Book Review: The Warehouse by Rob Hart - Audiobook Edition

This book, The Warehouse by Rob Hart, was recommended to me by a coworker. She thought I would like it and she was right. As I read I wanted to take my time and savor the words while at the same time rush to the next page. There were a few moments of "predictability" but overall they were balanced by moments of surprise.

The Warehouse is set in the fictional world of the largest online shopping and delivery service: Cloud. It opens with a bang with a statement from one of the main characters, that sets the tone for the rest of his part of story. From there the author folds in layer after layer of character development, storyline and intrigue.

The story is told from the viewpoint of three main characters...

Paxton He is a former prison guard and business owner -- now employed as a security guard by the very company that put him out of business. His story unfolds from the moment-to-moment interactions and decisions he makes as he attempts to develop a career. I saw him struggling between two feelings -- having a job with which he can survive and having a job in which he can excel and be proud.

Zinnia We learn in the very beginning that she has a very different reason for wanting to work at Cloud -- corporate espionage. While it isn't the ideal position for her agenda, she is hired in to work in the warehouse to pull together the customer orders. She's done this before and is confident that once on the inside she will succeed. She will have to figure out she'll have to do and who she'll have to use.

Gibson Wells, CEO of Cloud. He's dying. He shares his story from his blog as he chronicles his remaining few months visiting the various "Mother Cloud" locations. He shares that he learned from his mistakes and is proud of his accomplishments because his mission is to use Cloud to make a better world.

But did he?

As Blake Crouch describes it, "it is a cautionary tale of the nightmare world we are making for ourselves."

As I describe it, we get what we deserve when we forgo quality and choice in the interest of convenience and low prices.

It is rare that a fictional book makes me question how I live my day to day life. I look inward at the decisions I make in the name of convenience and price. I sure do love convenience and low prices. But, do I want to be an observer and expect government and corporations to make a better world? Is it better to be a participant and see what I can do to make it a better world?

This is an expansion on my GoodReads review of The Warehouse.