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Reader Reviews | |
Review
by Chrissi (300413) Rating (8/10) Review
by Chrissi Clay spends his night shifts wondering what is going on, eventually starting to put the information on who had what into a three dimensional space representing the store. Here it all gets a bit strange as this really kick starts events leading to the discovery of a clandestine society who believe that the secret to immortality is hidden in the strange books, buried in code in books dating from the advent of the printing press. This is an incredible book, drawing on references to historical and modern culture. I particularly liked the comment about how if you are impressed by what a computer does (in the book), you must be over thirty. Parallels are drawn between the world of opportunity first offered by the printed word and now the internet. Mr Sloane has gifted us with a lovely imaginative book, part detective story and part a thought provoking essay on knowledge and books. He looks at what books mean to people, from the somewhat random choices that we make as we skip through our reading history, to the emotional attachments that we make to certain genres, authors or characters.
The resulting novel is uplifting, as esoteric as Penumbra himself,
and will pull you in like an old bookshop, where the deadened
quiet of lots of bookshelves offers a world of opportunity and
may well take a whole afternoon without you realising. Time well
spent if you ask me. Review
by Nigel Clay Jannon is a victim of the economic decline. Having lost his job he gradually comes to terms with the fact his past experience is not what it could be and his high hopes are somewhat unrealistic. As the job offers are not exactly pouring in he accepts a position as the night clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. As the story unfolds it becomes clear all is not as it seems (obviously, or it would be a pretty dull book) as we are introduced to some strange characters and even stranger goings on... enough said.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is an immensely enjoyable
story that is extremely well written; as the tale unfolds it effortlessly
transfers from the page to the minds eye, all in glorious 3D Dolby
Digital, as all the best stories should. If
you love books you will love this story, if you don’t you’ll still
love it. |
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