book-reviews


Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

by Robin Sloan

Rating: ★★★

An underwhelming story, with a rather surreal plot mixing together an ancient publisher's secret book cult, directed at the secrets of mortality, with extremely self-consciously modern Silicon Valley tropes. I credit it with some rather bemused points for novelty, but I couldn't really tell whether the book was trying to be silly (in which case it lacked the wit to carry it off) or trying to be a serious thriller (in which case it was ridiculous).