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Strange Labour
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.
192 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
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 behind, left to do all the classic post-apolyptic stuff we all know and love - creating new communities, murdering eachother for food, etc.
It's actually quite a gentle apocalypse - there's some violence, but not as much as you might expect. It all leaves a floaty, melancholic story, but it feels as if Mr Penner didn't really know where to go with the concept. I was left with the empty feeling that it all was a bit pointless, but I guess that is also the point.
(Thanks to Radiant Press for providing me with a review copy through NetGalley)
It's actually quite a gentle apocalypse - there's some violence, but not as much as you might expect. It all leaves a floaty, melancholic story, but it feels as if Mr Penner didn't really know where to go with the concept. I was left with the empty feeling that it all was a bit pointless, but I guess that is also the point.
(Thanks to Radiant Press for providing me with a review copy through NetGalley)
September 25, 2020
“Not your grandfather’s post-apocalyptic road trip” is probably the best way to describe Robert Penner’s book, Strange Labour. Set in the very near future, it tells the story of Miranda, one of the few survivors of a globe-spanning catastrophe that has completely wiped out civilization as we know it. Despite recognizing the almost-certain futility of it, Miranda is travelling across the USA to her childhood home in Minnesota to find her parents. Along the way, she meets other survivors – “regulars” they call themselves, for reasons I won’t explain – including Esther, who runs a seniors’ home, Tonya, who teaches sex education to orphans, and Dave, a seizure-prone, weed-smoking philosopher, who collects stories and provides non-stop social commentary.
Dave is on his way to Chicago, and most of the book follows him and Miranda as they journey from Pennsylvania, through Toledo, to Minnesota and finally into the Great Plains and the mountains of Montana, where they both finally find what they’re looking for.
Penner is an excellent writer. His prose is deft and clever; his descriptions sparkle and his dialogue sings. This guy knows how to string a sentence together and from that perspective alone this was a joy to read. There were a couple spots where I thought some of the descriptive passages were overlong, but that’s a quibble not a critique. Also – a bit of advice, here: you must pay attention. The clues to the riddles this story poses are just as likely to be stuck in the middle of Miranda’s internal dialogue or sandwiched between two of Dave’s endless stories, as they are to be out in plain sight.
One thing I loved about this is how it starts in the middle and takes off running, leaving the reader to catch up as best they can. As the story begins, it very quickly becomes apparent that something terrible has happened. It also becomes apparent that Penner is in no hurry to explain what it is, and so we’re forced to pick up the clues he drops and try to cobble them together for ourselves as the mystery of what happened and why deepens.
The story itself is—different. It takes the elements of the post-apocalypse genre we’ve come to expect and does some very strange things to them. For a book immersed in the consequences of a global catastrophe, it’s surprisingly low key. Which isn’t to say there isn’t tension. As the story unfolds – two stories, really, since much of it takes place inside Miranda’s head as she picks over the memories of her childhood and growing up years – I felt like there was a horror-movie soundtrack playing, low-pitched and foreboding, just at the edge of conscious awareness. It was like reading the short-story “The Lottery”—where things appear to be one way on the surface but you just know there’s something else going on, and that when you finally figure out what it is, you’re not going to like it. This is surely deliberate – Penner playing with the conventions of the genre to keep us on edge. But it’s definitely true that compared to other works in this genre, Strange Labour is strangely tame. I can’t say necessarily that this is a weakness, but if you’re someone who absolutely requires that heads be blown off and that blood spurt from severed arteries, this is not the book for you.
But if you want a thoughtful, thought-provoking, sometimes heart-breaking read, one that forces you to peel off successive layers of meaning – about society, about life and work and what it means to be normal – one that will stay in your mind long after you’re finished, then I recommend it.
Dave is on his way to Chicago, and most of the book follows him and Miranda as they journey from Pennsylvania, through Toledo, to Minnesota and finally into the Great Plains and the mountains of Montana, where they both finally find what they’re looking for.
Penner is an excellent writer. His prose is deft and clever; his descriptions sparkle and his dialogue sings. This guy knows how to string a sentence together and from that perspective alone this was a joy to read. There were a couple spots where I thought some of the descriptive passages were overlong, but that’s a quibble not a critique. Also – a bit of advice, here: you must pay attention. The clues to the riddles this story poses are just as likely to be stuck in the middle of Miranda’s internal dialogue or sandwiched between two of Dave’s endless stories, as they are to be out in plain sight.
One thing I loved about this is how it starts in the middle and takes off running, leaving the reader to catch up as best they can. As the story begins, it very quickly becomes apparent that something terrible has happened. It also becomes apparent that Penner is in no hurry to explain what it is, and so we’re forced to pick up the clues he drops and try to cobble them together for ourselves as the mystery of what happened and why deepens.
The story itself is—different. It takes the elements of the post-apocalypse genre we’ve come to expect and does some very strange things to them. For a book immersed in the consequences of a global catastrophe, it’s surprisingly low key. Which isn’t to say there isn’t tension. As the story unfolds – two stories, really, since much of it takes place inside Miranda’s head as she picks over the memories of her childhood and growing up years – I felt like there was a horror-movie soundtrack playing, low-pitched and foreboding, just at the edge of conscious awareness. It was like reading the short-story “The Lottery”—where things appear to be one way on the surface but you just know there’s something else going on, and that when you finally figure out what it is, you’re not going to like it. This is surely deliberate – Penner playing with the conventions of the genre to keep us on edge. But it’s definitely true that compared to other works in this genre, Strange Labour is strangely tame. I can’t say necessarily that this is a weakness, but if you’re someone who absolutely requires that heads be blown off and that blood spurt from severed arteries, this is not the book for you.
But if you want a thoughtful, thought-provoking, sometimes heart-breaking read, one that forces you to peel off successive layers of meaning – about society, about life and work and what it means to be normal – one that will stay in your mind long after you’re finished, then I recommend it.
February 25, 2021
This is an interesting debut. While I didn't thoroughly enjoy Penner's novel, it was certainly thought-provoking. "Strange Labour" follows Miranda as she travels West across the U.S. in the wake of a bizarre and mysterious apocalyptic event. While acknowledging many tropes of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre, the author manages to circumnavigate most of them in a way, approaching or referencing them from a subtly different angle. It's not that Penner has created something entirely new or different with this short novel (though he does get points for a unique apocalypse), but he has chosen a different conversation than that which is typically found in this type of story. His prose is long, meditative, even stream-of-consciousness at times, full of simile, symbolism, and metaphor, whether it be dialogue, thought, or exposition.
There is a slow, steady pulse to it all, which gives a sense of cohesiveness across both character and narrative development, and colors the entire feel of the novel. That feel is slow, reflective, and subdued. The development is slow in part because Penner does a nice job of "showing, not telling," letting the reader put together the world and events preceding the story piece by piece. It is also slow by virtue of the fact that the novel is fairly character driven, and indeed, there is not a whole lot "happening" in the story. Even the minimal "action" in the story itself feels ponderous and a bit removed, as if the reader is meant to reflect on the events, more than experience them. Indeed, though I mentioned that I didn't particularly enjoy the book, I don't think I was necessarily meant to enjoy it. Rather, it feels as though the story is merely a medium to facilitate individual introspection and sociocultural extrospection. In that sense, it is a success. However, it's worth cautioning readers that the novel seems quite bleak, cynical, at times even nihilistic. It is open-ended, without much in the way of "answers" or "statements." Its characters may be hard to invest in or identify with. Again, it is slow, and bleak. This may be frustrating to some, and certainly takes the right mood to appreciate. If that mood is yours, "Strange Labour" is well done and worth a try.
There is a slow, steady pulse to it all, which gives a sense of cohesiveness across both character and narrative development, and colors the entire feel of the novel. That feel is slow, reflective, and subdued. The development is slow in part because Penner does a nice job of "showing, not telling," letting the reader put together the world and events preceding the story piece by piece. It is also slow by virtue of the fact that the novel is fairly character driven, and indeed, there is not a whole lot "happening" in the story. Even the minimal "action" in the story itself feels ponderous and a bit removed, as if the reader is meant to reflect on the events, more than experience them. Indeed, though I mentioned that I didn't particularly enjoy the book, I don't think I was necessarily meant to enjoy it. Rather, it feels as though the story is merely a medium to facilitate individual introspection and sociocultural extrospection. In that sense, it is a success. However, it's worth cautioning readers that the novel seems quite bleak, cynical, at times even nihilistic. It is open-ended, without much in the way of "answers" or "statements." Its characters may be hard to invest in or identify with. Again, it is slow, and bleak. This may be frustrating to some, and certainly takes the right mood to appreciate. If that mood is yours, "Strange Labour" is well done and worth a try.
May 18, 2025
"You'll be dead soon enough," he said, "along with everyone else, and the universe will be drained entirely of your subjectivity, and no one will ever have to notice anything ever again, listen to anyone ever again, suffer the consequences of their decisions ever again. No one will ever be hungover again. You can rest then, in soothing annihilation, but now you are young and alive, and you can see the world in your sickness: enjoy the world in your sickness: love the world in your sickness: love the glorious, glorious world."
I nabbed this book at a local library while perusing the shelves, and started it with zero preconceived notions or expectations, I didn't even really peruse reviews prior to beginning, which is rare on my end. Color me pleasantly surprised, as this meandering tale, without a clear endgame or antagonist, paints a very interesting picture of survival, solitude, prejudice, religion, class, and companionship/self-reliance.
Strange Labour tells the tale of a solitary survivor(Miranda) of a yet-unexplained event where the vast majority of the population cease to function as independent humans, and walk away to start carving massive, labyrinth-like structures in the countryside. Without speech, and in an autonomous, drone-ish state, they coordinate using backhoes, bulldozers, tractors, and oil tankers to make their mysterious designs, living in primitive camps and working nonstop. Miranda is one of the few unaffected, and we begin with her traveling the country on foot, without a clear destination beyond. As she makes her way through towns of various size, she falls in with various groups of people, and wherever she lays her head ends up her home, for a period of time. Initially, she falls in with a former nursing home, including the matronly Esther who ran the care facility, and the surviving residents. Eventually she moves on, and falls in with Dave, an epileptic drifter who is riding around the countryside in a van. Together, they traverse the land, examining the carvings in the earth, and stopping with various groups, including hijackers and those masquerading as high-society elites in the face of the apocalypse.
Short a plot summary, it almost feels like this book doesn't have or need a strong central plot. At a base-level comparison, think a touch of the weirdness of Jeff VanDerMeer along with Wendig's The Wanderers. For me personally, I enjoyed having a book that didn't use endless exposition and world-building to spell everything out for me. The focus was on Miranda and her journey - the Strange Labor was happening, and we don't really know how, or why, it just is. Any tidbits of fact are picked up along her journey, like kids being immune to the calling of the camps until they hit a certain age. I particularly liked the addition of Dave to Miranda's travels - a nihilistic drifter, whose only real focus was on where he could get his next fix - he felt appropriate to the overall vibes of the book, and provided some thought-provoking ruminations on the long drives with Miranda.
If I had a criticism, it would be that the book sometimes went a bit long into descriptions, the mega-paragraphs of descriptions led to me glossing over them a bit, with so little to drive the plot, it felt like these could have been trimmed slightly to keep things a bit more concise. Additionally, despite the short length, it did feel like the book dragged a bit in the middle, before they reach their final destination.
In a general sense, I was impressed with how it felt like the book was able to enable the reader to reflect on things without spoon-feeding information and viewpoints. It also felt different to not just dystopian books I've read, but just books in general, without action driving the chapters along. Just some parts felt a bit overcooked, but it never got preachy. Overall 4/5
I nabbed this book at a local library while perusing the shelves, and started it with zero preconceived notions or expectations, I didn't even really peruse reviews prior to beginning, which is rare on my end. Color me pleasantly surprised, as this meandering tale, without a clear endgame or antagonist, paints a very interesting picture of survival, solitude, prejudice, religion, class, and companionship/self-reliance.
Strange Labour tells the tale of a solitary survivor(Miranda) of a yet-unexplained event where the vast majority of the population cease to function as independent humans, and walk away to start carving massive, labyrinth-like structures in the countryside. Without speech, and in an autonomous, drone-ish state, they coordinate using backhoes, bulldozers, tractors, and oil tankers to make their mysterious designs, living in primitive camps and working nonstop. Miranda is one of the few unaffected, and we begin with her traveling the country on foot, without a clear destination beyond. As she makes her way through towns of various size, she falls in with various groups of people, and wherever she lays her head ends up her home, for a period of time. Initially, she falls in with a former nursing home, including the matronly Esther who ran the care facility, and the surviving residents. Eventually she moves on, and falls in with Dave, an epileptic drifter who is riding around the countryside in a van. Together, they traverse the land, examining the carvings in the earth, and stopping with various groups, including hijackers and those masquerading as high-society elites in the face of the apocalypse.
Short a plot summary, it almost feels like this book doesn't have or need a strong central plot. At a base-level comparison, think a touch of the weirdness of Jeff VanDerMeer along with Wendig's The Wanderers. For me personally, I enjoyed having a book that didn't use endless exposition and world-building to spell everything out for me. The focus was on Miranda and her journey - the Strange Labor was happening, and we don't really know how, or why, it just is. Any tidbits of fact are picked up along her journey, like kids being immune to the calling of the camps until they hit a certain age. I particularly liked the addition of Dave to Miranda's travels - a nihilistic drifter, whose only real focus was on where he could get his next fix - he felt appropriate to the overall vibes of the book, and provided some thought-provoking ruminations on the long drives with Miranda.
If I had a criticism, it would be that the book sometimes went a bit long into descriptions, the mega-paragraphs of descriptions led to me glossing over them a bit, with so little to drive the plot, it felt like these could have been trimmed slightly to keep things a bit more concise. Additionally, despite the short length, it did feel like the book dragged a bit in the middle, before they reach their final destination.
In a general sense, I was impressed with how it felt like the book was able to enable the reader to reflect on things without spoon-feeding information and viewpoints. It also felt different to not just dystopian books I've read, but just books in general, without action driving the chapters along. Just some parts felt a bit overcooked, but it never got preachy. Overall 4/5
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 considered assessment of the social and cultural circumstances in which it was produced’): in that role he uses his pseudonym William Squirrell. And that note of background most assuredly applies to the content of this book. His many stories (as William Squirrell) appear in anthologies and the novel LET THE BASTARDS BURN. STRANGE LABOUR is his debut novel under the name Robert G Penner.
STRANGE LABOUR is a novel, yes, a story, yes, an introspective experience – hopefully for every reader. In a completely unique manner of composing a dystopian tale, Penner has managed to make his characters and plot so contemporary that we enter his strange world, somehow familiar with it – the bizarre manner in which we humans decide what is important and what is unimportant. Pretenses, prejudices, proclivities, predilections – and antipathies. In composing his compelling story, Penner holds the proverbial mirror up to his readers: it is up to the individual to discover the relevance.
As one observer from Booklist describes the plot, ‘Miranda is working as a New York City accountant when all the world's neurotypical adults are mysteriously compelled to abandon their lives and devote themselves to the creation of massive labyrinthine earthworks called "the diggings." Only the neurodivergent are immune to the impulse, Miranda among them. Now traveling to Minnesota to find her parents, Miranda and ex-union organizer Dave, who has epilepsy, traverse a dystopian landscape marked not with violence, but with frayed human relationships and abandoned children. Along the way, they encounter dementia nurses and educators struggling to adjust to the new world; an affluent, heartless Toledo commune; and the silent diggers themselves.’
Or as the book cover distills the plot, ‘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.’
Both involving and immensely entertaining, this novel captures our current status like a motion sensor we place at our front doors. Paranoia,? no, but anxiously curious, possibly, the way this story seeps into us. Brilliant debut novel; gifted artist! Bravo!
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 considered assessment of the social and cultural circumstances in which it was produced’): in that role he uses his pseudonym William Squirrell. And that note of background most assuredly applies to the content of this book. His many stories (as William Squirrell) appear in anthologies and the novel LET THE BASTARDS BURN. STRANGE LABOUR is his debut novel under the name Robert G Penner.
STRANGE LABOUR is a novel, yes, a story, yes, an introspective experience – hopefully for every reader. In a completely unique manner of composing a dystopian tale, Penner has managed to make his characters and plot so contemporary that we enter his strange world, somehow familiar with it – the bizarre manner in which we humans decide what is important and what is unimportant. Pretenses, prejudices, proclivities, predilections – and antipathies. In composing his compelling story, Penner holds the proverbial mirror up to his readers: it is up to the individual to discover the relevance.
As one observer from Booklist describes the plot, ‘Miranda is working as a New York City accountant when all the world's neurotypical adults are mysteriously compelled to abandon their lives and devote themselves to the creation of massive labyrinthine earthworks called "the diggings." Only the neurodivergent are immune to the impulse, Miranda among them. Now traveling to Minnesota to find her parents, Miranda and ex-union organizer Dave, who has epilepsy, traverse a dystopian landscape marked not with violence, but with frayed human relationships and abandoned children. Along the way, they encounter dementia nurses and educators struggling to adjust to the new world; an affluent, heartless Toledo commune; and the silent diggers themselves.’
Or as the book cover distills the plot, ‘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.’
Both involving and immensely entertaining, this novel captures our current status like a motion sensor we place at our front doors. Paranoia,? no, but anxiously curious, possibly, the way this story seeps into us. Brilliant debut novel; gifted artist! Bravo!
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 bit crazy). The world is alive in a dead sort of way. I was surprisingly happy with how this story ended.
Robert Penner, if you are reading this, when is your next book coming out?
Robert Penner, if you are reading this, when is your next book coming out?
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August 9, 2022This is a haunting book, which bears so much similarity to familiar post-apocalyptic stories, but has a different timbre to it. Like hearing a song you know by heart, played in a different key. I'm not sure "enjoyed" is the right word here; and I'm not sure who I would or wouldn't recommend this to. But it's certainly standout, thought-provoking writing, so maybe this is a recommendation to readers seeking that, with the patience to tread through a familiar story to see how everything is all slightly off-kilter.
Scattered thoughts:
(a) The premise, the apocalypse, is that people — almost all the people — have just dropped everything they were doing, to go dig. They are working on huge, labyrinthine earth projects, that are completely opaque and apparently serving no purpose whatsoever. The diggers behave like zombies, not speaking, abandoning their own children, focused on nothing but their work.
It definitely feels like a surreal apocalypse, not one that was going to be explained and justified. Though many of the characters wonder what is happening and why, I don't feel like I expected any answers; the focus is how people react and behave in the apocalypse's wake.
(b) A lot of the book, to me, seems to be not just about survival, but about figuring out what next, about deciding what "normal" and "human" mean, and about how intolerable society pretty much always is, post-apocalypse and also pre-. Over and over, Miranda has options that will leave her surviving in relative comfort, but all of them are awful and unacceptable. And finally
(c) Maybe what fascinates me most in this book is what is presented as a threat, and what isn't. And how.
Survival is a constant, relentless struggle, but most of the scenes take place in phases of relative security. The threat of sexual assault hangs heavy over the entire book, but our protagonist herself is never threatened directly (the implicit threats, and instances of others being assaulted, are many and varied).
I don't think it's a stretch to say that, in many post-apocalyptic scenarios, the struggle is with other people's lack of humanity. But a lot of what Strange Labour does, I think, is emphasize not how bad people would get if everything went bad, in situations of horrible scarcity. All the problems are problems people have, society has, right now.
(d) At the extreme end of this, I'm wondering whether to read the book as a kind of parable for being trapped outside the system of capitalism, outside the "normal" work cycle.
Re-casting work, day-jobs, as being a society-changing apocalypse. And some people just can't fit into that, or not yet -- kids, the elderly, the neurodiverse, some artists...
I'm kind of fascinated by that as a concept, although I'm not sure the book exactly supports that reading.
My sincere thanks to Leah Bobet, who recommended this book personally as an interesting one. It absolutely was.
Scattered thoughts:
(a) The premise, the apocalypse, is that people — almost all the people — have just dropped everything they were doing, to go dig. They are working on huge, labyrinthine earth projects, that are completely opaque and apparently serving no purpose whatsoever. The diggers behave like zombies, not speaking, abandoning their own children, focused on nothing but their work.
It definitely feels like a surreal apocalypse, not one that was going to be explained and justified. Though many of the characters wonder what is happening and why, I don't feel like I expected any answers; the focus is how people react and behave in the apocalypse's wake.
(b) A lot of the book, to me, seems to be not just about survival, but about figuring out what next, about deciding what "normal" and "human" mean, and about how intolerable society pretty much always is, post-apocalypse and also pre-. Over and over, Miranda has options that will leave her surviving in relative comfort, but all of them are awful and unacceptable. And finally
(c) Maybe what fascinates me most in this book is what is presented as a threat, and what isn't. And how.
Survival is a constant, relentless struggle, but most of the scenes take place in phases of relative security. The threat of sexual assault hangs heavy over the entire book, but our protagonist herself is never threatened directly (the implicit threats, and instances of others being assaulted, are many and varied).
I don't think it's a stretch to say that, in many post-apocalyptic scenarios, the struggle is with other people's lack of humanity. But a lot of what Strange Labour does, I think, is emphasize not how bad people would get if everything went bad, in situations of horrible scarcity. All the problems are problems people have, society has, right now.
(d) At the extreme end of this, I'm wondering whether to read the book as a kind of parable for being trapped outside the system of capitalism, outside the "normal" work cycle.
Re-casting work, day-jobs, as being a society-changing apocalypse. And some people just can't fit into that, or not yet -- kids, the elderly, the neurodiverse, some artists...
I'm kind of fascinated by that as a concept, although I'm not sure the book exactly supports that reading.
My sincere thanks to Leah Bobet, who recommended this book personally as an interesting one. It absolutely was.
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 massive earthen excavations that reach as far as the horizon. What is the purpose of all of this labor? In a book such as this, there's no easy answer. Nor should there be. The thrust of this work is the human exploration taking place. In this road tale, a post-apocalyptic, lonely American landscape unfolds, so carefully and beautifully detailed as to set this novel apart from the myriad others that have attempted to tread the same ground. Don't get me wrong, Strange Labour offers a brutal and unvarnished look at the human condition at times, but it is also real, honest, and, indeed, striking in its hopefulness. Penner accomplishes so much in this book, and at so many levels--at once a criticism of the racial and class inequalities present in the US, a Marxist manifesto, and yet still a simple story about people trying to do their best while facing down the dwindling days of the world. And all of this delivered by an honest voice, lifted by a dry humor that, much like the whole of Penner's writing, is both somehow understated and profound. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
March 18, 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, carries on. Also lacking data, she reasonably enough lives mostly one day at a time.
The one thing that still niggles at me is
But even that isn't any more indigestible than all the lore about (for example) zombies, and we all accept that, so it’s cool.
It's well written. And I award a point for the author leaving me thinking, "What would *I* do in that world?"
The one thing that still niggles at me is
But even that isn't any more indigestible than all the lore about (for example) zombies, and we all accept that, so it’s cool.
It's well written. And I award a point for the author leaving me thinking, "What would *I* do in that world?"
October 12, 2020
I have questions, so many questions... but still, I am oddly satisfied with this book. Post-apocalyptic novels are numerous, but this one stands out from the crowd. The characters feel like they are kept at arm's length, which is something I usually don't get on with, but it really works with this story because you don't want them to get too close. The plot is relatively simple with few explanations. More from Mr. Penner, please!
My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.
August 23, 2020
Not bad. I enjoyed the premise and parts of it. But is often slow paced and a little uneven, and because of this it won't be for everyone, It doesn't have the polish of more experienced authors, but story is OK overall. It has an interesting take on dystopia.
Thanks very much for the ARC for review!
Thanks very much for the ARC for review!
October 17, 2020
Fascinating and eerie. I couldn’t put it down.
December 8, 2021
When you fail to spend your life toiling away to live a mediocre life that barely keeps you fed and leaves no time for family doing a task that ultimately has no purpose society will say there is something wrong with you, that your not quite right in the head. But one might argue there is more to life, there is religion, community, and art. Perhaps those are the things that truly matter. Those are the things we should dedicate our lives to the pursuit of. But absolutely under no circumstances should we just be aimless. We should never wonder from place to place without a path ahead. We can't just get high and drink in parking lots. We must dedicate ourselves in some fashion. Ether join the drone, create masterpieces, or at the very least find Jesus. After all, are you truly human if you don't find a theory or way of life to dedicate your own life to? Can you call yourself a member of society if you don't have a very strong and set mindset about what is really important and then try to convenience all those around you that you have found the holy grail to the meaning of life? Thought not. Strange Labour is absolutely not what I thought it was but man I enjoyed the hell out of it. Meandering, not sure if it was trying to have and underlining meaning or point, I still don't know if it had a point but I read into it and came up with my own conclusions which was good enough for me. Perhaps it is about what it means to be human, what we are when we strip all else away, what we could be or what we should be, I don't know because I am not Robert Penner but I do know it caused me to question what I would want in a world where all the society approved paths were ripped apart and I would want to just get high and drink wine in a parking lot with Dave.
August 14, 2020
Please find my review for, Strange Labour here.
January 14, 2021
This is definitely not The Road or Station Eleven. It's a novella with a strange plot, strange wordiness (detritus, lemniscate, crenellated . . . ) and a strange message (being "inexpressibly, unaccountably happy" to become like an ant?).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2021
Strange Labour by Robert Penner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A terrific debut. I have read a free sample of the book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. It is important for me to place Strange Labour within the vague contours of Eastern Europe for some reason. Eastern Europe, if such a thing exists, feels post-apocalyptic precisely in the sense that it does not fit with various standard post-apocalyptic tropes of existing SF. It feels like all the imaginings, fabulations, extrapolation of post-apocalypticism did not prepare us for this. Maybe in the same way that Laurie Penny wrote about the inability of 'catastrophe porn' or post-apocalyptic entertainment to prepare us for the new reality we are living at this moment.
The world-building - and this is not a building (but a world to be built?), is a work of Strange Labour that exposes us to the effects of abandonment, to the shadows of massive labyrinthine earthworks that suddenly ungrounded everything. I am maybe wrong but I feel there is a deep affinity with the outcome of rapid de-industrialisation, privatization, the dismantlement of welfare systems and abandonment of everything that happened after 1989 in Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland etc
And I say this trying to avoid here the entire charge of Tarkovsky's "The Zone". The Zone appears as something immutable and thus zoned-off behind the specifics of a certain time and place, or even cordoned off by a particular historical chain-of-events. In a sense, Penner introduces us to something else, the dispersed drop-offs, the neurodivergent that cannot join the immense Stahanovist Çevengur voluntarism not since seen, that has suddenly pushed the majority of humanity into a febrile and inescapable activity.
Strange Labour has some affinity to most of what the best recent new weird (I am thinking about the works of VanderMeer - Borne, The Strange Bird: A Borne Story) tells us - that definitely, something major happened, that it affected everything that came after, we just do not know exactly what. It does that without appealing to a biotechnologically-enabled posthuman frame, but at the same time, all the epileptics and the dementia nurses already inhabit that strange space.
In a way, if we try and inhabit the world of Robert Penner it will not save us from disaster, it will maybe spurn us to appreciate its inchoate beauty and scavenge our own cosmology out of its shipwreck entrails. Such a world is not the wasteland of cannibals, murderous mutants and exotic dangers that most of post-apocalypticism abounds, but of care-work to be done, of temporary respite and mutual associations that do not settle into predictable patterns.
Somehow it makes us perceive the strangeness of that absent work. There is something else besides all the brutalist petroglyphs, cosmist mountain top sublime. Yes, the impossible monuments of Communist heyday - hold an almost intangible (for now) finality. At the same time, as a good friend wrote about The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party on Buzludzha Peak such remains became very quickly quite alien, almost unintelligible, its purpose unknowable or aims completely and increasingly irrecoverable.
These are just the most scenic ruins apt for majestic ruin porn tourism - but what about this labyrinthine goings-on? What about the various lives, the experiences of people who live amongst such ruins, en route towards something else? What about that something that is being slowly digested and is digesting these natural-industrial habitats. Environments and habitats are indissociable from an entirety that is not larger than its parts. Many have made a home there, masses of people that once called it a place of work, are now rambling, searching, almost shambling but there is incredible wayside beauty. It is enough there is an after - but this after - has fused so seamlessly with what came all of a sudden as to be unrecognizable.
View all my reviews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A terrific debut. I have read a free sample of the book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. It is important for me to place Strange Labour within the vague contours of Eastern Europe for some reason. Eastern Europe, if such a thing exists, feels post-apocalyptic precisely in the sense that it does not fit with various standard post-apocalyptic tropes of existing SF. It feels like all the imaginings, fabulations, extrapolation of post-apocalypticism did not prepare us for this. Maybe in the same way that Laurie Penny wrote about the inability of 'catastrophe porn' or post-apocalyptic entertainment to prepare us for the new reality we are living at this moment.
The world-building - and this is not a building (but a world to be built?), is a work of Strange Labour that exposes us to the effects of abandonment, to the shadows of massive labyrinthine earthworks that suddenly ungrounded everything. I am maybe wrong but I feel there is a deep affinity with the outcome of rapid de-industrialisation, privatization, the dismantlement of welfare systems and abandonment of everything that happened after 1989 in Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland etc
And I say this trying to avoid here the entire charge of Tarkovsky's "The Zone". The Zone appears as something immutable and thus zoned-off behind the specifics of a certain time and place, or even cordoned off by a particular historical chain-of-events. In a sense, Penner introduces us to something else, the dispersed drop-offs, the neurodivergent that cannot join the immense Stahanovist Çevengur voluntarism not since seen, that has suddenly pushed the majority of humanity into a febrile and inescapable activity.
Strange Labour has some affinity to most of what the best recent new weird (I am thinking about the works of VanderMeer - Borne, The Strange Bird: A Borne Story) tells us - that definitely, something major happened, that it affected everything that came after, we just do not know exactly what. It does that without appealing to a biotechnologically-enabled posthuman frame, but at the same time, all the epileptics and the dementia nurses already inhabit that strange space.
In a way, if we try and inhabit the world of Robert Penner it will not save us from disaster, it will maybe spurn us to appreciate its inchoate beauty and scavenge our own cosmology out of its shipwreck entrails. Such a world is not the wasteland of cannibals, murderous mutants and exotic dangers that most of post-apocalypticism abounds, but of care-work to be done, of temporary respite and mutual associations that do not settle into predictable patterns.
Somehow it makes us perceive the strangeness of that absent work. There is something else besides all the brutalist petroglyphs, cosmist mountain top sublime. Yes, the impossible monuments of Communist heyday - hold an almost intangible (for now) finality. At the same time, as a good friend wrote about The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party on Buzludzha Peak such remains became very quickly quite alien, almost unintelligible, its purpose unknowable or aims completely and increasingly irrecoverable.
These are just the most scenic ruins apt for majestic ruin porn tourism - but what about this labyrinthine goings-on? What about the various lives, the experiences of people who live amongst such ruins, en route towards something else? What about that something that is being slowly digested and is digesting these natural-industrial habitats. Environments and habitats are indissociable from an entirety that is not larger than its parts. Many have made a home there, masses of people that once called it a place of work, are now rambling, searching, almost shambling but there is incredible wayside beauty. It is enough there is an after - but this after - has fused so seamlessly with what came all of a sudden as to be unrecognizable.
View all my reviews
October 4, 2022
I have to say, a couple of days after finishing this book, I'm more satisfied with the ending.
The book is a great twist on the zombie genre, which overall I detest. Basically, the idea of a ‘zombie’ is that it's a human who it's okay to kill. "To terminate with extreme prejudice."
And we can see how this prejudice seeps into our discourse, with other humans slipping into the category of ‘zombie.’ (E.g., I see reviews of guns and machetes sold online as useful for zombie-killing. Wow, think about that for a moment! Zombies are not real, guys, and you want guns and knives to kill them?)
You've got to stick with the story through to the end to understand how the author finally dismantles the zombie idea.
I like the human dimension of the story. Race and gender roles are worked into it but they don't take it over, and there are several important plot turns where these are subsumed into what I think is a more likely humanistic tapestry of relations and motivations. The very worst of human nature is cast in the framework of folktales and fevered speculation.
These people are intelligent! It's beautiful what they bring into the conversation. A lot of the book is conversation, even while so many of the characters are taciturn and browbeaten. When they do talk, pay attention! Dave, of course, is the exception that proves the rule.
The book is a great twist on the zombie genre, which overall I detest. Basically, the idea of a ‘zombie’ is that it's a human who it's okay to kill. "To terminate with extreme prejudice."
And we can see how this prejudice seeps into our discourse, with other humans slipping into the category of ‘zombie.’ (E.g., I see reviews of guns and machetes sold online as useful for zombie-killing. Wow, think about that for a moment! Zombies are not real, guys, and you want guns and knives to kill them?)
You've got to stick with the story through to the end to understand how the author finally dismantles the zombie idea.
I like the human dimension of the story. Race and gender roles are worked into it but they don't take it over, and there are several important plot turns where these are subsumed into what I think is a more likely humanistic tapestry of relations and motivations. The very worst of human nature is cast in the framework of folktales and fevered speculation.
These people are intelligent! It's beautiful what they bring into the conversation. A lot of the book is conversation, even while so many of the characters are taciturn and browbeaten. When they do talk, pay attention! Dave, of course, is the exception that proves the rule.
June 20, 2025
The writing was fine and the premise was pretty thought provoking, but I think I’ve just personally had my fill of post-apocalyptic fiction for a while.
I didn’t hate anything about this book, and in general it was well executed, but I also didn’t find myself caring much about any of the characters. There wasn’t much of a driving motivation for any of their decisions or characteristics. Some critics referred to Miranda as “heroic” but I didn’t feel the same.
It just didn’t feel like it had much to say, like I was watching all of the b-roll footage from some other apocalypse show.
And at the same time, I have a feeling like much of the symbolism went over my head. I didn’t ultimately appreciate the symbolic significance of the diggings. Mostly, (and maybe this is the intent?), you are left just as clueless as the characters, wondering about the pure absurdity of this unexplainable phenomenon; trying to ascribe some meaning or cause to something that lacks both. Something something Gregor Samsa? If that’s honestly the message, then I guess I did understand this novel and was just hoping for something more…
I didn’t hate anything about this book, and in general it was well executed, but I also didn’t find myself caring much about any of the characters. There wasn’t much of a driving motivation for any of their decisions or characteristics. Some critics referred to Miranda as “heroic” but I didn’t feel the same.
It just didn’t feel like it had much to say, like I was watching all of the b-roll footage from some other apocalypse show.
And at the same time, I have a feeling like much of the symbolism went over my head. I didn’t ultimately appreciate the symbolic significance of the diggings. Mostly, (and maybe this is the intent?), you are left just as clueless as the characters, wondering about the pure absurdity of this unexplainable phenomenon; trying to ascribe some meaning or cause to something that lacks both. Something something Gregor Samsa? If that’s honestly the message, then I guess I did understand this novel and was just hoping for something more…
December 10, 2020
(AUDIO) Narrator was interesting choice, at times a bit too monotone, but it works somehow with the story, as the character is also very monotone in personality (if not a bit dazed). I really enjoyed this. I LOVE post-apocalyptic tales and I appreciate this unique story. Writing - very well done, an easy read. I could vividly visualize where she was, what was going on and all people she interacts with. Please write more!!!
April 16, 2021
4.5 Dystopian.
In the future, virtually all adults have abandoned populated areas and have become "diggers." They mindlessly work themselves to death creating huge earthworks that have no apparent meaning. A few people who have not been affected wander the country searching for meaning, understanding and place in a world insensitive to their suffering. Each stop along the way illuminates a thread of the culture that was lost.
In the future, virtually all adults have abandoned populated areas and have become "diggers." They mindlessly work themselves to death creating huge earthworks that have no apparent meaning. A few people who have not been affected wander the country searching for meaning, understanding and place in a world insensitive to their suffering. Each stop along the way illuminates a thread of the culture that was lost.
October 16, 2022
I think I owe an honest review, and I honestly found this one boring. Nothing at all happens in the first three chapters. OK, so our heroine lives in a post-apocalytic English countryside, and spends her days dodging hungry dogs while looking for old cans of beans that others left behind. I don't need a shoot-out at the beginning but I need something to catch my interest.
Also suffers from too many adjectives.
Also suffers from too many adjectives.
January 27, 2023
What an incredibly boring book. I listened to the audio version, and also I found the narrators voice to be whiny and irritating, but also, there was practically nothing that happened throughout the entire book. A few times I thought “oh boy something HAS to happen now!!!” And then nothing happened. That’s my summary of this book. 7 hours. Nothing happens. And then it ends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2020
Penner created a world that has stayed with me, a world that has many complexities, and a world that leaves the reader much to ponder about our current society and the relationships found within it. No spoilers here!
November 1, 2021
Character driven post apocalyptic fiction was something I didn’t know I needed. Really well written. Not too frightening or graphic (rare for apocalyptic novels) but definitely heartbreaking sometimes. Slow and steady, with no easy answers.
September 29, 2020
Excellent book.
February 28, 2021
Beautiful book. Absolutely loved it.
March 11, 2022
I enjoyed it, but I found it frustrating that nothing was really explained and book just ended.
July 25, 2022
Checked every single box of things I don't like about apocalyptic fiction.
March 16, 2023
Not bad, but, this easily could, and should have been a short story.
May 19, 2024
« There is nothing post-apocalyptic about violent men getting what they want, Dave »
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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