The scenario is a familiar one: Sam Breen, a twenty-something white guy fresh out of university, is stifled by a privileged life in Toronto and splits to teach English in a faraway land. He acclimates himself to strange customs and food, picks up the language, and contemplates dating someone local. In Angry Young Spaceman, however, the year is 2959 AD, the monolithic culture he disdains is Earth’s, and the faraway land is Octavia, a small watery planet in the nether regions of the galaxy.

As an allegory, Angry Young Spaceman isn’t particularly subtle, and as the title implies, it’s not intended to be. Munroe is well-qualified to pillory the Western world and those who package it. Before embarking on his writing career, he was managing editor of the witty magazine Adbusters, which regularly skewers our culture of consumption with satirical ads and trenchant articles.

And skewer Munroe does, though it’s often with a broadsword. Spaceman’s central idea is the danger of one overweening culture. English is the official, even copyrighted, language of trade throughout the universe. Earthlings tend to be xenophobic and speciesist (although Sam quickly hooks up with Jinya, an octopus-like female with eight sinuous limbs). Trendy restaurants supply forks, even when patrons don’t have fingers, and human dolls are sold to little non-human girls. Translation: back here in 2000, the dominant white Western culture is a problem. Got it.

Still, Munroe’s agenda doesn’t get in the way of his story – his writing is lively and uncluttered, and he drops in some funny details. (Sam describes his barroom trivia musings as “clavinish,” à la Cliff Clavin of Cheers.) And when Munroe takes aim at the management and co-opting of subcultures, the satire is dead-on and more intriguing. In 2959, as now, cool-hunters pounce on groups that defy the status quo, suck them dry, and sell the result to everyone else.

And therein lies an irony: in repackaging the familiar hallmarks of traditional sci-fi – robot servants and jetpacks – for a hip indie novel, Munroe has cool-hunted a subculture himself.