REVIEW: The Employees by Olga Ravn

Genre: Short Story | Speculative Fiction | Literary Fiction

Released: 24th May 2018

Publisher: Lolli Editions

The near-distant future. Millions of kilometres from Earth.

The crew of the Six-Thousand ship consists of those who were born, and those who were created. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find itself becoming deeply attached to them, and human and humanoid employees alike find themselves longing for the same things: warmth and intimacy. Loved ones who have passed. Our shared, far-away Earth, which now only persists in memory.

Gradually, the crew members come to see themselves in a new light, and each employee is compelled to ask themselves whether their work can carry on as before - if it can carry on at all. 

"I know you say I'm not a prisoner here, but the objects have told me otherwise."

Whether it’s your Cup of tea or not, you can’t deny This is a story like none other — this non-linear yet deeply captivating story is made of statements captured by the workplace commission about the events happening on the Six Thousand. Each statement given by a nameless and faceless employee, but somehow we are connected to these anonymous figures a century apart in a familiar but entirely unrecognisable world. There is no comfort, no structure, no satisfying conclusion — just a brief moment in another life.

This is a searing statement not only about the crushing weight of modern work and corporate culture, starting an alarming conversation about the ways we as a collective treat labour and employment And the startling dehumanisation that it can invoke. But it also delves beautifully into the nature of what it is to be alive, to be human.

The setting is enthralling — a macabre vision into a future version of humanity that is both magnificent yet terrifying. It’s transporting and richly descriptive, but purposely leaving out certain details altogether both leaving a gap in our understanding and the ability to let our imaginations run wild. It’s a fast but personal, direct prose and short chapters that offer small snapshots into the lives of the workers aboard the ship, the human and the humanoid. It forces the reader to confront their own relationship with labour and free will, with life and with death.

Weightless and timeless, this is a story that makes you think you’re floating in space. An epic futuristic space odyssey; poetic, moving and unforgettable.

"Is it a question of name? Could I be human if you called me so?"

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐