The Warehouse by Rob Hart

August 16, 2019

Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities.

But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices, and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering.

Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.

As the truth about Cloud unfolds, Zinnia must gamble everything on a desperate scheme—one that risks both their lives, even as it forces Paxton to question everything about the world he’s so carefully assembled here.

Together, they’ll learn just how far the company will go…to make the world a better place.

Set in the confines of a corporate panopticon that’s at once brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, The Warehouse is a near-future thriller about what happens when Big Brother meets Big Business–and who will pay the ultimate price.

Every year I find myself reading a handful of near-future science fiction novels, and the best of these are the ones that seem the most plausible. The Warehouse by Rob Hart falls squarely into this category. Welcome to The Cloud everybody, the one stop shop for all your needs. Cloud employees don’t just work there, they live within Cloud facilities. In a world where governments are crumbling, and the environment may be hopelessly broken, you can still be guaranteed a steady pay-check and a roof over your head. That is as long as you are prepared to work hard and follow all the rules.

Paxton has been ground down by the world. He briefly glimpsed the chance of success only to have it slip from his grasp. He has reached rock bottom and The Cloud is his only option. This is his last chance at making something of himself.

Zinnia couldn’t be more different than Paxton. Her employment at The Cloud is driven by something far more cutthroat. Zinnia is an expert in industrial espionage. She has been tasked with infiltrating The Cloud and retrieving some highly sensitive information.

The longer both protagonists are exposed to the company the more they find themselves buying into the The Cloud lifestyle. Perhaps everyone working for one omniscient uber-organisation is the way of the future. Maybe the mega-corporation deserves the benefit of the doubt. Everything in Cloud land seems so shiny and positive and full of hope. Is it possible that the CloudBurgers™ available in all the facility food outlets really are the best burgers you have ever tasted?

There are also chapters written using the voice of The Cloud’s owner Gibson Wells. Imagine Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Bill Gates merged together into a single being and you’ll be thinking along the right lines. Spinning his own line of homespun philosophy, Gibson comes across as a genuine soul. He wants to make the world a better place and reckons the best way to do that is by letting the market dictate what the people want. Of course, it’s not as simple as all that. Gibson has more than a few secrets. The Cloud isn’t nearly as wonderful as everyone has been led to believe and its owner may not be quite the benign presence he portrays.

Like many people, I have concerns regarding the intrusive nature of larger corporations and technology in our everyday lives. I swear my Alexa is paying me far more attention than is entirely necessary. I find however, that I am powerless to resist the relentless march of progress. I’ve even reached the stage where I have smart lightbulbs in my home. If I told ten-year-old me that in the future Wi-fi enabled lightbulbs would be a thing I suspect there would have been a certain amount of disbelief. Young me would probably also want to know what Wi-fi and the Internet are now that I think about it. Tech like this has become so commonplace, we’re all using it. Convenience is the new norm. Every day we become more and more accepting of companies knowing everything about us and everything we might want or think we need. Hart’s novel drills right down into these fears and is a far more insightful experience than I expected it to be. Picking apart everything from modern consumerism and the politics of the capitalist, to environmental issues and the nature of family. I’ll admit I was more than a little surprised by how much it left me to think about. I’ve always felt that the best fiction should not only entertain but inform. The Warehouse manages both tasks effortlessly.

As an aside, shortly after I completed reading the novel, I purchased a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale via Amazon. Read Rob Hart’s novel and you’ll discover just exactly how important that particular purchase, from that particular vendor, is. Honestly, there is a really good reason.

We live in a world where convenience is king, I’ll admit I find that as useful and reassuring as the next person. The only thing we need to remember though is that if we let things go too far, convenience and comfort replaces freedom and individuality. The Warehouse is a timely reminder that we should never take anything for granted. Part techno-thriller, part pitch black satire, The Warehouse is going to appeal to anyone who has ever worried about big business and the increasing trend of living in a disposable society. I always enjoy being caught up in a story and then experiencing that moment of realisation that it all sounds like it could be frighteningly real.

The Warehouse is published by Bantam Press and is available now. Highly recommended.

My music recommendation to accompany The Warehouse is the soundtrack to The Circle by Danny Elfman. I figured the music from a movie that features a social media company that is a bit more sinister than it seems to be is a perfect fit for a novel that explores similar themes.

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