Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

 

"...the right book exactly, at exactly the right time." 

This story is a wonderfully lighthearted, humorously told, fast-paced adventure, fit for any bookworm who has ever dreamed of having an adventure. 

Clay Jannon is deeply relatable (I too was unemployed during a recession) nerd looking for a job; he finds one at a bookstore in the shady part of town. But it's a bookstore where no one ever buys a book and the customers are asking for unusual titles with names that can't be pronounced... The terms of his employment include a promise to his boss that he will not open the books, but the best adventures start with a little rule breaking.

 

I spent the entire day reading this. No regrets. It's kind of odd to classify this as a fantasy, to call it just fiction is also a tad unfair. This is fantasy like a daydream is a fantasy; no spells are cast and no wild creatures frolic, but there is magic in the written word. Robin Sloan writes an atmosphere fit for a wizard and gives us a tech savvy book seller instead.

 

It's a little bit DaVinci Code, as the main characters race to decrypt ancient texts and discover the meaning to human life, but it's a little too "hero vs. the world" to qualify as straight up mystery. If you don't have time to read a multi-volume, thousand page epic, then this might be the book you've been waiting for.

Originally posted on GoodReads. 4 Stars