Short version:
I'm looking for a book/story where Protagonist/s work for large administrative body and the story should be told through documents they produce or documents featuring them.
I'm NOT interested in journalist/investigator and news articles as important part of the book, but auditor or just white-collar, would be fine.
Something like: War Z, SCP or "Illuminiae" by Amie Koufman but from administrative environment.
Bonus points for fantasy/sci-fi/medieval setting (everyone kingdom need a administrative body)
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Long version:
I absolutely loved "An Oral History of the Zombie War", as it was written through interviews, memories, and those debriefs at the beginning of each chapter.
I'm lookout for books that are mostly written in the form of official documents, logs from meetings, files, official decisions…
I’m also a big fan of SCP, but I’d prefer if the recommended book isn't horror.
Additionally, I'd like to avoid stories centered around massive conspiracies. I'm more interested in something that focuses on ordinary white-collar workers, scientists, consultants, politicians, executives… all working together within a large administrative body like a government.
Think of characters like:
- Some are corrupt
- Some are just passive
- Some are power-hungry psychos
- Some abuse their power
- Some are reformists thwarted by rigid legislation
- Some are naive reformers who end up making things worse
- Some work diligently within the boundaries to keep the system functioning
….
And all of this somehow holds together, much like the real world.
I’d love to read some compelling stories told through the products of their work. I really enjoy official and academic English, and no, I'm not a lawyer.
And yes I had heard (not read) yeat about
"Illuminiae" by Amie Koufman – trilogy about two teenagers in corporate war in space who's story is told in form of emai communications, military files, interviews, medical reports and so on…
So it is almost what I'm looking for. But from bit different environment.
Any recommendations please?
by KladivoZdivoCihly
3 Comments
I discovered “E” by Matt Beaumont. It is humorous and not serious, but still exactly what I’m looking for. Corporate drama written entirely just with internal email communication of employees.
The Delivery by Peter Mendelsund
War with the Newts
I haven’t read all of these, but ISTR the format and topics fit your request.
These ones are overtly sfnal:
The Themis Files trilogy by **Sylvain Neuvel**, starting with _Sleeping Giants_. Near-future science fiction. Giant robot parts left by aliens found and reassembled. Done as the government archives of interviews with various people involved.
_Cards of Grief_ by **Jane Yolen**. Science fiction first contact with an alien society that has some fantasy elements (there’s some sort of ancient prophecy involved in what unfolds), told in the form of transcripts of tapes from members of the Anthropologists’ Guild observing as a particular incident unfolds.
She also has a fantasy series that partially fits (and is one of my personal favourites), the Books of Great Alta trilogy starting with _Sister Light, Sister Dark_. It’s a standard prophesied chosen one overthrowing the oppressors tale, except it’s done in a tripartite narrative style. One is the conventional action as it happens, another is the myth/legend as passed down to future generations, and the third part is future academics quibbling over how much of it really could have happened, based upon the surviving historical record and archaeological evidence. Plus appendices in the back with further material.
_Always Coming Home_ by **Ursula K. Le Guin**. Done in the style of an ethnography (Le Guin herself was the daughter of anthropologists) of a far future post apocalyptic Californian civilization, plus appendix. Another personal favourite, and there’s even an album of the poems/songs now available on Bandcamp, IIRC (available on a cassette tape as part of a boxed set back when it was originally released).
_The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel_ by **Jeffrey Lewis**.
These ones are technically different genres:
_The Miernik Dossier_ by **Charles McCarry**. This is considered a classic of Cold War espionage literature and it has its own Wikipedia entry if you want more info. The story is told entirely in the form of an internal government file about a particular agent and their mission including letters, agent reports, transcriptions of interviews and surveillance activities, etc. There are some other novels in the same series, but they’re done much more conventionally.
_A History of the African-American People [Proposed] by Storm Thurmond: A Novel_ by **Percival Everett** & **James Kincaid**. Literary metafictional satire. Format is correspondence between the publisher, authors, political aides, and other figures involved arguing over the writing/editing process and content of the book (the “author” was a real life politician who was kind of racist; one of the actual authors, who participates as a character, is an award-winning African-American author).
Hope this helps!
ETA: some sections of _The People’s History of the Vampire Uprising_ by **Raymond A. Villareal** are government reports/correspondence/official interviews. The novel is presented as an oral history compilation of documents from various sources, though.