The world of The Warehouse is a bleak world and sadly much too close to our real world than I would like to acknowledge. People can no longer really exist outside of the world of Cloud and living in the world of Cloud is an existence not worth living. It's a life where people have learned to be happy with a sterile existence of working until they fall onto a thin futon, doing the same thing every single day, eventually just going through the motions, day in and day out. The only other choice is to be out from under the protection of Cloud, in the world that Cloud helped to destroy, a world that is barren and hot and has barely enough for survival.

We follow Paxton, a member of the security team for Cloud, and Zinnia, a picker, who processes orders for Cloud, and Gibson, the founder of Cloud. There can be no happy ending in this world, at least for a very, very long time, if ever. But there are a few who are trying to change things and I can only hope they succeed. Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart is easily one of my favorite reads of 2019. Think Big Brother meets The Circle and Amazon with a dash of corporate espionage and Soylent Green. If that description doesn't make you want to pick it up I don't know what will! Anyway, I loved all three perspective characters, but I will say that Zinnia is my favorite. I following this corporate spy as she tries to infiltrate the Cloud. We don't know a whole lot about the wider world, but I snapped up all of the hints we get about their near future world. Overall, I highly recommend this novel especially if you're looking for a timely, thought-provoking dystopian horror. I am going to have to read more from Rob Hart in the future.

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at https://www.NerdGirlLovesBooks.com.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick and easy read that I found hard to put down. One reason people have told me they don't like science fiction books is because it all seems too weird, alien, technical or far fetched. I think even those people would like this book. It's also more dystopia than science fiction, which helps.

The book really made me think about how much Amazon and Costco have infiltrated our lives. They just make things so darn easy, right? It's not hard to imagine how the companies could lull people into complacency just like in the book, and end up taking over the world.

In a not-to-distant future, the world is a mess. The climate is unforgiving, with extremely high temperatures making being outside almost impossible. Consequently, agriculture is almost non-existent and the population is dependent on Cloud, a mega company that delivers anything you could ever desire by drone. It employs more than 30 million people all over the world in their live-work facilities, where people work 12 hour days and are paid in credits they can use to purchase anything they need, from - you guessed it - Cloud. The employees live at the facility, work there, and entertain themselves there. Cloud not only provides for all consumer needs, it provides health care, banking, energy, and has taken over most of the services that state and local governments used to provide for citizens. Cloud employees can literally, live, work and die, at a Cloud facility and never leave.

The story is told from three different characters' perspective. Gibson, the founder of Cloud, is writing an autobiographical memoir blog as he takes a tour of Cloud facilities throughout the country. He's dying of cancer, and wants to visit as many locations as he can before he dies. Throughout his story, Gibson attempts to justify some of the more questionable decisions he made on his journey to world domination. At times he casts himself as the victim in the scenario, rather than the people he subjugated to his will.

Paxton, a former prison guard, thought he was living his dream when he invented a kitchen gadget that made the perfect hard boiled egg. He quit his job at the prison and started his own company. As CEO, Paxton believed he was on his way to building a successful business. But a reluctant partnership with Cloud crushed those dreams. As demand for his product increased, Cloud exerted pressure on Paxton to provide his product cheaper and cheaper. Not able to meet their demands and survive, Paxton shuttered his company and found himself in the unenviable position of taking a job with the very company that destroyed his dream. Hoping to obtain a mindless job on the warehouse floor, he is instead given a position in the security department of the facility.

Zinnia is a corporate spy tasked with infiltrating Cloud to learn its secrets. The job will provide her with enough money to flee the US and set herself up in another country, away from her questionable job. A coincidental encounter with Paxton on the bus to the Cloud facility gives her the opportunity to use him to perform her job. She just didn't count on caring whether or not she hurt him in the process.

Told in alternating chapters, the story unfolds in a brisk pace. There isn't much background given about the characters, other than a few hints here and there. While normally this would annoy me, I think it works in this book because the whole point of Cloud taking over your life is that it takes away your desire to ask too many questions. You are stuck with dealing with what is in front of you as it comes. The monotony in the book shows how people left with little choice can so easily learn to accept life as it is, and quell any curiosity they used to have.

As Paxton learns more about how things are done "the Cloud way", he is of two minds. Part of him wants to question how things are done and make things better. Part of him wants to blindly follow orders and not think about anything. Even as he realizes what working and living at the Cloud facility is doing to him, Paxton can't decide if he wants to accept his fate or fight it. Zinnia is used to working alone and not feeling anything. Can she focus on the job and get it over with so she can move on to her new life, or will she finally allow herself to have a bit of happiness? The ending of the book will delight some people, and annoy others I normally don't like books that end this way, but for this book, I think it's fitting.

I highly recommend you read this book, even if you think that you don't like science fiction novels.

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

The Cloud is the biggest employer in the United States, with large complexes of housing, warehouses, and areas for entertainment for the employees. Paxton applied to work and live in one MotherCloud campus when his business failed due to Cloud's cheaper pricing, and Zinnia is there as a corporate spy. Cloud's creator is sure he can make the world a better place, but at what cost?

The irony of linking this novel to Amazon at Girl Who Reads is not lost on me. Cloud tracks its employees with a CloudBand, which monitors location, biometrics, directs employees where they need to go in the facility, serves as ID and wallet, and as an entry point to various places within the MotherCloud. Deliveries are made via drones so that people don't even need to leave their homes anymore. Cloud is a conglomerate that has taken over multiple small businesses, the FAA, has its own information network and blogging platforms, and has driven some small towns to become ghost towns. Every employee is rated on a five-star metric, with bonuses and Cut Day dependent on those ratings. Employees have to hustle constantly throughout their shifts and scramble for even the smallest scraps of recognition in a system guaranteed to grind them down.

Sound familiar? It should, and that's the point.

Perspective is everything, and we have perspectives not only of the employees but of the creator of Cloud himself via blog posts scattered throughout the novel. He presents himself as someone who values hard work, who is striving to do good in the world, that just wants to see everyone with a job that pays well, a place to live, and the ability to have leisure time and the day to day things that make life feel livable. Beneath this glittering surface is the reality for the workers that make it happen. While there are supposed to be safety measures and protections, those are ignored because they impede productivity quotas. Harassment and drug use is overlooked if quotas are met and it will mean paperwork and incident reports aren't filled out. Humanity is ground down in situations like this, and it's brilliantly shown in sections that reflect the banal day to day activities that Paxton and Zinnia go through.

While there are some unanswered questions left at the end regarding the characters' future, that isn't the point of this novel. Like all good speculative fiction, it's meant to make you think and question the status quo. Is this the future we want to see? It's not that far off from our present, so that's a question we should all ponder.

This is not a book that I would have purchased, but I received an ARC and am so glad that I did! This book was enjoyable and shows what our world would be like if small businesses disappeared and everything was handled by cloud based businesses.

It's so hard to add anything more to the rave reviews for The Warehouse by Rob Hart. The book's changing points of view are clearly delineated and each uniquely interesting.

Gibson Wells is essentially the Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos of the book. Is he the antagonist or a victim whose story provides background history? It's hard to say. Gibson's childhood ambition is actually sweet in that way kids who start successful lawn mowing businesses or lemonade stands are. He starts running errands for the neighborhood adults who don't have the time to stop at the grocery store. He begins employing bigger kids who can lift more weight and that's what defined Gibson as a meglomaniacal entrepreneur. He truly believes everyone is capable of the same kind of soul-destroying, back-breaking work regardless of their education, ethnicity, or disabilities. He, like plenty of conservatives today, thinks everyone should be working -- but only if it's for their companies with their unrealistic workloads, terrible health insurance, and control through their digital currency rather U.S. currency.

The MotherClouds are monstrous cities where people never "need" to leave unless they are cut for not living up to their employee rating system. But you can't simply walk into a MotherCloud city and fill out an application. Nor can someone live there without working there. It's a mall with apartments, urgent care, bars, and the warehouse operations of the biggest company in the world. Due to the desperation and lack of work anywhere else, people will go to extremes to get through the first stages hoping for Cloud employment. But if you didn't do well at Cloud, don't even bother applying anywhere else because are they own those places too.

"Everything was polished concrete and glass, the feel of the color blue, and Zinnia had a sense of every surface being violent."

Author Rob Hart does an exceptional job in describing the moving conveyor belts and the absurd warehouse shelving systems which sometimes require employees on the floor (the pickers in red polo shirts) to harness themselves to the shelves and manually climb up Ninja Warrior style. Only the minute it takes for tethering a cable to the shelving unit is "precious time" that slows a picker down so even the trainers say it's not worth taking the crucial step for safety. There are two bathroom breaks during the workday and the pickers could be anywhere, even a 10-20 minute walk from the nearest bathroom.

Speaking of amenities like bathrooms, those living quarters people have to rent in order to be a Cloud employee don't have bathrooms. It's dormitory style with men's, women's, and gender neutral facilities. Naturally a perv in middle management has figured out how to corner women alone and trap them by placing "out of order" signs on the bathroom doors. Coming from the mind of a male author, I wasn't surprised this happened, but I was annoyed that the main threat to the female protagonist is men.

That female protagonist goes by the name Zinnia, but she's a corporate spy who changes her name with each job she takes. She's a Latina woman who knows she has to put up with all the worst of the worst in order to get her real job done. Through her scenes, it's evident she's always thinking a few steps ahead of everyone else in the room just in case she needs a backup plan. Espionage is about impossible as you can think when it comes to a place like a MotherCloud facility which requires all people to wear tracking devices that operate as everything for them. Those watches swipe open doors, tap into their currency account to pay for things, monitors their health, can answer questions, or issue commands. Supposedly Gibson Wells isn't fond of camera surveillance but he hardly needs it when those watches can tell management when you went to the bathroom.

Paxton is the male protagonist we're supposed to feel sorry for. He's a former prison guard who hated that job and then gets placed in Cloud security. He's as down on his luck as everyone else who considers employment with Cloud. Broke, single, childless, and desperate. Paxton follows the new rules of male protagonists. He wants to hook up with Zinnia but respects her boundaries -- things the original James Bond types would not have done. And as much as he says he hates the power dynamic of law enforcement, when something goes against the rules, he takes the time to consider whether or not to do anything about it.

Another thing that Hart does with ease is let readers know that there are disasters outside the walls of the MotherCloud. He mentions plastic a lot. Plastic bottle. Plastic wrappers. Plastic mattress. Yet the MotherCloud facilities proclaim to be ever-so high on their pedestal of environmentally conscious and being the greenest organization. Gibson Wells is responsible for detrimental laws like the Freedom from Harassment in Construction Act (people aren't allowed to protest non-union construction) and the Red Tape Elimination Act where large corporations could skip any paperwork like environmental impact studies since it would impede job creation. There's even the American Worker Housing Act and the Paperless Currency Act allowing the Cloud organization to pay less than minimum wage. Gibson Wells even privatized the FAA to make his drone deliveries easier for the company. 

Readers are no doubt asking, why would anyone root for a man like Gibson Wells? There's a subject eluded to from the beginning called the Black Friday Massacres. 

Rating: 5 stars

If you ever wondered, "how did we get here?" when you see Amazon and Google running the world, just read through The Warehouse in a weekend and you'll see. It started innocently enough. It started as a solution to problems. It started as the answer to people's prayers, until it became the evil people wish they could conquer.

Part corporate espionage, part "IS THIS NON-FICTION/IS THIS OUR OVERLORDS OF AMAZON?" - The Warehouse could be seen as a cautionary tale about how our world change and is changing.

Paxton works at Cloud - a huge tech company that takes up most of the American economy. He's also moved into the company housing/workspace. Any and everything can be purchased via Cloud. Cloud is putting small businesses out of business.....sound familiar?

You kind of already know what you are getting into with this book. Just watch Black Mirror - same effect. Still, Rob Hart writes a terrifying looks at the way our world is slowly turning.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I didn’t think I would like this book. Honestly, The Warehouse was a recommendation based on a book I had read previously (nothing alike, by the way) and, even though it didn’t sound like something I would normally read, I threw caution to the wind and decided to give it a shot…and then put it off for as long as possible. Corporate espionage – not really my thing. Yes, I know that sounds terrible but I have a point and it’s a good one. Trust me. Keep reading.

I dreaded reading this. I was one hundred percent certain that I was going to hate it and fully prepared myself to eye-roll my way through. After putting it off for as long as I could, I opened the book…and… COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN!!! After all the hell I was giving myself for grabbing a book I knew I wouldn’t enjoy, here I was staying up late trying to keep my eyes open just a little longer because I couldn’t read it fast enough! Imagine my surprise.

What did I enjoy about this book? A simple question that has a simple answer: Practically everything! Honestly, I don’t really have any complaints. The plot was unique and also terrifyingly possible in the best Blake Crouch kind of way. I immediately connected with the characters, their relationships and their parts in this weird and scary world. Paxton is a complete puppy and I want to keep him. I found the pacing was on point and at no time was I bored or confused. There was a bit of monotony throughout this book but that was done by design and done well. My only disappointment was the ending – I was hoping for something a bit…more but even that wasn’t badly done so I can forgive.

If I loved it, why talk down so much at the beginning? Well, I wanted to make a point. As readers, we tend to stick to our comfort zones and there’s nothing wrong with that. Life is short – read the books that you know you’ll enjoy BUT by only reading within our happy little bubble there are so many hidden gems, like The Warehouse, that we miss out on. I’m not saying pick up every book that doesn’t interest you because it just might be a new favorite but step out of the bubble once in a while…you never know what you might find.

The near-future plausibility of Rob Hart’s latest book is terrifying in its realness and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who enjoy reading about the “what could happen” in the future. It hits home in a hard way. All I can say is that if and when Hart’s vision of the world comes to pass….stay away from the Cloud Burgers!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown for an ARC of this book.

I feel so disappointed by this - there's a great premise here and only so-so execution. This reminded me a lot of Dave Eggers' The Circle, which similarly worked with a dystopian "actually, [tech thing] is bad" premise to similarly underwhelming results, IMO. "Near-future society where Amazon has taken over everything" is a great place to play in, and this does some great work in playing up the soul-crushing monotony. Then it makes the mistake of name-dropping a bunch of better dystopian worlds in its final third- Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World, even The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas that only made me think about how much I wanted to read those instead of finish this. The villain of the book is never quite as sinister as they need to be, and the ending was unresolved in a way that wasn't satisfying.

This felt like the novelization of a film (and this has already been optioned by Ron Howard, so soon it _will_ be a film), and I'd rather read the book that movie was based on.

Rating: 4 stars

This latest release by Rob Hart imagines a dystopian future where climate change has radically changed the world, and an all-encompassing corporate giant has radically changed society. In "The Warehouse", most of the world’s trade is handled by a mega company named Cloud. Cloud has also taken over government functions, agricultural functions, just about any product, service or oversight you can think of is now administered by Cloud. Mom and Pop farms and stores have been driven out of business.

The story is told from three perspectives. First there is Gibson Wells. He is the founder of Cloud and he’s dying of cancer. We hear from him mainly via blog posts about his future, and his past. We learn what drove him to start Cloud, and what continues to drive him to ensure its success. Then we hear from Zinnia and Paxton. They meet on the day that they are hired to work at a Mega Cloud facility in an unnamed location. Zinnia is a ‘red shirt’, or order picker. Paxton wears a blue shirt, and works for Security. We learn about their history and their Cloud experiences in their alternating voices throughout the book.

Is Cloud as benevolent as it seems on the surface? Each push to make an employee to work harder, and use fewer resources seems to be rooted in Wells’ patriarchal view that basically hard work is good for the soul. But how far can a person be pushed, watched, and controlled, and are the motives actually as benevolent as they seem? A group of disrupters is attempting to form a Union. As you might expect this is something that Security is tasked with stopping. Zinnia has a hidden agenda, and despite her better judgment finds herself attracted to Paxton.

This book works on many levels. It’s a great dystopian novel. While I was reading this book a special came on CNN about the far reach of Amazon, which Cloud is clearly based on, and whether or not in the long run it will be good for society. I only watched the intro of the program because I didn’t want it to influence my reading and reviewing experience. It did make me ponder though. The book has a touch or romance. Not the lovey-dovey stuff, but romance based on finding camaraderie and comfort that we all needs as humans. The book is also a bit of a morality play. Will the characters ultimately do the right thing? What is the right thing? Will Cloud be taken in a new direction? Who wins?

I’m still sorting out my feeling about the ending. At first I was frustrated with it, but now I applaud author's skill in the final scenes. I don’t want to say more and spoil the story. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up soon. I think this is obviously great for Sci-Fi and Dystopian readers. But that is not my go-to genre and I really enjoyed the book too. I like that it was fast-paced, talked about problems that we all could be facing in the near-future, and made me think about the choices I might make if I switched places with any of the characters.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Crown Publishing; and the author, Rob Hart; for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Warehouse is set in what likely is the not so distant future. One company, Cloud, founded by Gibson Wells, is the answer to a world where climate change and inhospitable conditions, make it the retailer of choice(though it encompasses so much more than just retail). Actually, for most people, it is the only way to safely shop and isn't the world wonderful when drones will deliver all your needs and wants right to your door.
Getting a job in 'The Warehouse' isn' easy, as more people are applying than there are positions to fill. It's a dream come true for those lucky enough to get hired, and those who don't make the cut will try again and again. After all, not only are you employed, but housing is included, and the commute to work.....well, what commute, you live where you work. But there is a high price to pay if you don't meet your assigned quotas, and everyone is just a 1-star review away from termination.
The story follows 2 new employees, Paxton( former CEO of his own company), and Zinnia, who has a compelling reason to work for Cloud. The POV shifts from Gibson( who is dying) to Paxton, to Zinnia, as we learn how Cloud began and the reality of working for and living at The Warehouse. Dark secrets are lurking behind the monopoly known as Cloud, and this was engaging and a thought-provoking read. I flew through this story( on my Apple Ipad with my Kindle app), and the ending did not disappoint.
Whether the author wanted to draw a parallel with the way Amazon continues to grow and dominate, I can't say, but I was certainly thinking about how they have changed the way people shop, get deliveries, watch movies, read books, and pay for the privilege of all Prime has to offer(and continue to look for new markets to conquer).
I received a DRC from Crown Publishing through NetGalley.If you enjoy dystopian fiction with a hefty dose of reality, I recommend The Warehouse.

I found the premise of this book deeply intriguing: in the near future, our environment has been devastated, and the economy is largely fueled by Cloud, a thinly-veiled Amazon-type company. Most citizens have no choice but to work for Cloud to survive, and in fact, as the book opens, we see people racing and essentially knocking each other over to try to get the available jobs. Paxton is forced to work for the Cloud when it pushes him out of business; Zinna has been hired to infiltrate Cloud for reasons that aren't clear until the end of the book. Not surprisingly, Cloud turns out to be a modern sweatshop that takes advantage of the employees' desperation.

The book presents a chilling vision of what could happen if large monolithic companies are allowed free reign, and if regulations protecting workers are weakened. I enjoyed the world building, and I enjoyed the POV switches that allowed us to get to see why the villain behind Cloud doesn't see himself as a villain at all, but as a savior. I also enjoyed the intrigue of following Zinna as she tried to infiltrate the corporation.

There were a few small things I didn't enjoy as much (the burgers, which just felt unnecessary), and one large one: there wasn't any real resolution. My guess (hope?) is that this is the first in a trilogy, because that's the only way the ending makes sense to me. If that's the case (but I can't find any indication that it is), I'd give this book 5 stars, because I'd definitely pick up the next one. However, if this is a stand-alone, I feel let down by the ending, and in light of that I'd give it 2 stars. So, I'm giving the rating the benefit of the doubt and putting up four stars here. However, it's difficult for me to recommend the book to others unless I know for sure at least one more book is coming. I really hope so!

With Amazon "Prime Day" last month, the company, and its growing influence in America, has been something to think about. The Warehouse, by Rob Hart, illustrates everyone's fears about a mega-corporation wielding unchecked power over the workforce, consumers, and society. This book is thrilling, not just due to an addictive tale of corporate espionage, but because many of the elements are already happening in real life. This book grabbed my attention and didn't let go until the exciting finish.

What I Liked:

Setting:

The story is set in America in the not so distant future. The company known as "The Cloud" (a fictionalized Amazon) rises in influence after a terrible Black Friday incident makes most people afraid to shop in brick & mortar stores.


What I enjoyed most about the set up for this book is that much of how The Cloud does business is eerily similar to how a certain company operates. But it's taken to a whole other level of control. From The Cloud's hiring practices, to how it gobbles up small companies, this book understands all the small ways that The Cloud influences society to the point where they dominate everything.


Characters:

The story follows Paxton, a down-trodden inventor who lost his company when The Cloud stole his product idea. He gets it in his head that he will work for The Cloud and then confront the company's founder, Gibson Wells. But once he starts working for The Cloud, he starts to forget why he was so angry. Working at The Cloud is easy. It's simple. He doesn't need to think for himself. He just needs to follow the rules without question.


Zennia is a new employee at The Cloud, too. But her motivation for working there is more nefarious. In a world of high-stakes business, corporate espionage can be, literally, cut-throat.


The story also shows the point of view of the company's founder, Gibson Wells. One can understand how his vision for the world could be easy to follow. He is both brilliant in his leadership and clueless about how his company operates. Or is he...?

Story:

The novel is a classic fish out of water story with Paxton and Zennia learning how this world operates. Paxton slowly makes compromises that accumulate to a point where he actually enjoys working at The Cloud. Zennia also starts to accept all the small things that make working for The Cloud so dehumanizing. It's fascinating how all these small alterations in what we are willing to accept for safety and convenience add up to a situation that is so familiar and so scary.

Oh gosh, this was one of those deeply affecting cautionary tales that you finish and need to put down and just sort of sit and recover from for a while. Set in a near-future where the trajectory of global (but especially American) capitalism has come to its merciless inevitability, the largest employer in the country is Cloud, an Amazon on steroids which has conquered the market in pretty much everything. Cloud has set up gigantic complexes called MotherClouds that are essentially cities where their employees live and work, and this story is told through the viewpoints of three people drawn to a MotherCloud for vastly differing reasons.

The first, and my favorite, is Zinnia, a corporate spy hired to find out how Cloud could possibly be fulfilling its mandate to use clean energy to power its complexes. Tho she tried to get hired as a tech person (in a work society stratified by the different colored shirts you wear,) she finds herself working as a warehouse picker, constantly running to fulfill on-line orders. The second is Paxton, the former CEO of a company that was essentially driven out of business by Cloud. Fueled by an unformed urge to stick it to Cloud while also getting back on his feet, he accepts a job in security, and is probably the most psychologically affected of the three by the events of this book. The final person is the founder of Cloud himself, Gibson, who is dying and going on a farewell tour of his corporate facilities. His viewpoint chapters are primarily in the form of folksy blog posts that serve as a chillingly seductive form of propaganda, in large part because he's not always wrong.

And that's the genius of this book, in the fact that it is riddled with the same sort of moral ambiguity that even the average person, the average <i>good</i> person, finds themselves dealing with on a day to day basis. Whether resisting the blandishments of politicians/business people who present their own self-interest as the public interest, or dealing with the fact that cheap goods inevitably mean depressed labor costs, this is a highly moral tale that hearkens back to the very stories it cites, and is fully worthy of joining their hallowed ranks. I especially admired Rob Hart's self-restraint, which lends a greater believability to this book. A lot of dystopian fiction occasionally borders on the hysterical -- a not incorrect response to the totalitarian rule their settings labor under -- but given that Mr Hart's target is late-stage capitalism hidden in the guise of benevolent paternalism, this books feels more prescient than unlikely, and that's really hard to digest.

But what to do when you don't want to give up the convenience of Amazon Prime? Default to no-rush shipping, for a start, and support legislation that allows, if not outright encourages, both unionization of labor and anti-monopolistic business practices. And it's not just one company that's being scrutinized here, despite the fact that Cloud is clearly based on Amazon (with a meta joke in the text about how much better the fictional company is than its "former" rival,) it's all capitalist labor practices as well as 21st century consumer culture. The ultimate goal of The Warehouse is to remind us readers that labor is not disposable, that these are real people who deserve respect and proper compensation for their work, that these people could be us. And it does so in a wildly entertaining, ultimately bittersweet manner.

I really hope Zinnia is okay.

I received this book from the publisher and I am greatly appreciative of them. This fact does not affect my rating at all. This book was really unique! I haven’t read anything like it before and I was in awe of it the entire time. It was so smart and it felt like every decision was planned and called back to later in the novel. The premise was what brought me into the novel and it’s premise stood strong throughout.

The novel tells the story of a monolithic Amazon-like company, Cloud, that has singlehandedly taken over the American economy. The areas outside of the “MotherClouds”(city-size warehouse compounds where people eat, sleep and work) have completely fallen apart and everyone seems to be looking for a job at Cloud. This story seems like it would make a great sci-fi thriller, complete with a blurb from Blake Crouch (one of my favorite authors), but instead of being a standard thriller it is more like a sci-fi dystopian with some suspenseful aspects. It was a little jarring to not have the thriller aspects I was looking for, but I grew to like it and understood the story for what it is, a story about what we are doing to the planet.

The story is punctuated by blog posts written by the CEO of Cloud, who discusses how he started his business and some other information about the company and his own ideas. He consistently spouts arguments that are discussed in our world and it was interesting to see those arguments reach such a jaw-dropping conclusion. It felt very plausible, while also seeming so outlandish at the same time.

The writing was really good and so atmospheric and it really accentuated the ending which leaves you with more questions than answers, which reminded me of the famous ending of the Handmaid’s Tale. The worldbuilding was also one of the strongest I have ever read. I wanted to know everything about this world and every tidbit we found out was like a like gem. It felt like a treasure hunt!

The characterization was also really good, with the two main characters feeling really natural the entire time and it was interesting to see their different perpectives on the same information or events.

The reveals in this book were quite good, but they felt very understated, which really influenced my rating. There were a few that were completely out of the blue, but they did not affect the ending at all and it just felt like they were added in order to have any of the questions be answered, even if they were never asked. It made the novel feel a little incomplete and unfulfilling.

Overall it was an interesting read that I really enjoyed and would recommend. It felt like the perfect slow-burn sci-fi that delivers a few punches to the gut before it’s done. I can’t get over one of those final reveals, it was so surprising! Pink shirts everyone! If you read this book, you’ll get it. Happy reading.

4.5 stars.

The nitty-gritty: Exciting action and relatable characters make this futuristic look at corporate greed a ton of fun from start to finish.

I got to meet Rob Hart at San Diego Comic Con, which made me even more excited to read his book. Rob put a cool stamp each attendee’s ARC and filled in their “shirt color.”  He wrote “red” in my book, although I had no idea what that meant until I started reading (“Huh? I’m not wearing a red shirt!”) Turns out, at Cloud—the fictitious megastore in Hart’s new novel, which is a terrifying hybrid mix of two of the biggest conglomerates in the world, Amazon and Walmart—each employee wears color coded polo shirts, depending on what department they work in. Once I realized the author had assigned me a shirt color, the story took on a whole new meaning, and the eerie vision of a future similar to Hart’s Cloud became a frightening possibility. The Warehouse is a giddy mixture of cautionary tale, corporate espionage, and even humorous hijinks, and I loved it!

The story is told by three different characters in alternating chapters. Paxton is a down-on-his-luck ex-prison security guard who invented a clever kitchen device called The Perfect Egg. But megastore Cloud forced him out of business, and now Paxton finds himself working for the very company he despises. Zinnia is a corporate spy who has been tasked with bringing down Cloud from the inside by uncovering their dirty secrets. She’s posing as a new employee and just wants to get in, do her job, and get out. Cloud CEO and Founder Gibson Wells has just found out he’s dying of pancreatic cancer and has a year to live. He wants to spend that year visiting as many of the “MotherClouds” as he can before he dies, and he’s started a blog to chart his progress.

When Paxton meets Zinnia, he falls for her in a big way, but Zinnia is only there for one reason and definitely doesn’t want to start anything. But when she finds out that Paxton has been assigned to the security team, she realizes she can use him to help her cause. But time is running out, and with Gibson Wells himself set to make an appearance, Zinnia must put her risky plan into action before it’s too late.

The Warehouse is a chilling look at what our future could be, but it’s told in an upbeat, humorous way, which is why it was so much fun to read. From the “live/work” model, where employees live in dormitories right on “campus,” to the mandatory watches everyone wears that not only open doors and act as debit cards, but track your every move, to the employee rating system that determines whether you keep your job or not, Cloud employees are subjected to the ultimate Big Brother lifestyle. Forced to wear color-coded shirts that tell everyone which department you work in, working at Cloud may be the last chance at job security for many people, but it’s also a prison of sorts, and I personally wouldn’t want anything to do with it. The reader is given brief glimpses into the history of Cloud, most notably something called the Black Friday Massacre, America’s “last” mass shooting, after which Gibson makes the controversial decision to stop selling firearms at all Cloud facilities. I did like the way Hart touches on so many current issues that Americans are dealing with--gun control, corporate takeovers, global warming and more--but he integrates these into a fast-paced story that’s tough to put down.

I really enjoyed the characters, especially Paxton and Zinnia. Paxton is a bit whiny in the beginning and creeped me out when he started hitting on Zinnia, even when she made it clear that she wasn’t interested. But his character really evolves during the story. He has a good reason for hating Cloud and everything it represents, but he’s still optimistic that the patent pending on his invention will eventually come through and will make up for his run-in with corporate greed. Paxton is a true anti-hero with a heart of gold, but he’s got some grit to him as well, and I ended up really liking him in the end. Zinnia is a woman of color who has had to fight tooth and nail her entire life, and now she’s about to cash in on a payday that could set her up for life, if only she can complete her assignment. She’s a kick-ass woman who can definitely take care of herself—and she has to on more than one occasion—but she also has a soft side that she tries to hide, and I loved when Paxton eventually breaks down her defenses.

I also enjoyed the chapters where Gibson is talking to the reader through his blog entries. He does a great job of putting on a sympathetic face, a man who has worked hard his whole life to build his empire, even though not everyone understands why he’s doing it. Even though he’s dying, he’s determined to go out with a smile, so it seems. But despite the fact that Gibson comes across as a sincere and caring man, I couldn’t help but be wary of him, and in fact he proves to be much more than you are led to believe.

As far as negatives, there were a couple of things that lowered my rating a bit. First, Hart does a great job of immersing the reader in the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Cloud complex, but there isn’t a lot of information about the outside world. We know that several environmental disasters (global warming, etc.) have made America a virtual desert wasteland, but there isn’t much description about this dire state of America beyond a few scenes where the characters are outside of Cloud and suffering from heat exposure. MotherClouds, as the complexes are called, are scattered throughout the country, but aside from the millions of employees who live and work there, who the heck is actually buying stuff from Cloud, and where do these people live? I didn’t care about this while I was reading, but after I finished and I started to think about the story more, I suddenly realized I had lots of unanswered questions.

I also thought the ending was a bit chaotic. A lot happens in the last twenty percent of the story, maybe too much. Although I loved the fast-paced action and fight scenes (yes, there are some pretty good ones!), I almost felt as if the author were trying to fit in every one of his ideas before the story ended, and some of the action near the end bordered on farcical. But Hart does pull off a couple of nice twists that wrap things up nicely, although the one storyline I was most curious about ended on a vague—although hopeful—note.

Overall, The Warehouse was a blast! Hart's vision of a futuristic America hits a little too close to home, but his lighthearted approach makes this one of the "can't miss" books of summer.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This new fantasy book is set in a near-future world where Black Friday massacres and extreme weather have just about wiped out in-store retail shopping. Into that gap has stepped Gibson Wells who developed a better package delivery system using drones. People can order goods online from 'The Cloud' and expect delivery virtually instantaneously from his mass distribution centers called MotherClouds.

Wells is worth $304.9 billion. Yes, he's the richest man in America and the largest employer by far. But as the book opens, he is dying from pancreatic cancer and has been told he has about one year left to live. He wants to spend that year driving around America in a motor home visiting as many of his distribution centers as he can so he can soak up the love of his happy employees. And while traveling, he's writing a blog, telling the wonderful story of his success.

The MotherClouds are like mini-cities where workers live, eat, sleep and play...and never leave the building for months at a time. People are desperate to be hired to work at the MotherCloud as most other jobs have dried up. The environment is so bad that cities have become uninhabitable ghost towns.

This story is also told from the point of view of two new employees and follows them from the initial hiring interview onward. One is a man named Paxton who was a prison guard at one point and would like to do anything else but work in security...and of course, that is exactly where he is assigned. The other is a woman named Zinnia who just happens to be a spy for the competition: she hopes to be assigned to tech where she can do the most damage but instead, she becomes a runner, one of those workers filling customer orders. Their two lives quickly become intertwined, headed for disaster.

Of course, one can see how the marketing trends of today could lead to this kind of dehumanizing mega-business, where people are used up and discarded if they can't meet the quota, where there is really no life except that provided by the employer. So often sci-fi provides a window so we can see more clearly what's to come if nothing changes. Who is Wells most like? Bezos? The Walton family? Apple? Google?

I'm sure this exciting book will make a terrific movie--it has all the required ingredients: action, intrigue, danger, villains and a touch of romance.

I received an arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Take Google and Amazon and combine them, mix in a company town situation like existed for coal miners and you get The Warehouse. I guess that is a simple way to describe a company that uses drones to everything anyone ever needs without them needing to leave the house. Perfect, right? But what about those small companies The Cloud has put out of business? How is the company able to run so clean and profitable? And, how come no one really questions the situation with receiving credits for work that you can only spend at the company store? As big business influences laws and individuals lose control, this book goes from being somewhat campy to a bit horrific as the story follows two new hires who have hidden agendas. I only had one point of contention. I felt that one of the big twists was left to fade away after being revealed. I'd like to assume Mr. Hart was making a point with it, but I would have liked there to be a little more to it. However, that did not distract from a read that had me shaking my head for the full 368 pages!

THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart is a new work of dystopian science fiction which is a LibraryReads selection for August. Set in the near future at a MotherCloud facility where employees live, eat, play and work for credits, there is some corporate espionage underway. Zinnia has been secretly recruited to find the source of the complex's power and Paxton is a prison security guard and inventor whom she meets on the first day. Much of their orientation is delivered through videos and everyone wears a shirt that reflects their job – red for pickers (order processors), blue for security, green for maintenance, white for managers and so forth. Work shifts and timing are all controlled centrally – communicated through smart watches called CloudBands which are activated with a fingerprint and track their wearer's movements, making Zinnia's task very challenging. Despite the opportunities - cool air, fresh water, a job and place to live - available through Cloud, the atmosphere is menacing; an associate of Paxton's remarks, "you'll see there's the Cloud way of doing things and the right way of doing things. Sometimes those are the same, sometimes they aren't." Gibson Wells is the industrialist who heads the company, the monopolist who has overtaken tons of small businesses (including Paxton’s), and the corporate lobbyist who has helped push through legislation like the Red Tape Elimination Act and FAA takeover. As Hart indicates in his acknowledgements, this is a thriller with a message about opportunity and about income inequality, essentially an attempt, he hopes, that "nudges us in the right direction." THE WAREHOUSE received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Watch also for the forthcoming movie from Ron Howard and Imagine Entertainment.

Link in live post:
http://libraryreads.org/august-2019-libraryreads/

**RECEIVED A FREE DIGITAL EDITION FOR REVIEW VIA NETGALLEY**

It took a few chapters to get settled into this story, but once the action begins it's a pretty engaging tale. I really liked the detail about the Cloud systems, but I did feel like something was lacking in terms of world-building. Our experience with the Cloud facility is somewhat limited. We only get to read about a few key locations. I would have liked to explore a bit more. I also felt that some context was missing. It's easy to extrapolate from the information given that things aren't great in the outside world, but I felt like I wasn't getting the full picture.

A good read. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy dystopian novels and want a quick read.