"Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a Web-design drone and serendipity coupled with sheer curiosity has landed him a new job working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. And it doesn't take long for Clay to realize that the quiet, dusty book emporium is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few fanatically committed customers, but they never seem to actually buy anything, instead they simply borrow impossibly obscure volumes perched on dangerously high shelves, all according to some elaborate arrangement with the eccentric proprietor. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has plugged in his laptop, roped in his friends and embarked on a high-tech analysis of the customers' behaviour."
Rating
Review
Plot
Let's put it this way: a book for nerds written by a nerd. Without knowing much about Robin Sloan's life, you can see signs of what he knows best by reading the book. I'm not saying that a no-nerd wouldn't be able to understand the book but there's some inner jokes that make it really enjoyable for nerdy, geeky people. Hilarious jokes, by the way.
I won't be able to find the exact words to describe the plot of this novel, but it is certainly very entertaining from beggining to end. It all happens in a world we all know of —because it's basically the world we are living in right now, at this moment in time—: a world where technology surpasses the capacity of the human brain, a world were books are read on a screen, losing all the meanings of a good old binding, etc.
The twist in this story is that even though we're in 2012, a huge and strange block of the past has striken Clay Jannon and has got him involved without him noticing. And that strike awakes him from a boring, meaningless life, giving him a purpose.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore is one of those stories that we really want to be real, we want that to happen to us and we are pretty sure we would act the same way that the main character does.
There's no drama whatsoever so it won't leave you weeping for hours, it's a very full of spirit plot with moments of intrigue and suspicion as well as excitement and accomplishment.
However, there's one tiny little detail I found a bit disappointing. I say tiny because even though it's part of the whole thing, it wouldn't make a big difference if it would have been more "complete", and that is the puzzle. Without giving any spoilers, I can say the puzzle didn't make the perfect sense that I expected. I mean, is obviously no Da-Vinci-Code(ish). But still, it's alright because you can still enjoy the book regardless and I even dare to say that I prefer it like this.
Characters
I strangely find myself loving all the characters in this novel, they're all very unique and they feel very real. Also, Sloan doesn't offer really long and detailed physical descriptions but you can still picture them no problem.
The trio of Clay, Kat and Neel —or as Clay refers as to them: the rogue, the wizard and the warrior— are this kind of Harry-Ron-Hermione trio, very likeable, very smart and they complement eachother as each one of them has different talents.
What to say about Mr. Penumbra, such a lovely old man. When you start to read you know he's clearly hiding something but you know it can't be anything too mischievous, as the way he's described... He's just like a grandpa, I loved this character.
For the rest, as I said before, they're all very unique and classic at the same time. Even though there's loads of old people in this novel, you won't get confused, believe me.
Writing
The writing surprised me a lot. I'm one of those people that doubts the effect of the introduction of new technology in a good story, as the majority of classics are set before the 1950's, so at the beggining —when I realized this novel was set on the 2010s— I thought I would feel really awkward reading about mobile phones, text messages, e-mails, laptops, Google, Kindles, Macs, etc. Turns out, I was wrong.
To be honest, this a very comfortable and enjoyable book to read, it's not one of those novels that you have to pay attention to every detail or otherwise you will miss the meaning of the ending, which is good. Full of real funny jokes that us, youngsters, use on an everyday basis (apart from the nerdy ones, of course).
No comments:
Post a Comment