In this dystopian thriller, Zinnia goes undercover inside the walls of Cloud, an all powerful corporation that controls the populace with the force of a fascist government, though via subtler tactics. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears, might make the perfect pawn—if she can bear to sacrifice him.
Some of the best speculative fiction comes when a writer is able to extrapolate forward in a manner that is both engaging and plausible ... That’s what Rob Hart has done with his new novel ... The Warehouse brings a keen satiric edge to its rendition of a corporate dystopia ... That's the real power in something like The Warehouse. It illustrates that greed knows no boundaries, and that even those with the best of intentions can eventually wind up making the most reprehensible of choices so long as they can talk themselves into believing that it is for some nebulous greater good. That’s the perspective we get from Gibson Wells, and it is vital to the novel’s success. The Warehouse is funny and bleak, putting forth an exaggerated but nevertheless still plausible take on the direction our world seems to be traveling. It is a sharp takedown of 21st century corporate culture that serves as something of a warning—our seemingly small individual choices can eventually have much larger consequences than we ever could have known.
...[a] whip-smart thriller ... Hart creates a world that seems as normal and plausible as your own neighborhood but, at the same time, is frightening and devoid of freedoms ... Hart has been making a name for himself with his critically acclaimed Ash McKenna series and as one of James Patterson’s co-authors. The Warehouse should be his breakout novel.
...[a] hugely engaging novel ... Hart has worked with James Patterson before and he has inherited something of Patterson’s breathless knack for narrative and suspense; it helps that he is a far better writer. There is a rich vein of social satire throughout...and also a palpable sense of anger at the injustice visited upon the underclass by their oppressors. Hart has surely read James Bloodworth’s excellent exposé Hired, and his keenly detailed descriptions of the indignities visited upon worker drones are horribly compelling. It helps, though, that in Zinnia he has an empowered and charismatic heroine, battling sundry thugs and her own conscience with the same determined sangfroid. This is a fine and gripping read, a literary blockbuster with brains. Perhaps the anticlimactic ending lets it down slightly, but until then Hart manages to stimulate both the imagination and the viscera alike.
