Reviews

The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn

a_schwa's review

5.0

This book made me understand why people like sci-fi. Beautiful commentary on work and what it means to be human.

ecgerritse's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

joewhistle's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

mrpatperkins's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.5

This is one strange book. The method of storytelling doesn’t allow you to see events directly, but the oblique manner the reader observes also doesn’t allow the reader to completely understand what’s going on. Maybe that’s the point, but it kept me from reading it straight through, and I lost a lot of the inferences along the way.

adudemaybe's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

gutter_wizard's review

challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

ktran's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

jess_jingsi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

lmclar12's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Going with a 3.5 stars. This book was fascinating. I loved trying to piece together the story with the little information we are given. Somehow Ravn still manages to convey different voices and human/humanoid tensions in a very short amount of time. 

I loved the discussions about what it meant to be human and what it means when humanoids (ie robots) begin to become more human. 

I did wish we could have seen more. I loved the idea and given how short the book was having a little more background and/or even more access to the statements or even more clearly who is attached to each statement would have been better for me. 

Definitely recommend this book for lovers of sci-fi as it’s pretty short and imo quite compelling and beautifully written 

aliaxmoran's review against another edition

5.0

what does it mean to be human? are we a small cog in the big wheel of life? does our love and anger set us apart? this amazing series of staff reports of humans and humanoids dives into what makes us human, love and lust, anger and jealousy, freedom, and how one can love when we know we must die or even worse know we cannot. read this immediately.