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A review by katykelly
Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
5.0
There just aren't enough bookshop-based conspiracy/secret code/tech-filled novels. There really aren't.
At last though, Mr Penumbra is here to make inroads into that deficit.
Have you a seen From Dusk til Dawn? It starts as a crime road-movie, then morphs suddenly into a vampire thriller. Sloan's book starts with Clay taking a job covering the night shift in he coolest sounding bookshop in he world. Strange customers come in for specific and very random tomes, borrowing and not paying.
And then it morphs... Not only into a centuries-old alchemical-style mystery, but involves a trip into the office of Google, novices in hooded toes and a high-tech scanner made from cardboard.
Kinda. Mr Penumbra is a great creation, and I really, really wish the bookshop was a real one.
Original, sparky, highly enjoyable. A real find.
At last though, Mr Penumbra is here to make inroads into that deficit.
Have you a seen From Dusk til Dawn? It starts as a crime road-movie, then morphs suddenly into a vampire thriller. Sloan's book starts with Clay taking a job covering the night shift in he coolest sounding bookshop in he world. Strange customers come in for specific and very random tomes, borrowing and not paying.
And then it morphs... Not only into a centuries-old alchemical-style mystery, but involves a trip into the office of Google, novices in hooded toes and a high-tech scanner made from cardboard.
Kinda. Mr Penumbra is a great creation, and I really, really wish the bookshop was a real one.
Original, sparky, highly enjoyable. A real find.