The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century

by Olga Ravn

Other authorsMartin Aitken (Translator)

Hardcover, 2022

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Description

"Funny and doom-drenched, The Employees chronicles the fate of the Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes strangely and deeply attached to them, even as tensions boil toward mutiny, especially among the humanoids. Olga Ravn's prose is chilling, crackling, exhilarating, and foreboding. The Employees probes into what makes us human, while delivering a hilariously stinging critique of life governed by the logic of productivity"--

Publication

New Directions (2022), 144 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member Dreesie

This experimental sci fi novel does not consist of a narrative. Rather, it is excerpts of interviews with both human and humanoid residents/employees of the Six-Thousand Ship in the 22nd century. As the book goes along, the reader slowly learns about the humans and humanoids, about the objects they

have collected at New Discovery, about the ship, and about what has occurred.

I really liked this book, and there is an off chance that I will bump it up to 5 stars in the future. But right now, there us too much I still wonder about. Was Earth destroyed? (I don't think so.) Was there a climate catastrophe? (Maybe--but there are humans on the ship that have memories readers will relate to.) Or is it just a ship for exploration/research? (Also maybe.) How did people get hired/chosen to work/live on the ship? To me, the meaning of what happened/is happening on the Six-Thousand Ship can't be fully appreciated without understanding how and why the ship and staff are even there.

This is one of those books that made me want MORE.

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LibraryThing member Shrike58

First up, I feel the need to admit that I approached this novella with something of a chip on my shoulder, as I was suspicious that such a short work could live up to the hype. I know, one doesn't buy art by the measure, but I was skeptical that this was just another case of a literary writer

trying their hand at science fiction, and impressing literary critics, but not living up to the standards of contemporary speculative fiction.

Having said all that, I am actually quite impressed with this novella, which is more of a fable than an actual story; anyone looking for character development is probably not going to be happy with this work. What Ravn does really well though is to write about alienation and anxiety, between the Humans who are not coping well with their interstellar exile, the Humanoids who resent their second-class status, and the so-called "Objects" that, having been brought on the "Six Thousand Ship," seem to have an agenda of their own. This all being over-topped by a corporate command authority which is only concerned with individual well-being to the extent that it doesn't undermine "efficiency."

While Ravn has gone out of her way to claim Ursula K. Le Guin as an influence ("The Word for World is Forest" comes to mind), there are a number of authors this book can be seen in conversation with; Stanislaw Lem and Jeff VanderMeer being high on the list. VanderMeer might be particularly relevant, in as much as this work can be seen as tip-toeing up to the edge of cosmic horror. Because "The Employees" can be seen to be in conversation with a considerable number of traditions in speculative fiction, I might also argue that the more such fiction you've read, the more you're probably going to get out of the work. Speaking as a long-time reader of SF and fantasy, it would have been perfectly appropriate for "The Employees" to have been short-listed for the appropriate year of eligibility for the Nebula or Hugo award.

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LibraryThing member clrichm

I have no idea what the hell I just read. It was very SCP-like in format, and I could probably draw lots of parallels between the SCP universe(s) and the book. I am so very, very confused about what I was meant to take away from the book, if anything, though. If it was just meant to be a brain

screw, then it succeeded; if the author was trying to make some sort of statement about what it means to be human, etc., then I would definitely need to read it about four or five more times to try to figure out exactly what the statement was. (I won't discount the possibility that some sense was lost in translation.)

Still uncertain about what happened to Earth in the first place. Is that where Homebase is? Or is it gone (the statement near the end referencing the storms might have indicated that)? The nature of the work meant that a lot of backstory was only ever going to be presented through subtext and inference, but I wish I could have inferred just a little bit more.

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LibraryThing member yarb

Weirdo novella about a starship whose human/android crew are losing their marbles after discovering alien artifacts on a distant world. It takes the form of statements from crewmembers of both kinds (it's often hard to tell them apart) to some unspecified earthbound assessor trying to figure out

what's gone wrong. So it reads like an oral history.

The setup reminded me of the film Aniara (2018), partly cause of its Scandiness I guess but also the mounting sense of longing (for earth, in the case of the humans, and for recognition/personhood/love in the case of the androids (which are called humanoids rather than androids)) and universal mental unraveling.

The prose is in that obtuse semi-surreal register used by people like Ben Marcus and David Ohle, or maybe Kathryn Davis. The book was conceived as a short text to accompany an art installation and it kind of shows. The subtitle ("a workplace novel of the 22nd century") does some heavy lifting here, but to good effect. I think it is quite a poignant commentary on modern peonage, as well as a sad story about being lost, in space.

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LibraryThing member mbmackay

This one is different! Just about zero characterisation, almost no plot, only 130 pages, but short-listed for the Booker International.
Well, I enjoyed the creativity of a book that breaks just about all the rules of novel writing, but I didn't feel like gushing as much as the reviews in the blurb.

I have found myself reflecting on the book after I finished - much more than usual. But this may just be due to the apparent incompleteness of the book, or it may be the writer's intention.
So, good book, gIad I read it, but . . .

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LibraryThing member booklove2

Inspired by Lea Guldditte Hestelund's sculptures, the book is a collection of short statements from employees on the Six Thousand Ship regarding their interactions with odd objects. I love the concept here -- a weird book told through statements, involving weirdness and humanoids and found objects.

But the jumpiness and vagueness usually left me confused. Though there are some brilliant scenes/ moments here. With a better execution of the concept, I really might have been a fan. If you like this, try 'Roadside Picnic' by Strugatsky and the 'Area X' series by Jeff VanderMeer.

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LibraryThing member beentsy

I don't know how to 'rate' a book like this. It's not good, bad, or indifferent. It is a wild little book though.

LibraryThing member sarcher

An absolute bore

LibraryThing member DarthFisticuffs

While there is somewhat of a narrative, The Employees is mostly a series of statements and reflections. Sometimes they're curious, sometimes insightful, and often they're somewhat alienating (this may have been the point). In the latter half of the book, the emotional realizations become more

grounded and profound, and while that was interesting, there was something about the book that I felt like kept me at a distance, and prevented me from fully engaging with it, or it with me.

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