Review: The Warehouse by Rob Hart

The Warehouse by Rob Hart

Published: August 20, 2019 by Crown

Buy this book at: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Rating:

Synopsis: Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place to live. And when you’re here, you’ll never want to leave.

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.

Review: This book was a mixed bag. I listened to the audiobook and it was an enjoyable listen, but the ending got a bit too unbelievable for me. The narrators of the audiobook were great, I really liked both of them.

Cloud is obviously based on Amazon. The world has gone to waste with global warming, gun violence and increasing influence in government by corporations. Like any good dystopian fiction it takes real life challenges and extrapolates them into a worst case scenario. Most of the world is unemployed and surviving by the skin of their teeth, but for around 30 million people Cloud is a haven. They work and live on a climate control property. They have their own currency system and police force. All you have to do is show up for your assigned job (chosen for you by some algorithm) and achieve high ratings. If you get rated a one-star employee then you are terminated on cut day and asked to leave. This was an interesting world that is obviously extrapolating the steps that Amazon is taking in our world. Though I did have to wonder, if the entire world is in ruins, who is buying all the stuff that employs 30 million people?

The two main characters were pretty good. I liked Zinnia a lot more than Paxton though. At least Zinnia was very clear in who she is. She is a spy. She is willing to use people to achieve her goal because ultimately that’s the only thing that matters to her. I was never very clear on Paxton’s goals. We are told that he used to be the CEO of a small company that was forced to go out of business by Cloud, forcing him to work for the beast that killed his dream. But then later we find out that he didn’t even have a patent yet for the thing his company made, so it couldn’t have been a very long standing dream. Then he vacillates between hating Cloud, then being pro-Cloud, then hating Cloud again throughout the book. It was kind of confusing because the things that made him switch sides seemed arbitrary.

The plot was interesting and made sure to keep a good flow of things happening, otherwise it would have been too repetitive to be enjoyable. It was fairly predictable but the ending really threw me. It seemed like an attempt to make things so ludicrous that it would convince anyone sitting on the fence about Cloud immediately take the the side of Cloud being evil. It was strange and stretched the limits of my belief.

Overall it was a solid book that I liked reading.

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Reading Progress Updates

49571865The Making of a Marquess by Lynne Connolly

Page: 86 of 215

Synopsis: The Society for Single Ladies is a crime-solving club founded by the wealthiest woman in London. Yet even Miss Angela Childers’ charming detectives are not immune to the forces of love…

Dorothea Rowland attends a country house party to investigate a long-lost heir—not to find a husband. But when the dashing American claimant discovers her prowling for clues, she is startled—and then seduced—by his provocative kiss. It’s all Dorothea can do to remember her mission. Especially when a series of accidents adds up to something far more dangerous…

Benedict only meant to silence lovely Dorothea—not find himself enamored. What’s a gentleman to do but join forces—and propose to the clever beauty? Yet as Ben and Dorothea pursue the truth about his inheritance, their faux betrothal threatens to become the real thing. Soon, Ben’s plan to return to his life in America is upended—not only by his deepening bond with his bride, but by someone who wants his fortune badly enough to jeopardize his future—even end it. And Dorothea can’t let that happen. Not for the title, but for Ben…

Thoughts: So far I am really liking this book. A society of wealthy London women who solve crimes and occasionally fall in love. Ben is charming and I understand why Dorothea is falling for him again. Ben has been hiding out in the colonies of America after a duel with his cousin for the love of a woman. He had no interest in returning to claim his title from same cousin, until he heard that his cousin was moving to have him declared dead and had plunged the estate into ruin.

 

45885120._SY475_The Warehouse by Rob Hart

Listened to: 7:07 of 13:08 hours

Synopsis: Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place to live. And when you’re here, you’ll never want to leave.

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.

Thoughts: A lot of this book has been fairly predictable. Cloud is obviously based on Amazon, and naturally they are up to nefarious things. This is my audiobook at the moment and I like the narrator a lot. The narrator who does the voice for the company’s founder is great. I have a feeling that I know where this is going but I’m having fun getting there.

Goodreads on Life Support

I am not quite sure how to start this post because I’m so upset and disappointed. Goodreads has taken the first firm step toward preferential treatment of authors and telling readers to fuck off. Let me start at the beginning.

I discovered Goodreads in June 2011. Previously I had used Shelfari for all of my book logging. Once Shelfari got taken over by Amazon I got sick and tired of having Amazon shoved down my throat 50 times per site visit. When they started requiring that you use your Amazon log in to use the site I was finished. I started looking for something new and heard people talk about this site called Goodreads. I started looking around and I was stunned at what I saw. A whole community of readers and authors who discuss books and communicate and have the freedom to do that in any way they liked. I loved that Goodreads told me that my content was MINE, and would always be mine. They told me that I could curse if I felt like it, that I could put in my review what I wanted to put and no one would censor me. I thought it was too good to be true and for 2 whole years it wasn’t.

Now Goodreads has decided to side with bullies. Bullies who have been banned from Goodreads because of their atrocious behavior, who have accused GR of promoting pedophilia and child pornography, who have issued death threats against reviewers, who are putting together a site SOLELY for the purpose of doxxing and stalking reviewers in real life.  Because GR has decided to take the sissy way out.  They have now decreed that any review, shelf, list, or group that focuses on an author or that author’s behavior will be deleted. Not only that but they decided to just mass delete BEFORE making this announcement and then running out of the office on a Friday to ignore the mass rage that was inevitably going to follow. But they seem to only be deleting things that negatively talk about the author…anything positive stays. Huh, weird double standard there.  Oh, and those authors who continue to spam, harass, and threaten reviewers?  They’ll still get a slap on the wrist and “maybe” get their account put under review. Well hello there Amazon and your authors only focus!

I used to think that Goodreads was a safe place, but if my content isn’t going to be safe there then I don’t know why I would keep putting it there. I mean, I’m spending my time and energy creating content that they use to make money when they aren’t going to respect it, protect it, and give me a safe place to say it. I think I might have to be one of those reviewers that puts the first paragraph of their review on GR with a link to this blog for the rest. I didn’t want to be THAT person because I loved GR, but I can’t trust them with my content anymore.

Maybe I’ll  open up spots for other reviewers on the blog. If anyone would be interested, use the contact page to get in touch with me. I will leave comments open on this post but please be aware of a few things. 1. If you haven’t posted on my blog before I have to approve your comment, after that you will be fine but that first comment might take awhile. 2. If your comment is personally insulting, doxxes anyone, or is in support of You Know Who it will be deleted.