THE PARADOX HOTEL

5 stars out of 5

Back when I was a teenager and Jeff Bezos, much less Amazon, wasn't even a gleam in his mother's eye, science fiction was my favorite genre. Dogeared paperbacks by Bradbury, Orwell and Heinlein were all over the house (who could afford hardbacks)? This book, coming to me in the form of a prerelease review copy - thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley - brings back much of that early interest in time wrinkles and such, but with a twist: Even though it's set in 2072, a lot is relevant to today, when Kindles and virtual wallets are taken for granted and billionaires tout cryptocurrency,  excursions into outer space and elimination of fossil fuels. In fact, climate change has taken a toll here, obliterating Florida and New Orleans, and there's talk of colonization on other planets. The latter isn't being taken too seriously, even with the prediction of an estimated two generations of life left on earth; instead, guests at the Paradox Hotel enjoy taking trips to long-ago periods using the nearby Timeport. Heck, there's even a shop in the hotel that rents costumes appropriate for the destination.

January Cole used to be a guide on these tours, making sure paying guests follow the rules and don't do anything that could alter something that happens in the future. Now, she's chief of security at the hotel, taken off the job that she loved because she's become an "Unstuck" - the term for a person for whom the present isn't always present. She can see things no one else can, and that's not a good thing; the condition will only get worse, the end stage being an vegetable-like existence until her body gives out. Her big challenge as the story opens is maintaining control over a very important conference; the hotel, owned and managed by the government, is losing money, so the plan is to sell it off. To that end, a group of four trillionaires are gathering to place bids - and not surprisingly, security is a nightmare.

But concurrently, a blizzard is rolling in so time travel bookings, flights and transportation services are shut down; nobody can go anywhere. Worse, January finds a dead man in her room - except no one else can see it, so she's pretty sure he's the victim of a murder that hasn't happened yet. She also sees someone who has died who was once very close to her, but she doesn't dare reveal that lest she be sent away never to see her again. In the midst of all this, clocks start going screwy, electricity flickers, and January's drone, Ruby, gets flustered from time to time (pun intended) for no apparent reason. Something's going very wrong, but no one can, or wants, to believe January because of her shaky mental state. She sets off to investigate, but she can't do it alone so faces still another challenge: Who can she trust when she can't even fully trust herself?

All that said, let the action begin as she fights to keep her job amid a trio of smuggled-in prehistoric critters, fighting among guests who demand only the best accommodations and unsettling visions of the past and future. As I suspected from the beginning, this is a very complex, but thoroughly entertaining, story that's action-packed but requires more than a little concentration to fully comprehend (which, IMHO, is well worth the effort). And if you're like me, strains from "Hotel California" will run through your head almost from the first page. For a big Eagles fan like me, that's not a bad thing, but for others, forewarned is forearmed. And to this very talented author, thanks for rekindling an old passion.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart (Ballantine Books, February 2022); 336 pp.

THE WAREHOUSE

5 stars out of 5

Think Amazon and Walmart on steroids: What would happen if either (or both) of these already giant companies went wild and, quite literally, took over the world's commerce?

At first blush, the yin-yang is easy to envision; virtually all small business would be wiped out and the only "secure" jobs essentially would be low-paying gruntwork (albeit with substantial benefits). On the other hand, the convenience for consumers would be unmatched. With state-of-the-industry order technology, huge distribution centers staffed by hundreds and a sky littered with delivery drones, anything people might want would be at their fingertips almost instantly. The question then becomes - and worthy of note is that it's a question that's being asked today - to what extent are those consumers willing to overlook the exploitation of other human beings in order for their own needs to be satisfied?

This entertaining yet often disturbing book gives readers some idea of what life might be like should that happen (some, of course, will argue that we're already at that point). The scene is set at the mothership of a ginormous company called Cloud, which has "campuses" all over the country complete with living quarters, health care and recreational opportunities for the thousands of employees at the facilities. During working hours, they perform jobs assigned to them by managers supposedly according to their skills; to keep them all in line, there's a rating system that, if in any way violated, would land them back in the outside world to fend for themselves (with the promise they'd never again be employed by Cloud). That outside world is dog-eat-dog - pretty much literally - and the long lines of people waiting to submit their resumes to Cloud is a testament to their desperation to escape as well as serve yet another deterrent to any employee who might consider bucking the carefully contrived system.

Enter central characters Paxton and Zinnia, both of whom applied for jobs at Cloud, each for a different, nefarious reason. I won't reveal what those reasons are, but only that neither expects to be working there after their goals have been realized. They meet for the first time briefly on the tram ride that takes them to their work and living quarters. Paxton is more interested in Zinnia than she in him, but early on, she sees an advantage in cozying up to him. Meanwhile, Gibson Wells, the creator and CEO of this monster company, is dying of cancer. Considering himself to be the savior of the free world, he starts a blog to lay out the reasons - more like justifications - behind all he's done that will culminate in the announcement of his successor. He's also announced plans to personally visit all his Cloud facilities before he succumbs, ending with the MotherCloud at which Paxton and Zinnia are employed.

Told through alternating perspectives of the three characters, readers begin to get the full story - complete with a few timely surprises that keep things really interesting and, in the process, provide some food for thought that carries over to the real world (as evidenced by the twinge of buyer's remorse I felt just after finishing the book as I pushed the "place order" button to get the items in my Amazon cart). Oh well, at least they haven't activated drone delivery in my neighborhood (yet).

Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this entertaining and thought-provoking book.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart (Crown, August 2019); 348 pp.