Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Warehouse

Title: The Warehouse
Author: Rob Hart
Published: August 13th 2019
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Dystopic / Technothriller
Source: My thanks to the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

As Margaret Atwood once said, add enough truth to your fiction so people can’t accuse you of making it up and that is exactly what Rob Hart has done. As if Bezos, Walton, and a little Musk on the side, had a singular vision with the backing of government antiregulation. It isn’t shocking that the head of Cloud comes from Arkansas or that there are drones delivering products that have been, in a way, stolen from their rightful inventors. This is what business has turned into and billionaires are only supplying what the masses demand.

The Cloud has devised a new live-work environment since there are very few life-sustaining jobs outside of their facility and the earth is little more than a wasteland. Cloud, in its infinite wisdom, has given the public what it needs – jobs, housing, and food. What more could a desperate workforce want?

Zinnia is a corporate spy. Hired to infiltrate Cloud technology and find a way to bring it down. Paxton was the CEO of his own small business that was slowly pushed out of the market by Cloud. When that dream was over, he worked as a prison guard which gave him the right credentials to work for Cloud security and to learn their secrets. What Zinnia and Paxton didn’t expect was their two worlds colliding. Decisions will be made, minds altered, revolting revelations made, and in the end, there will be one final chance at freedom.

The plausibility is what is so terrifying. The learned helplessness. We see it coming, we know it is possible, yet we do nothing because we each want to save a few dollars, receive items nearly instantaneously, and all the while putting out of our minds what those sacrifices entail. Oh, and don’t get me started on the future of food.

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer now own the movie rights to this book. As you read, you can see it on the big screen, see the crowds arrive at the theaters and walk out chattering about how fantastical the idea is as they contemplate their new big box store purchase.

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