "some time" in the future. Machines, space travel, drugs, loneliness, and madness. A book that will make you think. I will be picking up EVERYTHING that Tanzer has written, or will write in the future. This was my introduction to Tanzer and it was a great one. Read it.
April 1, 2017
Review to come
October 25, 2013
As always, I'm never objective about any of my great friend Ben Tanzer's books, so please take this review with as many grains of salt as you wish.
What struck me most about Orphans is that while so much here is familar - the narrative voice that is totally Ben's, along with most of his usual preoccuptions, including marriage, fatherhood, belonging, loss, work, love, sex, rock and roll, physical release and, yes, chemical stimulants - he has translated that voice and those preoccupations into a futuristic dystopia. That familiar voice is somehow comforting even as it describes a dying world of societal and economic collapse, environmental degradation and brutal class divisions. In this dystopia, Ben's usual preoccupations are dramatically amped up, transformed from a state of simple existential angst to the very survival of his protagonist. The stakes here are so much higher than his realist fiction, and the outcome much more emphatic.
The Orphans dystopia is vivid and menacing. Society is run by a single omnipotent Corporation, which exploits workers until they are no longer useful, after which they are cast aside. An elite social class lives in luxury while the vast multitudes hustle and scrape to survive. Black helicopters patrol the skies, dispersing and even killing anyone who dares to congregate on the streets. Hordes of the unemployed, still wearing their business suits, wander about, desperately imploring the fortunate employed for work. The inner city, while still maintaining a veneer of normalcy, is increasingly threatened by an ever-encroaching wilderness. And the dwindling middle class, represented by the protagonist Norrin Radd, is tolerated by the Corporation while their skills are still needed; in Norrin's case, his powers of persuasion are vital in selling real estate on the rapidly colonizing Mars to the elites who are increasingly desperate to escape Earth before society completely collapses.
As fascinating as the setting is, though, all of it is backdrop to the story of Norrin, his relationship with his wife and young son, and especially the quandry he faces in balancing his family life with his career. Does he do whatever the Corporation demands of him, including months-long business trips to Mars, to provide for his family, or does he try to somehow make a living at home and spend as much time with his family as he can? While he thinks (or merely hopes) that he has that choice, over time he comes to realize that yielding to the Corporation is all he can do in order to survive.
An important aspect of this career-versus-family struggle is the Terrax, one of most interesting elements of the narrative. In his past books, Ben's male protagonists often compare themselves to an impossible ideal of what they believe a man, husband or father should be, inevitably falling far short of their expectations. When this ideal is just imagined and intangible, falling short of it is something these men can live with; they may not be satisfied with themselves, but they can still get by. But in Orphans, falling short of this masculine ideal results in something much more tangible and dramatic, because of the Terrax.
The Terrax is an essential cog in the book's society, a jack-of-all-trades robot that does most of the dirty work, with the Corporation finding them to be more reliable than human employees for mundane tasks. Some Terraxes are even programmed to be substitutes for interplanetary workers like Norrin, whose bodies and personalities are replicated in a Terrax, which serves as a surrogate husband and father in the worker's family while he's away. The Corporation has found that this makes the family happier during the worker's absence, which in turn creates a more focused and productive worker. But while this may be good for Norrin's family, it's not good for him personally, as he's already full of insecurities and doubts about how good a family man he is, again measuring himself against an impossible ideal. Norrin grimly sees his Terrax as the perfect version of himself, one he can never measure up to. In the Terrax he has a very real rival, though a rival more in his own mind than to his family, who clearly recognize the differences between Norrin and his Terrax, and prefer the real thing. The presence of his Terrax, along with his insecurities and the Corporation's increasingly unreasonable demands, ultimately drives Norrin to make a critical, fateful decision. Which, in retrospect, is probably the only choice he could have made.
Orphans is both familiar and yet unprecedented in the context of Ben's earlier work, a thought-provoking meditation on the struggle between family and career, all of it told through a brisk, often thrilling story. Very well done.
What struck me most about Orphans is that while so much here is familar - the narrative voice that is totally Ben's, along with most of his usual preoccuptions, including marriage, fatherhood, belonging, loss, work, love, sex, rock and roll, physical release and, yes, chemical stimulants - he has translated that voice and those preoccupations into a futuristic dystopia. That familiar voice is somehow comforting even as it describes a dying world of societal and economic collapse, environmental degradation and brutal class divisions. In this dystopia, Ben's usual preoccupations are dramatically amped up, transformed from a state of simple existential angst to the very survival of his protagonist. The stakes here are so much higher than his realist fiction, and the outcome much more emphatic.
The Orphans dystopia is vivid and menacing. Society is run by a single omnipotent Corporation, which exploits workers until they are no longer useful, after which they are cast aside. An elite social class lives in luxury while the vast multitudes hustle and scrape to survive. Black helicopters patrol the skies, dispersing and even killing anyone who dares to congregate on the streets. Hordes of the unemployed, still wearing their business suits, wander about, desperately imploring the fortunate employed for work. The inner city, while still maintaining a veneer of normalcy, is increasingly threatened by an ever-encroaching wilderness. And the dwindling middle class, represented by the protagonist Norrin Radd, is tolerated by the Corporation while their skills are still needed; in Norrin's case, his powers of persuasion are vital in selling real estate on the rapidly colonizing Mars to the elites who are increasingly desperate to escape Earth before society completely collapses.
As fascinating as the setting is, though, all of it is backdrop to the story of Norrin, his relationship with his wife and young son, and especially the quandry he faces in balancing his family life with his career. Does he do whatever the Corporation demands of him, including months-long business trips to Mars, to provide for his family, or does he try to somehow make a living at home and spend as much time with his family as he can? While he thinks (or merely hopes) that he has that choice, over time he comes to realize that yielding to the Corporation is all he can do in order to survive.
An important aspect of this career-versus-family struggle is the Terrax, one of most interesting elements of the narrative. In his past books, Ben's male protagonists often compare themselves to an impossible ideal of what they believe a man, husband or father should be, inevitably falling far short of their expectations. When this ideal is just imagined and intangible, falling short of it is something these men can live with; they may not be satisfied with themselves, but they can still get by. But in Orphans, falling short of this masculine ideal results in something much more tangible and dramatic, because of the Terrax.
The Terrax is an essential cog in the book's society, a jack-of-all-trades robot that does most of the dirty work, with the Corporation finding them to be more reliable than human employees for mundane tasks. Some Terraxes are even programmed to be substitutes for interplanetary workers like Norrin, whose bodies and personalities are replicated in a Terrax, which serves as a surrogate husband and father in the worker's family while he's away. The Corporation has found that this makes the family happier during the worker's absence, which in turn creates a more focused and productive worker. But while this may be good for Norrin's family, it's not good for him personally, as he's already full of insecurities and doubts about how good a family man he is, again measuring himself against an impossible ideal. Norrin grimly sees his Terrax as the perfect version of himself, one he can never measure up to. In the Terrax he has a very real rival, though a rival more in his own mind than to his family, who clearly recognize the differences between Norrin and his Terrax, and prefer the real thing. The presence of his Terrax, along with his insecurities and the Corporation's increasingly unreasonable demands, ultimately drives Norrin to make a critical, fateful decision. Which, in retrospect, is probably the only choice he could have made.
Orphans is both familiar and yet unprecedented in the context of Ben's earlier work, a thought-provoking meditation on the struggle between family and career, all of it told through a brisk, often thrilling story. Very well done.
October 28, 2013
Ben Tanzer's latest novel, Orphans, is a brilliantly conceived dystopian novel that explores and parses out with wonderful economy the many stranded conflicts of contemporary fatherhood, most notably: the conflict between the responsibilities of fatherhood and the yearning of the father to continue his own youthful pursuits surfing, chewing "SynthKat", and playing in a punk rock band; the conflict between wanting to be part of his own family (father/wife/son) and yet having to work a job that keeps him away from his family for long stretches at a time--in Norrin's case he flies off to Mars to sell real-estate while an analogous "Replacer" robot replaces him in the family unit; and the perpetual conflict of sexual freedom and temptation by others balanced by the demands of a monogamous relationship with his wife. In short it's a perfect Ben Tanzer novel--his seventh, I believe--and what's so good about this one is that Tanzer enfolds his contemporary themes of manhood and family into a brilliantly crafted futuristic world rife with unsettling ideas that explore among other things: the tensions between sexualized all knowing robots and humans; the emergence of the corporate state and the expansion of vast slums managed by the menace of amoral hovering black helicopters that ruthlessly slaughter the most indigent members of Baidu's (formerly known as Chicago) society.
I think it's also important to point out that Ben Tanzer has developed a writing style over the course of his novels that is rather quite unique. He is inspired as a writer by punk rock, most notably the Ramones, and also, I sense, by the work of David Mamet--particularly by plays like "Speed The Plow" and "Glengary Glen Ross". As a result: his novels are constructed of short chapters that are largely comprised of brilliant dialogue and they eschew long descriptive or meditative sections. The tone of his writing voice tends towards the upbeat and comic rather than the dire and the result is you want to compulsively speed-read Ben Tanzer. As soon as you finish one you want to pick up the next, and then the next. This book is a beautiful addition to the Tanzer opus, and I sense that it may really help him find the larger public his writing deserves.
I think it's also important to point out that Ben Tanzer has developed a writing style over the course of his novels that is rather quite unique. He is inspired as a writer by punk rock, most notably the Ramones, and also, I sense, by the work of David Mamet--particularly by plays like "Speed The Plow" and "Glengary Glen Ross". As a result: his novels are constructed of short chapters that are largely comprised of brilliant dialogue and they eschew long descriptive or meditative sections. The tone of his writing voice tends towards the upbeat and comic rather than the dire and the result is you want to compulsively speed-read Ben Tanzer. As soon as you finish one you want to pick up the next, and then the next. This book is a beautiful addition to the Tanzer opus, and I sense that it may really help him find the larger public his writing deserves.
February 21, 2014
Ben Tanzer's Orphans is the finest piece of science fiction I've read in a long time. Tanzer creates a vivid, fast-paced, and eye-opening glimpse into the future that still manages to explore the problems of the present. Unlike many science fiction books, Orphans keeps you in the scene and makes you believe that this is really happening (and could happen). Most impressively, Tanzer manages to create a balanced work that is just as much about the everyday fears involved in relationships and parenting as it is about a future of Government dominance and cloning. This is a beautiful and emotional tale that will make everyone wonder about the future as well as contemplate how they are living right now.
January 7, 2015
This is what happens when a non-science fiction author writes science fiction. Not that that can't sometimes produce really interesting results. Really, it's a study of the angst felt by a slacker father/husband who lives in a dystopian future. From what I've read, this author is all about the male angst. None of the characters (including the main character, who remains fairly enigmatic) are fully fleshed out. But nothing is in this book. On the plus side, it's a fast read, even at only about 150 pages. So why did I give it two stars instead of one? I suppose enough of it has stuck with me to make me feel it must have some value. But overall, a frustrating read. Stick to your own century, Mr. Tanzer.
December 30, 2013
Orphans is Tanzer at his best. His minimalism shines through his characters' subtle yet deep everyday problems most of us have faced or will face at some point... Real thoughts, real insecurities. And oh yeah, it's Sci-Fi, so take your family, neighbors, co-workers, and friends, travel to the future and interchange some of them with robots and send the others off to Mars... and then you might almost have it. Tanzer does a great job of showing us that everyone has similar trials and tribulations they must fight through and those don't change despite the ever-changing world around us.
January 4, 2014
Author Ben Tanzer brings his unique voice to the science fiction genre and the results are great. Orphans follows the story of young father Norrin Radd, as he tries to support his family in a future where jobs and money are nearly impossible to come by if you weren't born into the right family. The future in Orphans is dark, so don't be fooled when I tell you this novel is also really funny. Ultimately, though, we see the cost exacted when people are put in positions where they'll do whatever it takes to make a better life for their families.
April 21, 2015
Ben Tanzer is among my favorite writers. His stories are witty, colorful, and always heartfelt with a uniquely Tanzer style. Orphans is a sci-fi novel on the surface, but at its core it tells of family, love, and longing. A very human story in a futuristic world full of electronic concierges and roving black helicopters. It's an imaginative, entertaining, and beautiful read that I recommend with enthusiasm.
September 3, 2017
Really quick read, ended up finishing it in one go. I almost dropped out because I wasn't a fan of the character writing at the very beginning, but I'm glad I stuck through it. Neat world-building, interesting dilemmas, great story arc and ending.
January 29, 2014
Reviewed it for Vol.1 Brooklyn: http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2014/01/2...
January 3, 2014
I read this book in the midst of reading Eggers' "The Circle." A great pairing. Think I'll read a Bradbury book next and complete the trifecta.
February 26, 2014
Enjoyed this quite a bit. Great voice, very funny. Not your typical sci-fi novel.
April 11, 2014
Review posted at Small Press Reviews:
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March 19, 2016
Mr. Tanzer does it again . Gorgeous, evocative. His prose and tales are a stiff drink that burn and linger for days.
January 3, 2018
This is a diamond in the rough. The world that Tanzer builds is interesting and he explores some complex emotions, but the story would’ve benefitted from an intense editing.
April 21, 2024
Great sci fi. Unsettling, unsure of what exactly is going on. Gives vibes of Ray Bradbury and A wrinkle in Time. There are other literary references that went over my head but I enjoyed this.
September 22, 2015
Some fascinating juxtapositions from other literary sources are made, but the ultimate feelings evoked were cold & distant.
September 3, 2016
Every character talks the same, definitely favors plot over writing, could have done more
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews