Books Five Books About Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture Let’s take a look at some of the funniest, sharpest takes on our tech overlords… By Caitlin Rozakis | Published on May 19, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Speculative fiction has always had a love/hate relationship with technology; whether it’s the “don’t play God” message of Frankenstein or the dehumanization of industrialization depicted in Metropolis, some of the earliest works in the genre have turned a skeptical eye on emerging tech. But technology is one thing; tech culture is something more specific. The rise of the tech bro with his (and let’s be honest, it’s almost always his) “move fast and break things” philosophy has collided with late-stage capitalism’s demand for numbers that multiply in size every quarter to create a uniquely terrible corporate hellscape. And it’s one full of fantastical terms, from angel investors to vampire capitalists to unicorn startups. The jokes practically write themselves. I spent the better part of fifteen years working for a series of tech startups (some better, some worse). So it’s with a certain “it’s funny because it’s true” glee that I inhale stories that take the most fantastical elements and apply them to the modern workplace. It’s part of why I wrote Startup Hell, in which an employee at a terrible tech startup walks into her boss’s office to find him face down on the desk, dead, and the demon he summoned still trapped in the circle. She’s a junior salesperson, he’s a junior salesdemon, they both have monthly quotas to meet. Which is worse—all the forces of hell, or her ambitious tech bro CEO? (I’ll give you one guess.) The hallmarks of modern tech companies—from hustle culture to the seemingly mandatory foosball tables and weird free snacks to touchy-feely-tone deaf HR—are ripe for satire. Let’s take a look at some of the funniest, sharpest takes on our tech overlords. Starter Villain by John Scalzi Charlie is normal, boring, and broke when he unexpectedly inherits a vast supervillain business. Now he’s dealing with pro-union dolphins, intelligent talking cats, and some really terrifying henchpeople… and those are the folks on his side. Featuring the single funniest take on a TED talk/pitch contest imaginable, this book takes on multinational corporations and venture capitalists as the real supervillains. It’s no surprise and only the mildest of spoilers that there’s a global conspiracy of businessmen working together to profit off world tragedies while stabbing each other in the back. (Am I still describing fiction? I don’t feel like I’m describing fiction.) Don’t worry, there are still giant laser death rays. Sourdough, or Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market by Robin Sloan Just about every tech worker seems to dream at some point of leaving coding behind for something more tangible. Lois Clary is nearly killing herself with the grind of working for a San Francisco robotics company. That is, until she ends up the inadvertent caretaker of a sourdough starter that’s more than it appears. It requires music to grow right. It seems to express opinions. It murders other sourdough starters. Modern tech companies want to grow regardless of what that turns them into, and Lois comes from a tech background that demands supporting that growth. Even if not everything should continue growing. This one puts the “culture” in tech culture. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots Even supervillains need office help. Anna works for a temp agency for villains, doing data entry. Is it really so much worse than the same work for a tobacco or coal company? Except something goes wrong and she gets hurt on the job by a superhero. Instead of workman’s comp, all Anna gets is layoff via fruit basket and a deep need for some way to both make a living and maybe take that hero down. But Anna doesn’t have superpowers, unless you include a stubborn interest in sifting through data, pulling together insights, and making a really compelling Powerpoint. When she discovers a supervillain who actually values these skills, she has the opportunity to start controlling the narrative that declares who’s a hero and who’s a villain. This book understands the importance of social media, marketing, and most of all—data analysis. Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke Does the mere sound of a Slack notification haunt your dreams? Welcome to Gerald’s nightmare. This epistolary novel is told entirely in the form of Slack threads. Poor Gerald, who works for a PR firm, has somehow gotten uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels. On the minus side, his body is abandoned and drooling on itself and his coworkers are deeply resentful that he’s been allowed to work from home all the time. On the plus, his productivity metrics are higher than ever before. He needs to figure out how to remove his ghost from the machine, yes, but he also needs to help write a press release for a client whose dog food company is being accused of poisoning Pomeranians, wrangle coworkers who are increasingly distracted by the howling of disembodied wolves, and deal with a CEO whose biggest concern is who keeps moving his office furniture. Who’s going to notice he no longer inhabits his body as long as his deliverables keep arriving? A delightfully absurd take on modern office culture. Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow Forensic accounting isn’t going to sound exciting to most people, but it can be a good way to make some powerful folks awfully angry. In this extremely-near-future thriller, Martin Hench has been around Silicon Valley to know where a lot of the bodies are buried. So when a cryptocurrency scheme turns deadly, he’s the one brought in to play defender. Along the way, we’re treated to Doctorow’s punk take on all things tech bro, from the arc of a successful startup to the issues surrounding crypto to the impact of the tech boom on the unhoused folks of San Francisco.[end-mark] Buy the Book Startup Hell Caitlin Rozakis Buy Book Startup Hell Caitlin Rozakis Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The post Five SFF Satires of Modern Tech Culture appeared first on Reactor.