Customer Reviews

The Virtual Boss

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This is a scary book. This is a scary and well told tale. The underlying conceit is nearly science fiction but all too current and all too plausible to be just science fiction. Instead, call it a reality check. Computers are underestimated. They are ubiquitous. To those of us who know them, they can be scary. Floyd Kemske understands their prime directive and weaves a wonderful yarn. Let us wish it was only science fiction.

If you're a Dilbert fan, you'll love this book. While reading this book, I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. Since I was once a corporate slave myself, so many of the situations in this book were real to me. Consider if someone actually created a computerized manager for you. This manager did not have the power to hire or fire you and could only cajole you into being more productive. That's what this book is about. The "Virtual Boss" is like an Eliza program gone horribly wrong. This was one of those books where I was stopping every page or so and reading the jokes aloud to whoever would listen. Great fun.

Although Kemske calls his novel a "corporate nightmare," it's also a sci-fi novel. Literary critics often consider old genre ideas as fresh, new, and original when they first appear in a non-genre "literary novel." So it is in this case.

THE VIRTUAL BOSS's theme was old in sci-fi circles by the 1950s. A computer runs an office, and takes over with a mind of its own. THE VIRTUAL BOSS will remind many of the HAL 9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, or COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT.

Kemske's computer is less interested in exploring space than in efficient office management. The result is an enjoyable book on modern cubicle culture.

Not a great prophetic book. Written in the early 1990s, Kemske predicted a future of high unemployment and 12-hour workdays. He failed to foresee the economic boom of the late 1990s, or the empowerment the internet brought to individuals. But there's still some good social commentary in this book.

A good book for those who enjoy reading about office politics and management and cublicle culture.