Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Kirsty says:
Clay Jannon loses his job when San Francisco startup NewBagel folds, and he finds a job at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore to keep afloat. The front of the bookstore is normal, but the back is full of old tomes in code, a lending library for an eccentric cast of characters. Clay becomes interested, and once he tells Googler Kat Potente about the code, she convinces him to sneak out an old logbook to see if they can find a pattern; Clay's roommate Mat, who works at Industrial Light a...nd Magic, makes a replica to replace the original. Thus begins a quest that involves these three, plus Penumbra himself, and Clay's best friend from sixth grade, Neel Shah (the two of them bonded over fantasy novels The Dragon-Song Chronicles). From San Francisco to New York, from Google to a secret underground library, from the bleeding edge of technology to early 1500s Venice, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is mystery, adventure, and fantasy all blended into one. Clarke's third law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") could serve as an epigraph.
ForeverSilent says:
I'm probably not the ideal audience (science fiction fan? tech geek? Google employee?) for this novel... although I do love my books, bookstores, and SF. That wasn't enough for me, though. It was cute and fairly entertaining, but I can't say that I actually cared what was going to happen or thought the ending lived up to the whole build-up. The audiobook narrator sounded like quite the breathlessly exuberant computer nerd (meant in an affectionate way), and I'm not sure whether the book would have read the same way, so that may have affected my response to it.MoreLess
Clay Jannon loses his job when San Francisco startup NewBagel folds, and he finds a job at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore to keep afloat. The front of the bookstore is normal, but the back is full of old tomes in code, a lending library for an eccentric cast of characters. Clay becomes interested, and once he tells Googler Kat Potente about the code, she convinces him to sneak out an old logbook to see if they can find a pattern; Clay's roommate Mat, who works at Industrial Light a...nd Magic, makes a replica to replace the original. Thus begins a quest that involves these three, plus Penumbra himself, and Clay's best friend from sixth grade, Neel Shah (the two of them bonded over fantasy novels The Dragon-Song Chronicles). From San Francisco to New York, from Google to a secret underground library, from the bleeding edge of technology to early 1500s Venice, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is mystery, adventure, and fantasy all blended into one. Clarke's third law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") could serve as an epigraph.
ForeverSilent says:
I'm probably not the ideal audience (science fiction fan? tech geek? Google employee?) for this novel... although I do love my books, bookstores, and SF. That wasn't enough for me, though. It was cute and fairly entertaining, but I can't say that I actually cared what was going to happen or thought the ending lived up to the whole build-up. The audiobook narrator sounded like quite the breathlessly exuberant computer nerd (meant in an affectionate way), and I'm not sure whether the book would have read the same way, so that may have affected my response to it.MoreLess
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Guest 9 months ago
Aaaaaaagh it is the second incomplete book that I pick, the other one is Tell the wolves I'm home, the story goes farther than this one but it also stops, both books seemed awesome, wish they were complete though :(
Guest 7 years ago
this book randomly stopped in the first chapter. good start though
Guest 7 years ago
This book randomly cuts off and wont let you finishWrite Review:
Guest
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