stardustdreamer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Death
Moderate: Murder, Blood, Body horror, and Genocide
vessel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
It's very clear from early on that the author is a poet. The book is built from interviews with a number of anonymous characters, and these interviews very much read like prose poems.
With a purposely murky and unclear timeline outlined by unreliable narrator after unreliable narrator, the story leaves the reader to fill in the gaps left out by the characters' confessions. It could be a frustrating reading experience for those looking for clearly defined characters and a classic plot arc with clearly delineated beats, but The Employees is more of a poetic exploration of the meaning of "humanity", and definitely more of a mood piece. It left me with a profound sense of sadness, and many lines I still think about regularly.
With a purposely murky and unclear timeline outlined by unreliable narrator after unreliable narrator, the story leaves the reader to fill in the gaps left out by the characters' confessions. It could be a frustrating reading experience for those looking for clearly defined characters and a classic plot arc with clearly delineated beats, but The Employees is more of a poetic exploration of the meaning of "humanity", and definitely more of a mood piece. It left me with a profound sense of sadness, and many lines I still think about regularly.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Murder and Mental illness
robinks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A fascinating read. It usually bothers me when stories are not in chronological order, but this one was fairly adept at slowly revealing pieces of the puzzle. It also asked some difficult questions about what it means to be human.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Murder and Death
sidekicksam's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This short, weird book is written in the form of HR statements taken from the crew of the Six Thousand Ship, after some major event has disrupted the ship's regular workflow. The crew consists of both human and humanoid workers, who care for the ship and the objects they have retrieved from the planet New Discovery.
Delightfully weird in a non-absurdistic sense, and coming together nicely in the end, this short book is packed with criticism, exploration of what it is to be human, and vagueness to keep you at the edge of your seat. Some things did go a bit over my head as the writing style is quite sophisticated, but short but powerful as we say in Dutch (sweet doesn't really work in this case).
I felt the book resembled a documentary style film, both reminiscent of Wall-E and I, Robot, as well as other help-we-made-a-robot-with-feelings-but-it-didnt't-pan-out-as-we-thought-it-would sci-fi stories. But it could also really work as an art installation of the objects in a white room, surrounded by these statements on the wall (I actually saw something like this in Melly the other day so that might be why).
Delightfully weird in a non-absurdistic sense, and coming together nicely in the end, this short book is packed with criticism, exploration of what it is to be human, and vagueness to keep you at the edge of your seat. Some things did go a bit over my head as the writing style is quite sophisticated, but short but powerful as we say in Dutch (sweet doesn't really work in this case).
I felt the book resembled a documentary style film, both reminiscent of Wall-E and I, Robot, as well as other help-we-made-a-robot-with-feelings-but-it-didnt't-pan-out-as-we-thought-it-would sci-fi stories. But it could also really work as an art installation of the objects in a white room, surrounded by these statements on the wall (I actually saw something like this in Melly the other day so that might be why).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Death
perkyanda's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is weird as fuck and immediately upon finishing it I flipped back to the beginning to start again with added context. Not sure I’ll read all the way through a second time but I definitely recommend rereading at least the beginning! It’s such a weird little thing, an object itself as much as a novel, really, because of the unconventional way it’s told and the very limited way that information is given. It was engaging and off putting snd interesting and I just loved that I got to read something that really shook up my typical experience.
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder, Confinement, Genocide, Grief, and Medical content
savvylit's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
4.0
The Employees is bizarre and spare, leaving so much to the reader's imagination. What details Ravn did choose to include are just enough to clearly depict a distinct capitalist hellscape. At the beginning of the novel, there is an almost-frustrating amount of ambiguity. Readers are only provided with as much context as each brief report provides. This structure eventually reveals the toxic and isolating workplace environment aboard the mysterious Six Thousand Ship. Human workers and their humanoid colleagues toil endlessly. Their employer seems to refuse to empathize with any and all non-work feelings or impulses. Eventually, this comes to ruin the efficiency of the project as the employees develop a sense of solidarity among themselves.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Violence, and Murder
scops_xyz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Body horror, and Murder
booitsnathalie's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A frustratingly vague but often haunting epistolary short story. I wasn't anticipating it to hew so closely to videogame emails and SCP entries, but I'll give it credit for being thematically richer than most of the shockbait horror it structurally parallels.
Ideas about the bodies of dehumanized (in more ways than one) workers in a future capitalist state are woven in without the didactic brutality so much contemporary scifi relies on. Characters cannot see outside the demands of the company anymore than readers can materialize the absent interviewer. Both are invisible absolutes, acknowledged but dismissed because who has time when you're working 12 hour shifts (to say nothing or the cosmic horror leaking from this cargo...).
I felt rather listless by the end of this. Even with the introduction of an honest to god plot in the third act it retains the abstract, nonlinear structure (it was not surprising to learn the author is primarily a poet). Certain passages were striking enough to overcome the otherwise formless collage of interviews, but I am glad it was only a scarce 125 pages.
Ideas about the bodies of dehumanized (in more ways than one) workers in a future capitalist state are woven in without the didactic brutality so much contemporary scifi relies on. Characters cannot see outside the demands of the company anymore than readers can materialize the absent interviewer. Both are invisible absolutes, acknowledged but dismissed because who has time when you're working 12 hour shifts (to say nothing or the cosmic horror leaking from this cargo...).
I felt rather listless by the end of this. Even with the introduction of an honest to god plot in the third act it retains the abstract, nonlinear structure (it was not surprising to learn the author is primarily a poet). Certain passages were striking enough to overcome the otherwise formless collage of interviews, but I am glad it was only a scarce 125 pages.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very perplexing book that more than anything made me hate working & despair that I often judge myself on how productive I am there
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Murder
jae0141's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and Blood