The Warehouse

The Warehouse by Rob Hart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In the near future, the world is overheated, desolate: a brutal place to live. There are very few jobs due to the global domination of a company called Cloud, which has pushed out the last remaining “Big Box” stores (which were all decimated by something called the “Black Friday Massacre”, referenced throughout and eventually explained) in favor of a drone system that can bring anything anywhere. Cloud is like Amazon to the nth degree, where the ones lucky enough to get a job live and work in an air-conditioned dome that is a de facto city.

The job is simple, yet the demands are high. And the price for all this convenience may be higher than anyone realizes.

Into this mix: Paxton, a former prison guard whose idea for a perfect egg cooker was co-opted by Cloud. Paxton comes in having little choice but to work for the man who ruined him, which is:
Gibson: The old man who founded Cloud. He is dying and touring all the Cloud facilities while dictating his memoirs.

Then there is Zinnia, a corporate spy sent to bring down the behemoth that is Cloud…

I’ve never worked in a warehouse or a factory or in retail but at this same time, this book really spoke about the depths of unrestrained capitalism. The voice of Gibson is the voice of all the “bootstrapping” men in the world who point fingers at people less successful than them while being blind to their own privilege.

The Warehouse is fast paced, exciting, socially relevant and very tightly written, almost cinematic. I would not be surprised to one day see a movie being made from this.







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