These stories, while fictional, ask a very real question about technology and labor today, against a backdrop of economic precarity and social isolation: how many of our values can we sacrifice for a shot at a secure life? In these novels, the conclusion is dramatically clear: to escape their untenable binds, protagonists launch themselves out of the industry, into parenthood, and across alternate dimensions. More subtle and internal than the tales of moustache-twirling (or turtleneck-wearing) founders appearing in journalistic profiles and documentaries, these narratives detail the personal crises of individuals clinging to paychecks and praise from their employers while struggling to square the promise of their work with the nagging truth of it. ![]() In Akil Kumarasamy’s Meet Us By the Roaring Sea, a young woman trains an AI called Bogey in Sean Michaels’ Do You Remember Being Born, a 75-year-old poet wrangles one named Charlotte. In Colin Winnette’s Users, Miles has invented an eerie new VR game with unintended consequences, while in Josh Riedel’s Please Report Your Bug Here, Ethan has found a portal in his employer’s photo app that transports a user anywhere and nowhere at once. In Claire Stanford’s Happy for You, Evelyn is an academic escapee/UX researcher conflicted about building a system to quantify happiness. In Sarah Rose Etter’s new novel, Ripe, Cassie is a marketing writer coming to grips with the cruelty of her role at unicorn startup Voyager. In the last two years, novels from the perspective of tech workers have been popping up like app notifications, many written by former and even current employees. Meet the Vets Who Provide Big Muscle for Big Tech.
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