[A] rambunctious, thoroughly entertaining heist novel ... Daddy issues go hand in glove with the surveillance state, and they give welcome ballast to Cloudthief’s buddy comedy.
With the narrator’s increasing recklessness and deep musings on loneliness and family, multiplying mysteries surrounding Virginia, arresting descriptions of the sanctums of tech, caustic humor, and droll suspense, Rich has ingeniously crafted a seductive bull’s-eye thriller of psychological exactitude and scathing societal critique.
Moving from self-storage facilities to data centers to prisons, he investigates the archiving of objects, information, and people no longer needed. Crisp dialog between Tim and Ces lightens the mood of a serious novel.
A sharp, smart meditation on humanity’s bent toward eco-suicide wrapped inside a clever, propulsive heist novel ... Genuine intellectual heft and fast-paced, nimbly plotted action can coexist, after all. Top-notch.
Poignant if scattershot ... Rich exhibits a dry comedic touch and a sharp instinct for the zany, but he ushers the proceedings to a limp finale. Still, this is a witty reflection on living in a world of vanishing privacy.
