Mr. Sloan's 4-Star Story

By Dominique L.

            Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Ajax Penumbra 1969, straddles the line between adult and young adult fiction in a way that could be cringe-worthy, but instead is pulled off splendidly in a blend of technology, humor, and magic.

            The book's main character, a former employee of Jewish-bagel-making former employees of Google (now gone bankrupt), introduces himself as Clay Jannon, a humorously self-deprecating, tech-savvy artist. After applying for a job at the quirkily stocked bookstore owned by (and thus named after) Ajax Penumbra, our protagonist finds himself in a nightly position where he rents obscure, peculiar books to an even stranger cluster of customers/bookstore members. Wielding his trusty MacBook Pro (courtesy of the bagel-makers) and his programming skills, Clay stumbles upon a pattern in the book withdrawals that sends him hurtling head-first into a secret society founded with the purpose of decrypting the secret to immortality found in an ancient, almost­-undecipherable book. Together Clay, his boob-loving, self-made millionaire friend Neel, and Kat, a girl who only wears many versions of the same "Bam!" shirt, set off to unlock the so-called "key to immortality."

            The book itself moves in an awkward mixture of fast and slow pacing; the store tends to drag somewhat in the beginning then, conversely, is ended rapidly in a flurry of quick summations presented in the final chapter. Additionally, the characters and technology aspects have a tendency to feel contrived and expedient. Neel is able to solve any financial obstacles, while Kat and the Belarusian Igor tackle any program related problems. These problems are – rather unrealistically – fixed, wrapped up, and tied neatly with a bow. Even the antagonist, a clichéd cloaked bad-guy named Corvina, never seems to pose a real threat, perpetually dealing out warnings and never following through. This ultimately lends to the young adult feel the book possesses.

            If you are willing to overlook the sometimes two dimensional aspects of this story, then it is easy to enjoy this book for what it is: a nerdy bibliophile's tale of modern-day magic.

            Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 2012, 305 pages