Robin’s Review of The Cloud

The Cloud: A Speculative Fiction Novel

Blaise, a brilliant but tormented VR programmer, is trying to forget his violent past as a special forces commando by throwing himself into creating VR fantasies. He finds himself tempted by his megalomaniac boss, who offers him wealth, power, and eternal life in exchange for coding a new VR series that will addict and eliminate billions of “unproductives.”

Robin’s Review

Triggers: Violence, manipulation, psychological trauma, corporate dystopia

Skull Dread Rating: ☠️☠️ (Mostly existential dread, less body horror)

What Did I Just Walk Into?

Welcome to the twenty-second century, where everyone’s addicted to virtual reality and the government is run by a glorified cloud storage service. Think Black Mirror meets Altered Carbon with a dash of “maybe I should unplug my Wi-Fi before Skynet notices me.” Blaise, our emotionally fried ex-commando-turned-VR-coder, is stuck between two very persuasive women, a power-drunk boss who’d sell his soul for eternal bandwidth, and the growing realization that his job might literally delete humanity.

Here’s What Slapped:

Mr. Rivenbark writes like someone who has seen the apocalypse and decided to code it instead of describe it. The world-building is sharp and eerily plausible—neon corporate skylines, corrupted data temples, and digital immortality sold like a Black Friday deal. The tension hums like a server farm about to overheat. The philosophical undercurrent—control, addiction, and what’s left of the human soul when we outsource our reality—is what gives this book its staying power.

Blaise’s PTSD, guilt, and moral conflict add depth you don’t usually get in your standard tech-noir. And the prose? Beautiful. It’s literary sci-fi done right—complex without pretension, fast-paced without brain-rot.

What Could’ve Been Better:

A few adjective pileups here and there (as if the thesaurus also achieved sentience), but honestly, it fits the vibe. The sensory overload mirrors the chaos of the world he’s built. You’re supposed to feel a little dizzy.

Perfect for Readers Who Love:

Blade Runner’s rain-slicked ethics debates

The dark charm of Altered Carbon

Tech dystopias that whisper, “We’re closer to this than you think.”

Moral quandaries served with neon lights and existential crisis

Reviewed by Robin for Robin’s Review

Walk With Me Into the Dark

View Post