I am a sucker for dystopias. The problem is, I’ve read so many by now that they’re almost always disappointing, and I will fully prepared for more of the same with The Warehouse.

I was not prepared to tear up, not just once, but TWICE.

The world in this novel is completely recognizable and relatable, because...well, we already sort of live in it. Add that ennui-inducing Black Mirror-esque thread of bleak desperation and easily conceivable technological advancement, and you have this book.

I absolutely loved this book. Now I need to go sit somewhere quiet away from my electronic devices and think existentially about my own mortality for a fair bit.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Do you remember that scene in Idiocracy where you could walk into that small town called Costco and get your law degree and get a special Starbucks?

Yeah, well this novel isn't that. But it is definitely Amazon on steroids, employing pretty much the last of humanity (or 30 million of them) as little drones send disposable products all around the world to disposable people.

Sound intriguing? Make no mistake, this is definitely a dystopia. Your job performance is on a five-star rating system and if you get a single star, you're FIRED. Sound slightly familiar? Just make this a company town with its own credit system, accommodations, and insular paranoid big-brother total tracking nightmare, throw the newbies into the mix, and THEN tell me whether or not YOU ALREADY LIVE THERE. :)

I liked this book. It's nastily familiar and a pleasurable easy read full of twists and turns and espionage and counter-espionage. It does have a big warning as a core message, but I didn't mind how stark it was. After all, we're in COSTCO/AMAZON now, baby! :)

A gripping look at corporate espionage in one of the largest big-box retailers. You are monitored by your watch band. You stay in employee housing. You wear color coded shirts based on your job title. You wonder how this corruption is coming into a utopia. A book of twists and turns, suspense, and it keeps you wanting more.

If Amazon joined forces with.... oh, wait, this is just what if Amazon keeps growing at its current pace... you would get Cloud (the Amazon-esque company at the center of this book). The story follows two people who go to work for the all-encompassing company/life that is Cloud. These are some of the best (and only) jobs available, but they have very different reasons for applying. From there they move into the routine of working for what is nearly the only company there is.
Set in the near, dystopian, future, this first novel by Rob Hart is an interesting look at what happens when one business manages to be come the only business that matters. He brings together ideas of the economic pressures that a large company can bring to bear success marries it to climate change and company-store mentality in a way that seems frighteningly prescient.
The three main (and point of view) characters are Paxton, an erstwhile Corrections Officer/CEO; Zinnia, a woman with past she is hiding; and the CEO of Cloud, Gibson Wells. As each tells their portion of the story, we get a look at how they came to be where they are and where they might go from here. Since they are characters, their POV is not just limited, but also not always wholly honest. This makes for a bit more of an interesting way of looking at the story rather than just "big business bad" simplicity.
Probably my biggest complaints involve the limited world building outside of the facility (which is immaculately described) and occasional dry writing that made it hard to focus.
Overall, as a "where are we headed" look at society, I think this book works and I would recommend it to those who enjoy near future dystopias.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This dystopian novel reads like a movie, replete with big name actors playing heroes and villains. Interesting and horrifying, with a frightening dose of what feels like realism. Thank you for the read!

The Warehouse is a dystopian novel sure to thrill (or terrify) fans of books like The Circle, 1984, or Brave New World. As prescient as Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale feels in 2019, The Warehouse may feel in 2029. It's a book that posits itself as a near-future thriller - giving readers both a riveting character-driven espionage story line while refusing to allow pure escapism with warnings of climate change and boundless technology.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Rob Hart, and Crown Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All thoughts are my own.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart, an Incredible Read. A dystopian view of what the world may be coming to, The Cloud has taken over the world!

If you loved Dave Eggers "The Circle", this is the perfect read ! The Warehouse is a dystopian story of a future (sadly probably not too far off) where "Cloud", the online retailer (think: Amazon) essentially rules everything. People can't go outside, the environment is shot, and really the only place you can get employment is at Cloud, which clearly is problematic. Cloud doesn't really pay their employees a salary, rather they all live on a "credit" system and their on-campus housing all comes off their "paychecks" as well. This story mainly follows two newcomers to Cloud, Zinnia and Paxton and the two very different reasons they each had for pursuing employment at the giant online retailer. This is a bit of a thriller (the perfect amount) which is a super fast read and had some super fun turns I didn't expect. I would bet my bottom dollar this becomes a bestseller. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book, which is set to release on August 20, 2019!

In the not-too-distant future, a company very similar to Amazon known as Cloud, has firmly established dominance in the marketplace. In fact, they’ve grown so large that they now have live-in compounds attached to their warehouses where their employees can reside. They say this is all a part of their green initiative in an attempt to cut down on pollution due to unnecessary commuting. However, their large presence and seemingly unlimited power have far reaching effects.

Upon arrival to Cloud facilities, employees are divided up into departments and are given color-corresponding polo shirts. Blue shirts are security, tan shirts are tech, etc. The story follows new recruits, Preston and Zinnia, as they arrive for orientation. Preston, a former CEO, entrepreneur, and most recently prison guard, whose business crumbled under the mighty fist of Cloud and its head-honcho Gibson Wells, finds himself in a blue polo on the security team. Zinnia ends up a part of the redshirts, or “pickers”, and is responsible for fulfilling orders by taking items from the warehouse stacks and dropping them onto conveyor belts for shipment. However, there’s more to Zinnia than she is letting on. She’s been hired by an outside entity to try and figure out the inner workings of the facility and just how Cloud is so energy efficient.

One of the things I liked the most about The Warehouse is the way that Hart unloads information about the future. There isn’t a big info dump, but we’re made aware how much it costs to fly or rent a vehicle, the warm weather is seemingly unbearable (climate change in full swing) and the power spectrum of the economy with small business seemingly no longer able to exist. These tidbits come from casual conversations that just feel natural. It would have been easy to do all your world-building up front, but by going this route, it kept me reading in huge chunks.

Inserted at the beginning of every chapter are blog posts from Cloud founder and CEO Gibson Wells. Wells is dying of cancer, so the posts are meant to relay the history of the company and potential changes to leadership. These really helped to relay to the reader how seemingly easy it was for a company like Cloud to grow so large, so quickly. Through his addresses, Wells is portrayed as a good guy – albeit self-righteous – but the fact that it’s being posted on a Cloud website and makes reference to his own in-house Cloud News Network, you can smell the bullshit (the phrase “fake news” makes an appearance). This adds a sense of urgency to Zinnia’s quest to uncover the truth as she creeps closer and closer.

Following the footsteps of such cautionary tales as Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Hart’s story reads like a blueprint for the future. Given the way the world is trending, I can easily see a company growing to the size and scope of Cloud – and that’s terrifying. The Warehouse is destined for big things having already been sold in 20 countries with the film-rights quickly snapped up by Ron Howard. The more eyeballs on this story, the better.

Notwithstanding, I also recognize the painful irony that I read this on my Kindle.

THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart is a fantastic near-future dystopian sci-fi thriller that kept me turning pages and also makes me leery of shopping w/ that company whose name starts w/ "A" and ends w/ "mazon."

The setting of <i>The Warehouse</i> reminds me of the setup for indentured workers in <i>Ready, Player One</i>. (In the book, not the movie.) Parzival's description of the locator anklet and the monitoring camera attached to each worker's ear falls into the spooky techno-surveillance that we were warned of in <i>1984</i>. The workers at the Cloud facility in this novel are also monitored, although with smart watches that track their job performance, health, location, everything. Which makes it really hard for corporate spies to sneak in and complete a mission, but not impossible.

The book toggles back and forth between Gibson, the owner and founder of Cloud, who is blogging as he makes a final tour of facilities around the country before he hands over the reins to his successor; Paxton, whose small business was driven into bankruptcy by Cloud and now has to go to work for his rival; and Zinnia, who has ulterior motives for getting a job inside the MotherCloud facility. Readers hear Gibson's view of how his policies and innovations have "saved" America; Paxton's view as a security guard working in the facility and dealing with drug dealers, suicides, and his own feelings about Cloud's destruction of his own business; and then Zinnia's view as a worker on the floor of the shipping hub and her interactions with other workers and management.

Needless to say, there is much more going on that what corporate headquarters and all their PSAs are willing to share with the public. And just when you think you have it all figured out, there is a twist (of course), that makes it even more convoluted. When you reach the end you will be questioning how close to reality and the present day that some of these scenarios really are. (That doesn't make you paranoid.)

For fans of dystopian fiction, near-future cautionary tales, and espionage thrillers.

Very much a book that will make you uncomfortable, get you thinking about our present and our future and entertain you at the same time. This is the type of thing you are already thinking about or something new for you. Either way, prepare yourself for some vigorous conversations when discussing this book. The subject matter is throwing a not very subtle dart at the huge businesses in our world today without ever really naming names. I spent way too much time at the beginning trying to nail down the corporation as Amazon. I now think this isn't just about Amazon, it's any mega corporation, but most of us will have no problems equating Cloud (the business in this novel) with Amazon.

The novel is presented from the viewpoints of Gibson, the multi-multi-multi billionaire owner of Cloud and two new employees, Paxton (a blue shirt designating security) and Zinnia (a red shirt indicating a product picker). Lives in this book are actually reduced to the color of polo shirt you wear for your job. I was hammered throughout the novel with how helpless the Cloud employees are and how people come to be immersed in the corporate thinking so easily because they trust Cloud totally. How insidious is Cloud's hunger to control everything and everybody. Zinnia is a corporate spy on a mission from an unknown employer to infiltrate Cloud and plant a device to hack into the computer system. Her job is going to be much harder than she knew because once inside a MotherCloud every second of your day is monitored. Zinnia needs to find a way to beat the Cloud system. Paxton was desperate for employment so he managed to get hired. He didn't want to work in security after 15 years as a prison guard, but with Cloud it's either take what's offered or leave - not necessarily with any transportation provided so your likelihood of walking through the desert like conditions outside to an inhabited settlement of some kind becomes a very dicey problem. Cloud is good, Cloud is great, but just wait until you discover what's going on in the background.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for an e-Galley of this novel.

The convenience of online retail comes with its own particular costs, as well as some big secrets in Rob Hart's The Warehouse.

With the world in an extreme state with an inhospitable climate and limited job opportunities, securing a position within a Cloud facility is incredibly sought after as Cloud claims to be making the world a better place, even if Cloud contributed to the ruination of smaller businesses. Former entrepreneurial CEO turned prison guard Paxton hadn't anticipated working in Security for Cloud, but circumstances drove him to applying for and accepting this job, with the goal of it being short-term. While being transported to the live-work Cloud facility Paxton meets the intriguing Zinnia, who gives him hope that the impending future won't be so bleak. Zinnia, however, has a very different motive for working at Cloud - she's there to spy on the company and find information about how they could possibly be generating enough power to run the facility and in the process of infiltrating she uncovers some unsavory secrets. 

A fascinating imagining of a near-future potentiality where one corporation monopolizes society, the story provokes thought on the use of services and delivery providers, such as Amazon, and how it impacts local economies and the general well-being of a population. Though most of us are already easily tracked through our various smart devices, the concept that a corporation would track and regulate the movement and behaviors of people in a manner similar to Cloud with their CloudBand is utterly frightening. While there was a sense established that all is not what it seems on the surface at Cloud, the rapidity with which the horrors are unveiled seemed a little rushed as the novel drew to a close; however, the story moved swiftly and was otherwise well-developed with the various perspectives provided between Paxton, Zinnia, Cloud creator Gibson Wells, and miscellaneous updates or messages allowing for a rather comprehensive picture of the situation. 

Overall, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

The Warehouse: A Novel by [Hart, Rob]

A super-fun thriller that doubles as social commentary. Recommended.



Review copy provided by publisher.

Crown Publishing and Netgalley were kind enough to let me read this title before it publishes. Zinnia and Paxton start working for Cloud at the same time. They also eventually develop a semi-romantic interest in each other. Cloud sells all kinds of good that are delivered to their customers. Zinnia wears a red shirt there which means she picks those goods off the never-ending shelves.

Paxton, who dons a blue shirt, works in security because his previous position was at a prison. Other departments wear different colored shirts so everyone is divided by what they do. They have some very strict rules and are tracked by a watch they wear. It also opens doors that are available to them.

I did enjoy this book, but felt so much more could have been with this topic. It was also disconcerting that Cloud was patterned after Amazon. I live near Seattle and Amazon is not where employees are given everything they need so they never have to leave the campus. That’s more of a Microsoft thing.

I could easily visualizing this becoming a movie and I’d definitely go to see it.

It’s a tale of greed, of one man using humans for his own gain and maybe some retribution. I definitely recommend it.

This book will likely stick with me for a long time--I'll certainly be thinking about it every time I order something off of Amazon and wonder, "What is the real cost of receiving this item on my doorstep within a day?" "Who really paid that price?"

I thought this was a great read and can see why it was quickly optioned for film. However I fear that, as-is, this book won't make a great movie. Ultimately what's disturbing about this story is the shades of gray--how easily it can be for companies who want to do good to quietly shift into policies and operations that can be quite harmful, greedy, and ultimately evil. It's the subtlety of that shift--and how often it happens in real life--that haunts you after reading this book.

Problem is, Hollywood tends to never stick the landing of "shades of gray" villains, opting instead for classic "big bads" audiences can easily root for/against. I would hate it if they alter this story to make it more palatable for a mass audience. But I'd put money on some of the reveals at the end of the book to be taken to a more extreme end in a movie version.

NOTE FOR EDITORS: During a conversation between Gibson and Zinna at the 93% point of the book, there is an error and the conversation suddenly mis-labels Gibson as Paxton. "That...would change the world,' she said, a little spark of hope flaring in her center..." "It will change the world,' Paxton said, 'as good as we've done with green energy, there are still pockets of gas and coal.'" (Paxton is in another room during this conversation)

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was given to me by NetGalley for an honest review.

This book definitely surprised me. When I read the synopsis, I thought the company Cloud was going to be very similar to Amazon. After the news stories that broke last year, it made sense that this book would show the downsides of one company monopolizing every market. It was way better than that and delved deeper.

I enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end. I kept waiting for a twist because there are sections from the perspective of the man who created Cloud. He seemed like a good person, but then again most people are good in their own eyes. But from the other two perspectives, working for the company seemed like hell. They got less than minimum wage, were monitored at every turn, and lived in tiny apartments. So it was really interesting to see the different sides of what was happening.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I won't spoil anything, but the ending made me like it even more. I definitely plan on checking out more of Hart's books in the future, because if their anything to this caliber and this interesting, I know I will like them.

This book is creepy because the premise is very real. Technology is a great thing, but most people have abused it and now it's found a way to abuse US. This novel demonstrates that theory.

I enjoyed Gibson's chapters the best. He has a conversational, reflective, philosophical Southern-drawl tone, like he's writing to you as a friend or close confidante. Zinnia is a strong, smart, savvy female with bad-ass martial arts moves. Paxton has integrity, morals, ethics, and is a generally good guy. They are all likeable characters.

The details of the Cloud company, the jobs, the sprawling campus, and the warehouse are vivid and impressive. The Cloud is one employer that you don't want to mess with! I often can't visualize science fiction books because they leave you up to your imagination (mine is admittedly flat), but this book is extremely descriptive. The science fiction is very realistic and the writing made me feel like I was there.

This book is about secrets, choices, dying, data, tracking, sexual harassment, succession, love, family, hierarchy, survival, and friendship. It's an easy read and a quick pace. It rates high on the un-put-downable scale and it has a cloak-and-dagger vibe. It makes you wonder if tech giants like Amazon really tracks us this closely, because they can. The ending is good, and it has some unexpected twists that were very satisfying. I loved it.

The Warehouse is going to be a instant classic! It's a prophetic warning about what happens when we give big business and charismatic CEOs so much control that they end up replacing our own governments. 

Hart examines how far people are willing to go in the name of getting the best prices. In the book, workers are so desperate for jobs that they are willing to give up ALL their liberties for stability, security, and a paycheck to work and live at a distribution facility. I thought the storyline was excellent, but kept getting caught up in the landscape in which it takes place. It felt real...and scary. 

Here's one of my favorite passages:

"Let me tell you something about [The Warehouse]. They are the choice we made. We gave them control. When they decided to buy up the grocery stores, we let them. When they decided to take over farming operations, we let them. When they decided to take over media outlets, and the internet providers, and the cell phones company, we let them. We were told it would mean better prices...we lived with stories about this. Brave New World and 1984 and Fight Club. We celebrated these stories while ignoring the message."

*I've included a copy of this review on Good Reads and my monthly reading newsletter that goes out to 4.2k subscribers.

Huxley (Brave New World) and Orwell (1984) are smiling, wherever they may be.

Why? Because The Warehouse, by Rob Hart, is right in their wheelhouse. It’s a dystopian novel in which a corporation named ‘Cloud’ has smothered most other businesses into oblivion. They can’t compete against Cloud’s predatory pricing, against the pressure of immediate delivery of any product, by drone, or against Cloud’s copying and undercutting of products at their earliest stages of development. Now business districts are literal wastelands, grass growing through the concrete, every store boarded up or sitting fallow, hot dust blowing through the empty streets. Employment can only be found at Cloud warehouses, where workers must labor, eat, sleep and live, 24 hours a day, continuously monitored through their ID bracelets, which offer or deny access to all resources and areas within the facility.

Within this environment, two protagonists pursue their beleaguered lives - a dispassionate, single-minded corporate spy, Zinnia, whose mission is to determine the energy source that powers the unbelievably large complexes of cinder block warehouses, dorms, and services, each requiring much more power than the grid could possibly supply, and a compassionate and outgoing everyman figure, Paxton, whose small independent business was extinguished when Cloud charged too much to sell his product, cut out all other distribution avenues, then stole the product while it was in the patent stage. The systemic venality of Cloud, from its total disregard of the welfare of its employees to its constant surveillance and control over them, is the force that each tries to overcome before its relentlessness grinds them down into puddles of drool on the warehouses’ linoleum floors.

Zinnia has a cover job as a red-shirted ‘picker’, constantly running through the miles of aisles, picking newly purchased goods off the storage shelves and delivering them to conveyor belts while trying to meet quotas and severe time limits. The mindlessness of the job allows her to ponder how to get around the constant surveillance and control imposed by the CloudBand bracelet. Paxton is assigned a job like one he has held in the past, but hated - a position as a blue-shirted security guard. Of course, in the time-honored tradition of dystopic fiction, the protagonists only gradually learn the startling truths behind their circumstances.

The Warehouse wonderfully reflects classical science fiction alarms about the dire consequences of encroaching predatory corporations and their greedy and amoral billionaire owners. I’m sure the producers of the movie Soylent Green and Pohl and Kornbluth (The Space Merchants) are smiling at least as broadly as Huxley and Orwell.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.