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Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel Hardcover – October 2, 2012
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A gleeful and exhilarating tale of global conspiracy, complex code-breaking, high-tech data visualization, young love, rollicking adventure, and the secret to eternal life―mostly set in a hole-in-the-wall San Francisco bookstore
The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco Web-design drone―and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead "checking out" impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he's embarked on a complex analysis of the customers' behavior and roped his friends into helping to figure out just what's going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore.
With irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan has crafted a literary adventure story for the twenty-first century, evoking both the fairy-tale charm of Haruki Murakami and the enthusiastic novel-of-ideas wizardry of Neal Stephenson or a young Umberto Eco, but with a unique and feisty sensibility that's rare to the world of literary fiction. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave, a modern-day cabinet of wonders ready to give a jolt of energy to every curious reader, no matter the time of day.
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication dateOctober 2, 2012
- Dimensions5.93 x 1.11 x 8.45 inches
- ISBN-100374214913
- ISBN-13978-0374214913
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012 (Debut Spotlight): Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is an old school mystery set firmly in tech-loving, modern day San Francisco. Clay Jannon (former web designer) lands a job at a bookstore with very few patrons and even fewer purchases. His curiosity leads him to the discovery of a larger conspiracy at play, one exciting enough to rope in his best friend (CEO at a startup) and love interest (works at Google). As Clay and company unravel the puzzles of Mr. Penumbra's book shop, the story turns into a sort of nerdy heist, with real-life gadgets, secret societies, and a lot of things to say about the past, present, and future of reading. Sloan originally self-published Mr. Penumbra as a short story through Kindle Direct Publishing, before expanding it to its current form with a traditional print publisher--a fitting trajectory for a fast, fun story that has so wholly and enthusiastically embraced the tension between the digital and analog books. --Kevin Nguyen
Review
“Delightful.” ―Graham Joyce, The Washington Post
“An irresistible page-turning novel.” ―Newsweek
“One of the most thoughtful and fun reading experiences you're likely to have this year . . . extremely charismatic . . . deeply funny . . . there's so much largehearted magic in this book . . . Sloan is remarkably gifted and has an obviously deep affection for both literature and technology.” ―Michael Schaub, NPR Books
“A jaunty, surprisingly old-fashioned fantasy about the places where old and new ways of accessing knowledge meet . . . [Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore] cleverly uses the technological age in the service of its fantasy . . . Sloan's ultimate answer to the mystery of what keeps people solving Penumbra's puzzle is worth turning pages to find out.” ―Tess Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] winning literary adventure . . . Sloan grounds his jigsawlike plot with Big Ideas about the quest for permanence in the digital age.” ―Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly
“Fantastic . . . I loved diving into the world that Sloan created, both the high-tech fantasyland of Google and the ancient analog society. It's packed full of geeky allusions and wonderful characters, and is a celebration of books, whether they're made of dead trees or digits.” ―Jonathan H. Liu, Wired, GeekDad
“Robin Sloan cleverly combines the antiquated world of bibliophilia with the pulsating age of digital technology, finding curiosity and joy in both. He makes bits and bytes appear beautiful . . . The rebels' journey to crack the code--grappling with an ancient cult, using secret passwords and hidden doorways--will excite anyone's inner child. But this is no fantasy yarn. Mr. Sloan tethers his story to a weird reality, striking a comical balance between eccentric and normal . . . The pages swell with Mr. Sloan's nerdy affection and youthful enthusiasm for both tangible books and new media. Clay's chatty narration maintains the pace and Mr. Sloan injects dry wit and comedic timing suited to his geeky everyman . . . A clever and whimsical tale with a big heart.” ―The Economist
“Man, is this book fun--especially for any book nerd who isn't in denial about living in the modern age. If you love physical books (the smell! The feel!) but wouldn't give up your iPhone for any reason, if you like puzzles and geeky allusions and bookish cults and quests, then this book is for you. It also glows in the dark.” ―Emily Temple, Flavorpill
“What makes Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore so impressive is Sloan's great gift for storytelling and his cast of brilliant, eccentric characters. Think of this novel as part Haruki Murakami, part Dan Brown and part Joseph Cornell: a surreal adventure, an existential detective story and a cabinet of wonders at which to marvel.” ―Carmela Ciuraru, Newsday
“Beguiling . . . The plot is as tight as nesting boxes, or whatever their digital equivalent . . . Sly and infectious.” ―Karen R. Long, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Sloan isn't just exploring new ideas, but laying the groundwork for a new genre of literature. While the influence of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson is present, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is something all its own: a technocratic adventure where every riddle and puzzle is solved with very real gadgets, a humanizing reflection on technology that evokes the tone of a fairy tale, a brisk and brainy story imbued with such confidence that it will leave you with nothing but excitement about the things to come.” ―Kevin Nguyen, Grantland
“In a time when actual books are filling up tag-sale dollar boxes, along with VHS tapes and old beepers, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore reminds us that there is an intimate, adventurous joy in the palpable papery things called novels, and in the warm little secret societies we used to call ‘bookstores.' Robin Sloan's novel is delightfully funny, provocative, deft, and even thrilling. And for reasons more than just nostalgia, I could not stop turning these actual pages.” ―John Hodgman
“The love child of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Neal Stephenson's Reamde, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a hugely enjoyable story of friendship, living, and the lure of the mysterious. It's a good-hearted, optimistic book about the meeting of modern technology and medieval mystery, a tonal road map to a positive relationship between the old world and the new. It's a book that gets it. Plus, you know: cryptographic cults, vertical bookshops, hot geeks, theft, and the pursuit of immortality. I loved it. And yes, I too would freeze my head.” ―Nick Harkaway
“Robin Sloan is a skilled architect, and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is an ingeniously designed space, full of mysteries and codes. A clever, entertaining story that also manages to be a thought-provoking meditation on progress, information and technology. Full of intelligence and humor.” ―Charles Yu
“Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a real tour de force, a beautiful fable that is given legs by the author's bravado use of the real (Google is in there, for instance, the actual campus) to sell us on a shadow world of the unreal and the speculative. Robin Sloan comes across as so bighearted, so in love with the world--the ancient world, the contemporary world--so in love with love, in love with friendship, in love with the idea that our technical abilities can serve as conduits for beauty, that the reader is swept along by his enthusiasm. It's a lot of fun--but it's also a powerful reading experience with a wonderful undeniability.” ―George Saunders, in Blip Magazine
About the Author
Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco and the Internet.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
A NovelBy Robin SloanFarrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright © 2012 Robin SloanAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780374214913
THE BOOKSTORE
HELP WANTED
LOST IN THE SHADOWS of the shelves, I almost fall off the ladder. I am exactly halfway up. The floor of the bookstore is far below me, the surface of a planet I’ve left behind. The tops of the shelves loom high above, and it’s dark up there—the books are packed in close, and they don’t let any light through. The air might be thinner, too. I think I see a bat.
I am holding on for dear life, one hand on the ladder, the other on the lip of a shelf, fingers pressed white. My eyes trace a line above my knuckles, searching the spines—and there, I spot it. The book I’m looking for.
But let me back up.
* * *
My name is Clay Jannon and those were the days when I rarely touched paper.
I’d sit at my kitchen table and start scanning help-wanted ads on my laptop, but then a browser tab would blink and I’d get distracted and follow a link to a long magazine article about genetically modified wine grapes. Too long, actually, so I’d add it to my reading list. Then I’d follow another link to a book review. I’d add the review to my reading list, too, then download the first chapter of the book—third in a series about vampire police. Then, help-wanted ads forgotten, I’d retreat to the living room, put my laptop on my belly, and read all day. I had a lot of free time.
I was unemployed, a result of the great food-chain contraction that swept through America in the early twenty-first century, leaving bankrupt burger chains and shuttered sushi empires in its wake.
The job I lost was at the corporate headquarters of NewBagel, which was based not in New York or anywhere else with a tradition of bagel-making but instead here in San Francisco. The company was very small and very new. It was founded by a pair of ex-Googlers who wrote software to design and bake the platonic bagel: smooth crunchy skin, soft doughy interior, all in a perfect circle. It was my first job out of art school, and I started as a designer, making marketing materials to explain and promote this tasty toroid: menus, coupons, diagrams, posters for store windows, and, once, an entire booth experience for a baked-goods trade show.
There was lots to do. First, one of the ex-Googlers asked me to take a crack at redesigning the company’s logo. It had been big bouncy rainbow letters inside a pale brown circle; it looked pretty MS Paint. I redesigned if using a newish typeface with sharp black serifs that I thought sort of evoked the boxes and daggers of Hebrew letters. It gave NewBagel some gravitas and it won me an award from San Francisco’s AIGA chapter. Then, when I mentioned to the other ex-Googler that I knew how to code (sort of), she put me in charge of the website. So I redesigned that, too, and then managed a small marketing budget keyed to search terms like “bagel” and “breakfast” and “topology.” I was also the voice of @NewBagel on Twitter and attracted a few hundred followers with a mix of breakfast trivia and digital coupons.
None of this represented the glorious next stage of human evolution, but I was learning things. I was moving up. But then the economy took a dip, and it turns out that in a recession, people want good old-fashioned bubbly oblong bagels, not smooth alien-spaceship bagels, not even if they’re sprinkled with precision-milled rock salt.
The ex-Googlers were accustomed to success and they would not go quietly. They quickly rebranded to become the Old Jerusalem Bagel Company and abandoned the algorithm entirely so the bagels started coming out blackened and irregular. They instructed me to make the website look old-timey, a task that burdened my soul and earned me zero AIGA awards. The marketing budget dwindled, then disappeared. There was less and less to do. I wasn’t learning anything and I wasn’t moving anywhere.
Finally, the ex-Googlers threw in the towel and moved to Costa Rica. The ovens went cold and the website went dark. There was no money for severance, but I got to keep my company-issued MacBook and the Twitter account.
So then, after less than a year of employment, I was jobless. It turned out it was more than just the food chains that had contracted. People were living in motels and tent cities. The whole economy suddenly felt like a game of musical chairs, and I was convinced I needed to grab a seat, any seat, as fast as I could.
That was a depressing scenario when I considered the competition. I had friends who were designers like me, but they had already designed world-famous websites or advanced touch-screen interfaces, not just the logo for an upstart bagel shop. I had friends who worked at Apple. My best friend, Neel, ran his own company. Another year at NewBagel and I would have been in good shape, but I hadn’t lasted long enough to build my portfolio, or even get particularly good at anything. I had an art-school thesis on Swiss typography (1957–1983) and I had a three-page website.
But I kept at it with the help-wanted ads. My standards were sliding swiftly. At first I had insisted I would only work at a company with a mission I believed in. Then I thought maybe it would be fine as long as I was learning something new. After that I decided it just couldn’t be evil. Now I was carefully delineating my personal definition of evil.
It was paper that saved me. It turned out that I could stay focused on job hunting if I got myself away from the internet, so I would print out a ream of help-wanted ads, drop my phone in a drawer, and go for a walk. I’d crumple up the ads that required too much experience and deposit them in dented green trash cans along the way, and so by the time I’d exhausted myself and hopped on a bus back home, I’d have two or three promising prospectuses folded in my back pocket, ready for follow-up.
This routine did lead me to a job, though not in the way I’d expected.
San Francisco is a good place for walks if your legs are strong. The city is a tiny square punctuated by steep hills and bounded on three sides by water, and as a result, there are surprise vistas everywhere. You’ll be walking along, minding your own business with a fistful of printouts, and suddenly the ground will fall away and you’ll see straight down to the bay, with the buildings lit up orange and pink along the way. San Francisco’s architectural style didn’t really make inroads anywhere else in the country, and even when you live here and you’re used to it, it lends the vistas a strangeness: all the tall narrow houses, the windows like eyes and teeth, the wedding-cake filigree. And looming behind it all, if you’re facing the right direction, you’ll see the rusty ghost of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I had followed one strange vista down a line of steep stairstepped sidewalks, then walked along the water, taking the very long way home. I had followed the line of old piers—carefully skirting the raucous chowder of Fisherman’s Wharf—and watched seafood restaurants fade into nautical engineering firms and then social media startups. Finally, when my stomach rumbled, signaling its readiness for lunch, I had turned back in toward the city.
Whenever I walked the streets of San Francisco, I’d watch for HELP WANTED signs in windows—which is not something you really do, right? I should probably be more suspicious of those. Legitimate employers use Craigslist.
Sure enough, the 24-hour bookstore did not have the look of a legitimate employer:
HELP WANTED
Late Shift
Specific Requirements
Good Benefits
Now: I was pretty sure “24-hour bookstore” was a euphemism for something. It was on Broadway, in a euphemistic part of town. My help-wanted hike had taken me far from home; the place next door was called Booty’s and it had a sign with neon legs that crossed and uncrossed.
I pushed the bookstore’s glass door. It made a bell tinkle brightly up above, and I stepped slowly through. I did not realize at the time what an important threshold I had just crossed.
Inside: imagine the shape and volume of a normal bookstore turned up on its side. This place was absurdly narrow and dizzyingly tall, and the shelves went all the way up—three stories of books, maybe more. I craned my neck back (why do bookstores always make you do uncomfortable things with your neck?) and the shelves faded smoothly into the shadows in a way that suggested they might just go on forever.
The shelves were packed close together, and it felt like I was standing at the border of a forest—not a friendly California forest, either, but an old Transylvanian forest, a forest full of wolves and witches and dagger-wielding bandits all waiting just beyond moonlight’s reach. There were ladders that clung to the shelves and rolled side to side. Usually those seem charming, but here, stretching up into the gloom, they were ominous. They whispered rumors of accidents in the dark.
So I stuck to the front half of the store, where bright midday light pressed in and presumably kept the wolves at bay. The wall around and above the door was glass, thick square panes set into a grid of black iron, and arched across them, in tall golden letters, it said (in reverse):
Below that, set in the hollow of the arch, there was a symbol—two hands, perfectly flat, rising out of an open book.
So who was Mr. Penumbra?
“Hello, there,” a quiet voice called from the stacks. A figure emerged—a man, tall and skinny like one of the ladders, draped in a light gray button-down and a blue cardigan. He tottered as he walked, running a long hand along the shelves for support. When he came out of the shadows, I saw that his sweater matched his eyes, which were also blue, riding low in nests of wrinkles. He was very old.
He nodded at me and gave a weak wave. “What do you seek in these shelves?”
That was a good line, and for some reason, it made me feel comfortable. I asked, “Am I speaking to Mr. Penumbra?”
“I am Penumbra”—he nodded—“and I am the custodian of this place.”
I didn’t quite realize I was going to say it until I did: “I’m looking for a job.”
Penumbra blinked once, then nodded and tottered over to the desk set beside the front door. It was a massive block of dark-whorled wood, a solid fortress on the forest’s edge. You could probably defend it for days in the event of a siege from the shelves.
“Employment.” Penumbra nodded again. He slid up onto the chair behind the desk and regarded me across its bulk. “Have you ever worked at a bookstore before?”
“Well,” I said, “when I was in school I waited tables at a seafood restaurant, and the owner sold his own cookbook.” It was called The Secret Cod and it detailed thirty-one different ways to— You get it. “That probably doesn’t count.”
“No, it does not, but no matter,” Penumbra said. “Prior experience in the book trade is of little use to you here.”
Wait—maybe this place really was all erotica. I glanced down and around, but glimpsed no bodices, ripped or otherwise. In fact, just next to me there was a stack of dusty Dashiell Hammetts on a low table. That was a good sign.
“Tell me,” Penumbra said, “about a book you love.”
I knew my answer immediately. No competition. I told him, “Mr. Penumbra, it’s not one book, but a series. It’s not the best writing and it’s probably too long and the ending is terrible, but I’ve read it three times, and I met my best friend because we were both obsessed with it back in sixth grade.” I took a breath. “I love The Dragon-Song Chronicles.”
Penumbra cocked an eyebrow, then smiled. “That is good, very good,” he said, and his smile grew, showing jostling white teeth. Then he squinted at me, and his gaze went up and down. “But can you climb a ladder?”
* * *
And that is how I find myself on this ladder, up on the third floor, minus the floor, of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. The book I’ve been sent up to retrieve is called AL-ASMARI and it’s about 150 percent of one arm-length to my left. Obviously, I need to return to the floor and scoot the ladder over. But down below, Penumbra is shouting, “Lean, my boy! Lean!”
And wow, do I ever want this job.
Copyright © 2012 by Robin Sloan
Continues...
Excerpted from Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Copyright © 2012 by Robin Sloan. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (October 2, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374214913
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374214913
- Item Weight : 14.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.93 x 1.11 x 8.45 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #703,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14,945 in Fantasy Action & Adventure
- #20,460 in Paranormal & Urban Fantasy (Books)
- #34,567 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Robin Sloan is the author of the novels Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, published by MCD in the United States, Tokyo Sogensha in Japan, and others around the world. He splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley. His next novel, Moonbound, will arrive in June 2024.
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Customers find the story entertaining, enjoyable, and whimsical. They also describe the book as interesting, clever, and fun. Readers praise the writing as lively, readable, and accessible. They describe the pacing as fast and well-paced. Customers find it a nifty novel of ideas that stretch the imagination. They appreciate the wonderful mix of the 21st century and the Middle Ages.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story entertaining, enjoyable, and whimsical. They also say the book is worth their time and the glow-in-the-dark cover is inspiration for a fun game.
"...There's humour that comes from an affectionate, almost loving, way of seeing the absurdity of the world, and from masterfully chosen, mostly..." Read more
"...of "Gone Girl" or a Richard Preston medical thriller: smart, fun, thought-provoking." Read more
"...It’s a perfect book for booklovers who lean toward the mysterious and fantastic, blurring genre lines throughout to afford readers a marvelous..." Read more
"...Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a fine, light read, and a lot of fun. It just could have been much more.... so here's hoping.... someday ;-)" Read more
Customers find the book interesting, clever, and fun. They say it ignites a sense of adventure and intrigue. Readers also mention the plot is a page-turner and the story is insightful.
"...Finally, setting. The book takes place in some wonderfully bizarre places: a tall, narrow bookstore full of mysterious volumes, an underground..." Read more
"...The novel contains both joy and melancholy, but ultimately, it is forward-looking, about how anyone can find his or her own place in the new world..." Read more
"...In that sense it was a hit, and deemed very readable and interesting...." Read more
"...pedantic? Maybe even cheesy? Kind of like the guy who tries too hard to be funny and ends up falling flat. Just doesn't quite come off right...." Read more
Customers find the writing lively, readable, and interesting. They say the prose isn't boring, and the story moves. Readers also appreciate the wonderful descriptions and the author's voice.
"...It's also beautifully written. I don't read "literary fiction". I'm a genre snob. But if this is literary fiction, then I like it...." Read more
"...The writing is lively and the plot is deliciously complicated...." Read more
"...The rest of us loved it. In that sense it was a hit, and deemed very readable and interesting...." Read more
"...Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" is a smart, literary and technological adventure story...." Read more
Customers find the pacing of the book fast and enjoyable. They say it keeps moving at the same pace throughout. Readers also mention the book is easy to get into and get involved with.
"...He's conscious of language. "Moffat's prose is fine: clear and steady, with just enough sweeping statements about destiny and dragons to keep things..." Read more
"...Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is a fine, light read, and a lot of fun. It just could have been much more.... so here's hoping.... someday ;-)" Read more
"...there was not much to discuss, and the agreement was because it is a very light and vanilla read." Read more
"...the story is engaging, the plot original, and time between its covers is well-spent." Read more
Customers find the book nifty, magical, and clever. They also say it has an air of fantasy and is full of classical allusions.
"...But if this is literary fiction, then I like it. The metaphors and turns of phrase are wonderful. "..." Read more
"...of "Gone Girl" or a Richard Preston medical thriller: smart, fun, thought-provoking." Read more
"...But it has the air of fantasy, of the mysticism inherent in books, of the magic of puzzles and those who devote their lives to solving them...." Read more
"...Also the book is funny, imaginative and like nothing I have read in a while. It has the perfect mix of mystery and humor and just a tad bit of drama...." Read more
Customers find the book interesting, wonderful, and meaningful. They appreciate the references to modern technology and say it provides a good look at today's techie culture. Readers also mention the book is refreshingly different, innovative, and a modern high-tech tale.
"...Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore is an incredible balance between "new" and "old."..." Read more
"...It felt real and authentic and knowledgeable and respectful and that was damn awesome. It was cool to see a book with expertise on so many subjects...." Read more
"..."Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" is an interesting mix of modern technology..." Read more
"...This book may not stand the test of time, but it is fresh and relevant now in this age of going paperless and where technological giants like..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book. Some mention it's lively and draws the reader in immediately. They also appreciate the excellent job of making light of serious moments. However, others say it'll become dated and irrelevant.
"...It loses a star because there was not much to discuss, and the agreement was because it is a very light and vanilla read." Read more
"...Penumbra is written in a lively style that keeps the reader interested and curious...." Read more
"...This was my biggest complaint with the book. No motivations are described aside from the grand one of "let's solve a mystery!"..." Read more
"...he gives the company through the book is simply staggering, and really distracting...." Read more
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It's also beautifully written. I don't read "literary fiction". I'm a genre snob. But if this is literary fiction, then I like it. The metaphors and turns of phrase are wonderful. "Feeding hours like dry twigs into the fire," the author writes. He's conscious of language. "Moffat's prose is fine: clear and steady, with just enough sweeping statements about destiny and dragons to keep things well inflated," he says, describing the fictional fantasy novels which play such an important role in the plot, and it could almost be a description of his own writing. He also has semicolons, and he knows how to use them.
There's humour that comes from an affectionate, almost loving, way of seeing the absurdity of the world, and from masterfully chosen, mostly technological juxtapositions. "The thinnest tendrils of dawn are creeping in from the east. People in New York are softly starting to tweet." Later, the protagonist's Googler girlfriend buys a New York Times "but couldn't figure out how to operate it".
I only spotted a single typo ("left" instead of "loft"), and that level of professionalism is vanishingly rare.
So: language, 5 stars. I wish every other book I've read recently was written more like this one.
Plot, then. The plot is beautifully woven. Not a Chekhov's gun is left unfired. There are about 20 named characters, and virtually all of them, even most of the minor ones, get to participate in the great wrap-up of the epilogue. It's missing one element of the classic happy ending, but that feels absolutely right, and it's better than a happy ending: it's a beautiful ending. It's a rich, wonderful ending. I've often been disappointed by weak endings to books I've otherwise enjoyed, but this is one of my favourite endings of any book I can think of. Five stars for plot, even if the protagonist's ultimate triumph is built on an unlikely mistake earlier in the book, and even if a couple of the events are also unlikely (like Google allowing a relatively minor project to take all their server time for three seconds).
And partway through it turns into a heist novel! I love heist novels.
Characters. I liked the main character almost immediately. He's having a somewhat difficult time, but he has perspective and wry humour about it, and he doesn't whine. He's capable of admiring and respecting other people greatly, including intelligent, strong women: "I am really into the kind of girl you can impress with a prototype," he says. His love for his eccentric, elderly mentor is an important part of what drives the plot.
The other characters are all quirky without being self-conscious about it, all (seen through the protagonist's eyes) people of skill and worth and, in general, goodwill. I loved every one of them. Five stars and at least three cheers for the characters.
Finally, setting. The book takes place in some wonderfully bizarre places: a tall, narrow bookstore full of mysterious volumes, an underground cavern of cultish scholarship, a textile museum, a storage unit for museum artifacts in the dryness of Nevada where motorized shelves move constantly in a stately dance. That last was totally unlikely. Wouldn't you want to keep valuable, rare items still? And yet it the feel of it was just right, much more so than a more realistic, static building would have been.
Even the protagonist's apartment gradually fills with his artist roommate's strange and wonderful miniature city.
You could say that the setting is the real world, but you'd be wrong. Aldus Manutius existed, but his friend Gerritszoon didn't, and Gerritszoon's font isn't on every electronic device, because it doesn't exist either. Nor, presumably, does the cult of scholars known as the Unbroken Spine. I have no idea whether Google really works the way it's described, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that it doesn't. And there's one very minor mistake that I know is a mistake: what the main character calls "middleware" is not what middleware actually is.
No, this setting isn't the real world. It's better. Apart from anything else, it has the epic fantasy novels of Moffat in it.
Five stars for the setting as well, making it a perfect 20 for this book. Oh, there are things I've quibbled about, but none of them significantly diminished my enjoyment. I'll be looking for more of Robin Sloan's books. I hope they're like this one.
It is difficult to describe the book without creating spoilers so try to imagine the labrynthine plot of "Da Vinci Code," only smart. Where Dan Brown appears to be casting nets in all directions with no real sense of discipline or purpose, Robin Sloane is neat and concise. Everything makes beautiful, elegant sense. In a nutshell, the protagonist, Clay, a late gen-X-er/early millennial finds himself in San Francisco unemployed due to the big bubble pop of the late 'aughts and wanders into a small, strange bookstore that is open 24/7. He wanders out with a job as night clerk and soon discovers "something strange is afoot at Mr. Penumbra's"--I like to think this line is an homage to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Mr. Sloane manages to tie in knowledge of design (both Modern and Renaissance), pre-pubescent fantasy novel series, the Silicon Valley tech industry and social psychology almost seamlessly.
The story is by turns slow and can't-put-it-down, which is probably by design. Most readers need a little breathing time between adrenaline rushes. The reason for the four stars instead of five is that Sloane's prose is not quite there yet--a little sophomoric? pedantic? Maybe even cheesy? Kind of like the guy who tries too hard to be funny and ends up falling flat. Just doesn't quite come off right. The epilogue reminded me of the end of a Whit Stillman movie. Almost cringe-inducingly neat. These are minor points. Still highly recommend.
Overall, a great summer read in the tradition of "Gone Girl" or a Richard Preston medical thriller: smart, fun, thought-provoking.
Top reviews from other countries
Penumbra and I grok hot metal, but I have aldo, sorry, also served at the altar of IT. I am everything and every one on this book.
This was an enjoyable quick read. I combined my kindle edition with the audio version that made me chuckle from time to time. It was witty, quirky, geeky and frankly right up my alley.
On the surface this is the story of Clay Jannon who recently lost his job as a webdesigner / marketeer and now is a sales clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore. It doesn't take Clay long to discover that there is something going on with the store its owner, its customers and its books. And since Clay works the not-so-busy nightshift there is not much left for him to do, but to get to the bottom of all of this.
When you delve deeper into the tale of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. It combines elements of fantasy, mystery, friendship and adventure as a way of looking at the modern conflict and transition between new technology (electronic) and old (print books). So if you dig epic fantasy books, are fascinated by coding and decoding stuff on the web, are fond of typography and are the least bit tech savvy ... or better yet very very tech savvy ... this Ready-Player-One-ish read has your name written all over it.
It was 3.5 out of 5 stars for me
P.S. Did you know that the yellow books on the dust jacket actually glow in the dark ?! Guess I'll be getting my hardcopy pretty soon. 😜
#RobinSloan #mrpenumbras24hourbookstore #bibliophile #Books #Reader #Booknerd #Bookstagram
Reviewed in the Netherlands on January 30, 2017
This was an enjoyable quick read. I combined my kindle edition with the audio version that made me chuckle from time to time. It was witty, quirky, geeky and frankly right up my alley.
On the surface this is the story of Clay Jannon who recently lost his job as a webdesigner / marketeer and now is a sales clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore. It doesn't take Clay long to discover that there is something going on with the store its owner, its customers and its books. And since Clay works the not-so-busy nightshift there is not much left for him to do, but to get to the bottom of all of this.
When you delve deeper into the tale of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. It combines elements of fantasy, mystery, friendship and adventure as a way of looking at the modern conflict and transition between new technology (electronic) and old (print books). So if you dig epic fantasy books, are fascinated by coding and decoding stuff on the web, are fond of typography and are the least bit tech savvy ... or better yet very very tech savvy ... this Ready-Player-One-ish read has your name written all over it.
It was 3.5 out of 5 stars for me
P.S. Did you know that the yellow books on the dust jacket actually glow in the dark ?! Guess I'll be getting my hardcopy pretty soon. 😜
#RobinSloan #mrpenumbras24hourbookstore #bibliophile #Books #Reader #Booknerd #Bookstagram