Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore
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4.4 • 32 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A charming and hilarious adventure that has it all: secret societies, unbreakable codes, underground lairs, cutting-edge technology, the googleplex...and lots of books!
Clay Jannon, twenty-six and unemployed, reads books about vampire policemen and teenage wizards. Familiar, predictable books. Books that fit neatly into a section at the bookstore. But he is about to encounter a new species of book entirely: secret, strange, and frantically sought-after.
These books will introduce him to the strangest, smartest girl he's ever met. They will lead him across the country, through the shadowed spaces where old words hide. They will set him on a quest to unlock a secret held tight since the time of Gutenberg—a secret that touches us all. But before that, these books will get him a job.
Welcome to Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.
Robin Sloan grew up near Detroit and has worked at Poynter, Current TV and Twitter in jobs that have generally had 'something to do with figuring out the future of media'. He has previously published short fiction in Kindle-only editions (Mr Penumbra started out as a 6000-word ebook). He lives in San Francisco.
textpublishing.com.au
'Like all questing heroes, Clay takes on more than he bargained for and learns more than he expected, not least about himself. His story is an old-fashioned tale likably reconceived for the digital age, with the happy message that ingenuity and friendship translate across centuries and data platforms.' Publishers Weekly
'Wonderful...flew through it in one sitting...The reader gets that deeply satisfying feeling of entering a wholly created world, and looking on in wonder as that world gets created by the author’s fearlessness and disregard for convention...It’s a lot of fun, a real tour de force.' George Saunders, Blip Magazine
'I love this book...It’s a good-hearted, optimistic book about friendship and being alive and the lure of the mysterious. It’s a book that shows you Google the way Google sees itself, and bookshops the way bookshops ought to be. It’s a tonal roadmap to a positive relationship between the old world and the new. It’s a book that gets it. Plus, you know: book cults, vertical bookshops, hot geeks, theft, and the pursuit of immortality. This book is in my emotional heartland.' Nick Harkaway
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For those who fear that the Internet/e-readers/whatever-form-of-technological-upheaval-is-coming has killed or will kill paper and ink, Sloan's debut novel will come as good news. A denizen of the tech world and self-described "media inventor" (formerly he was part of the media partnerships team at Twitter), Sloan envisions a San Francisco where piracy and paper are equally useful, and massive data-visualization processing abilities coexist with so-called "old knowledge." Really old: as in one of the first typefaces, as in alchemy and the search for immortality. Google has replaced the Medici family as the major patron of art and knowledge, and Clay Jannon, downsized graphic designer and once-and-future nerd now working the night shift for bookstore owner Mr. Penumbra, finds that mysteries and codes are everywhere, not just in the fantasy books and games he loved as a kid. With help from his friends, Clay learns the bookstore's idiosyncrasies, earns his employer's trust, and uses media new, old, and old-old to crack a variety of codes. Like all questing heroes, Clay takes on more than he bargained for and learns more than he expected, not least about himself. His story is an old-fashioned tale likably reconceived for the digital age, with the happy message that ingenuity and friendship translate across centuries and data platforms.
Customer Reviews
Mr Penumbra
This is a lovely Spring Feast of a book. Just the right amount of fact with a good helping of fantasy. Easy to read and good to immerse oneself in. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore
What a surprising little book. Sloan takes us on an exciting adventure of hope and belief. I loved the characters ability to engage on all levels with the reader, peers and his keen ability to utilise resources. It really encouraged my own personal yearning for a good adventure, a magical puzzle and teamwork. It's also nice to know that not everything is as complicated as it seems. Great reading, loved it and was so happy my book club put it on the reading list. Perhaps I am the First Reader! M xx
Charming
A terrific galloping read with the added benefit of opening up new areas of interest and enquiry.