The Warehouse: A Novel

Rob Hart

Aug 2019 · Sold by Ballantine Books

About this ebook

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.

“A thrilling story of corporate espionage at the highest level . . . and a powerful cautionary tale about technology, runaway capitalism, and the nightmare world we are making for ourselves.”—Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

Film rights sold to Imagine Entertainment for director Ron Howard! • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Financial Times • Real Simple • Kirkus Reviews

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.

Praise for The Warehouse

“A fun, fast-paced read [that] walks a fine line between a near-future thriller and a smart satire . . . makes you wonder if we’re already too far into a disastrous future, or if there’s still some hope for humanity.”—NPR

“I loved The Warehouse, although and because it made my blood run cold. This is what our world could be by this time next year.”—S.J. Rozan, Edgar award-winning author of Paper Son
 
“An inventive, addictive, Crichton-esque, page-turning, near-future dystopian thriller.”—Paul Tremblay, Stoker award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghostsof Lock Every Door

Ratings and reviews

Set in the near future, THE WAREHOUSE aims at provoking a reflection on the threat of a corporate Big Brother, if you will. I expected the MotherCloud facilities and the work environment to be idealised, at least at first, and show its cracks later, but the operating philosophy resembles more that of the world's most famous fast food empire than the perfect futuristic workplace. Cloud offers the jobs you take when you can't find anything else. The concept is genius, and Rob Hart creates an eerily believable and richly detailed world that reminded me of the great Philip K. Dick, with the vibrant descriptions that allow the grimness to seep through, creating a plausible near future. Alas, the flattering comparison stops at the worldbuilding. I was very excited to start THE WAREHOUSE, but it did not live up to my expectations, I'm afraid. I wish Mr. Hart had taken greater care in fleshing out the characters. Paxton seems merely a walking and talking tool to be ultimately used by Zinnia. Her persona is slightly more defined, but I found her unlikable: she is condescending and dismissive. Gibson Wells is, strangely enough, a well-rounded character, and I wonder if it's because of how the novel is structured: Paxton's and Zinnia's perspectives are written in third person, while Gibson's is in first person. Zinnis is made out to be so tough that she displays little humanity and for most of the book, Paxton is but a spineless wimp. I loved a secondary character, Miguel, who appeared very briefly, and was much more interesting than both main protagonists. I honestly didn't like either Paxton or Zinnia, and I didn't care how the story ended; that's not how it's supposed to be. The writing is solid, the story flows well, albeit extremely slowly. While I understand the set-up is capital, countless superfluous details could have been edited out, such as Pac-Man games, enumerations of the items sold in THE WAREHOUSE, at one point, a full page. We got the idea, they sell everything. I'm all for establishing a solid foundation, but at thirty percent, we were still at getting around the compound and learning what their jobs consisted of. It needed concrete action and fewer mundane details about life in the MotherCloud. A feeling of unease started to creep in from the beginning, but somewhat stalled; it left barely the tiniest whisper of tension mired in the mundane details of everyday life. Read THE WAREHOUSE as a satire, a standard cautionary tale on the dangers of corporate takeovers of the world, but don't expect a heart-pounding, spine-tingling thriller. It's more the story of Cloud as the first installment in a series. The narrative finally hits its stride around the 75% mark, and for me, it was way too late. The film rights have already been sold, there's already a built-in sequel at the end of the book, and I think that's where my problems with the story originate. I suspect the ending - or even the whole book - was modified for the movie(s), and that it explains all the filler that makes the story drag endlessly. Take chapter 5, which is entirely unnecessary and could have been written in a single paragraph, if at all, because it serves no purpose whatsoever. Chapter 5 seems to have been included to fill pages, as does Gibson's backstory, and a not-so-subtle wink to a sci-fi classic. I'm sorry to say that all the books mentioned by the author in the story do a better job of speculating on a possible totalitarian future than THE WAREHOUSE.

Decently written, but oh-so-tiresomely woke, even down to the "strong, powerful, fierce, independent stunning and brave," yet still nobly misunderstood, female character who somehow manages to beat up a herd of giant, professional male ruffians, and the entitled female who slaps a man and suffers no repercussions at all. All in all, pretty much EXACTLY what everyone else is doing, and just as stalely dull and predictable ... one big clichéd .

About the author

Rob Hart is the author of the Ash McKenna crime series and the short-story collection Take-Out. He also co-wrote Scott Free with James Patterson. He’s worked as a book publisher, a political reporter, and a communications director for a politician and was a commissioner for the city of New York. He lives on Staten Island with his wife and daughter.