Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

A Novel

By: Robin Sloan

Narrated by: Ari Fliakos

Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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 21st 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 listener, no matter the time of day.

©2012 Robin Sloan (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Unexpectedly transporting

I'm glad I had no idea where this book was going, and I was happy in all the places it went. I loved the reading of it, too. Great job altogether!

Fun merging of old and new

Other than an odd representation of an audiobook within an audiobook late in the book, it was really well done. The voice seemed perfect to me for the character being represented. It’s a great showing of how Google is “taking over” everything, but that staying stuck in the old book world isn’t perfect either.

a true delight for any liver of books

the main character's internal dialogue provides a bright, humorous backdrop to this tale of ancient secrets and secret societies in an age dominated by computers and technology.

A lovely suprise

This is funny, quirky, and a must for science fiction meets cult, meets technology geeks. And this 45 year old homeschooling mom adored it.

Beautiful story!

Beautifully, tightly written story that touches reality with just enough magic. The narrator was fantastic, to the point where I would listen to books based solely on the fact that he read them. And I can't wait to re-immerse myself in a Sloan world with his next book!

Great ending!

Enjoyable listen! I recommend checking out this book. interesting twist on a book club story.

Magical Book About Books

I loved this book, and now have a new favorite author. It was not the best I have ever read, but I loved it still. The narrator is amazing and really acts out the story. When he whispered something, he actually whispered which was nice. I also loved the audio recordings, that was a great touch. Overall, four stars. You will be happy you read this one.

lovely story

wonderfully written. great read, fun characters, a bit of nerd-topics thrown in but did not distract from the story for non-nerds.

Good story — different!

First the narrator was FANTASTIC. One of the best I’ve heard. Some of the technology descriptions went over my head lol but overall what a different and engaging story!

Honestly, I barely liked the characters

My biggest dislike of this book was I truly didn’t like nearly any of the characters. Penumbra was cool, but we barely get time with him. Also, the references to Google and “Googlers” and the way they all talked felt kind of cringey. It just felt like someone who hasn’t talked to young 20-somethings in years wrote about how they talk and think. The story isn’t bad, but I also was just never committed to their success, probably because I didn’t care about the characters. Good voice actor though!