Just finished Absolution? Next up read The Employees…
If Absolution left you hungry for more weird fiction that questions reality through institutional chaos, Olga Ravn's The Employees delivers that same unsettling magic in a completely different setting. Where Jeff VanderMeer gave us bungled bureaucracy in the Southern Reach, Ravn transplants that sense of creeping dread to a distant spaceship, where crew members file eerily mundane reports about bizarre "objects" that might be alive—or might be changing them.
"The story is told through transcripts and is basically about their growing attachments to these alien objects. I really didn't know what was happening at any point, but I liked it, disjointed as it was. It was kinda funny in a neurotic way, a bit sad, full of yearning."— Brandon Baker, Goodreads
From Area X to Deep Space
What makes this transition so satisfying is how both authors excel at building tension without traditional plotlines. Ravn's fragmented workplace statements echo VanderMeer's atmospheric style, rewarding readers who love piecing together mysteries from unreliable voices. The cosmic horror and satirical edge that made Absolution so compelling find new life in this interstellar meditation on humanity's place in the universe and the hubris of exploration.
The genius of The Employees lies in its deceptively simple format: a series of workplace testimonies that gradually reveal something profound and disturbing about the nature of consciousness itself. Like the best weird fiction, it operates on multiple levels—surface-level workplace satire that deepens into existential horror about what makes us human.
"I just finished it this morning , and I liked the style a lot. The concept of having a bunch of statements that go together and tell the story is really interesting to me. Honestly, though, I feel like I didn't understand the story except for on a surface level lol"— CuddleFuzzy, Reddit
Ravn's novella shares VanderMeer's gift for environmental storytelling, where the setting becomes a character that transforms everyone within it. The mysterious objects aboard the ship echo Area X's reality-bending anomalies, but instead of a terrestrial landscape, we get the claustrophobic vastness of space—a perfect backdrop for exploring themes of isolation, identity, and the erosion of human boundaries.
Published in 2020, this Danish science fiction gem offers the perfect blend of intellectual depth and accessible storytelling. It's concise but dense, delivering that same satisfying complexity that makes you want to immediately re-read and discuss with other fans of boundary-pushing literature.
