If it weren't for the perfectly rendered last paragraph, Sloan's closing pages could have been a disaster, badly marring an otherwise fine novel.Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is its epilogue, which ties up the book's loose ends far too neatly. Amid the insights ('We all come to life and gather allies and build empires and die, all in a single moment') and inspired observations ('This is the kind of store that makes you want to be a teenage wizard') are occasional groaners ('San Francisco is a good place for walks if your legs are strong') and descriptions too clever by half (a simple bagel becomes a 'tasty toroid'). So it's not surprising that his book isn't flawless. Sloan is new to the fiction game he's spent his career as a 'media inventor' working for companies like Current TV and Twitter.

He's a deeply funny writer: When the bookstore owner asks Clay if he owns a Kindle, 't feels like it's the principal asking me if I have weed in my backpack.' And when Clay builds a 3-D computer model of his new workplace, complete with simulated shadows and precise coordinates, he notes: 'If this sounds impressive to you, you're over thirty.' (Disclosure: It does, and I am.)

It's a convoluted plot that relies a little too heavily on convenient coincidences, but Sloan pulls it off with his extremely charismatic prose. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is his first novel. Robin Sloan is a writer and media inventor living in California. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, one of the most thoughtful and fun reading experiences you're likely to have this year. Whether your hero is Steve Jobs or Stephen Crane, we're all just in love with information and the power of the word - and that's the point Robin Sloan attempts to make in his debut novel, Mr. And there's really not that much daylight between the technology devotees who geek out about the latest operating system upgrade, and the old-school literature fans who know the name of every local bookstore cat. Of course it's a false dichotomy - there's room enough for all kinds of readers, and a great novel is a great novel, whether you're immersed in an old, yellowed paperback or the glowing screen on a smartphone. The rest of us - well, we like the way books feel and smell, OK? It might seem sentimental, but that's falling in love for you. The proponents of e-books rave about the unexplored avenues, the hypertext, the entire world of literature accessible with just one click. If you're a devoted reader, you're probably already sick of the back and forth between the excitable technophiles and the stubborn Luddites. It's been five years since the Amazon Kindle started one of the most enduring literary controversies of recent times: the fight between e-books and printed books. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Author Robin Sloan Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Mr.

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