But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities.īut 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. Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. And when you’re here, you’ll never want to leave. And it wasn’t that you forgot it, not really, it just became a part of the background noise of your life.Cloud isn’t just a place to work. It was easy to forget, even though people were always saying you shouldn’t forget.
The Black Friday Massacres felt like a real thing and a fake thing at the same time. You will recognize this corporation, and it’s chilling - but you will also care for Paxton and Zinnia, and that is most rewarding. This cautionary tale is dark and affecting, but Hart pulls off a nifty trick because it’s also exhilarating, suspenseful, and idealistic. A gripping story of espionage and revenge plays out against the backdrop of day-to-day life in the artificial, but all-too-real live/workspace.
The insular environment of Cloud is vividly rendered you’ll learn your way around the compound in no time. We also meet Gibson Wells, a decidedly less sympathetic character: He’s the founder of Cloud and the personification of corporate greed and self-delusion. We see the bland comforts and frightening constraints of life at Cloud, the mind-numbing repetition of the workdays, and the allure of simply giving in to the path of least resistance. Getting to know these characters and their backstories is one of the great pleasures of this unputdownable thriller.īut these two people are merely tiny cogs in a massive machine, and author Rob Hart takes us into the blackest, bleakest heart of a modern corporation. Both of them, for vastly different reasons, are desperate to walk away from the evaluation process with a shiny-new Cloud-assigned job. When the story opens, Paxton and Zinnia have both applied for positions at Cloud.
It’s not just a place to work, it’s also a place to live: climate-controlled, convenient to your shift in the mega-warehouse, and served by a train system that means there’s no need to step outside the compound. Don’t worry everything is just fine… so long as no one thinks too hard or too long about their situation. In this near-future dystopia, the climate is trashed, jobs are frighteningly scarce, and the most reliable employer is a monstrous corporation that has rebranded the notion of the company town.
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