Clay, fresh out of design
school and recently laid off from his job at the bagel shop, desperately needs
employment. Walking through the city one
day, he sees a "Help Wanted" sign on a bookstore owned by an old man named Mr.
Penumbra. In a flash, he’s hired, only
to find out that this is no ordinary indie bookstore. For one, customers are few and far between,
and the day’s grosses rarely go above the single digits. Most importantly, however, there seems to be
some sort of “secret society” related to the store, whose goal it is to break a
code. Will Clay, with the help of two
friends and a girlfriend have something to do with this codebreaking? Scooby Doo!
Where are you?
If the first paragraph
sounded a little tongue-in-cheek and juvenile, that’s what I felt reading Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
The only way the reader would ever be able to tell this is an adult
book and not a science fiction/fantasy teen novel is that it features adult
characters. Sloan received pretty good
reviews for this debut novel, possibly because readers can identify with the numerous
technology references used in the book. Google,
e-readers, the iPad and a book about Steve Jobs all make appearances, so
bibliophiles in 2013 can rejoice!
While this would probably
make a great short story, it just didn’t work for me as a novel. I found myself just wanting to "get through
it" rather than getting "lost in it", which to me is the hallmark of a
wonderful book. Sloan gets props for
book-jacket creativity, however. At
first glance, it looks like a very plain cover, but then…
