Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore (2012)

A quick whimsical read, well suited for a week when the news from the real world is becoming hard to take. Mr. Penumbra’s bookstore is definitely not the real world. It is part of a fantasy world constructed around the mysteries contained within books.

Our protagonist Clay wanders into the bookstore and into a series of adventures. Aided by his friends he undertakes a quest worthy (in a bibliographic kind of way) of an online video game, one where the 16th century is confronted by the 21st century with unexpected results.

Other than Tolkien and Harry Potter I haven’t read much fantasy so I don’t have much basis to assign a rating compared with other books in the same genre. But going solely on the bright, brisk, fun qualities of the book, I’m giving it 4 stars. ( )

If I were ever to write a book, this is the kind of book I would want my name attached to. Starting with the cover, which must be looked at in the dark if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a hardback copy, right through to the conclusion it pushed all the right buttons with me. Having said this however, the end was a bit of a disappointment for me, and this is the reason the book on received a 4 thumbs rating; I felt it just left me hanging there. There was no dramatic ending and far too many loose ends which I am hoping means there may be another book set in this bookstore.

The story is told from the viewpoint of, I suppose you could call him this, the main character, but there are so many characters in this book, each as equally as engaging as this man that I really hesitate to cast him in the role of the protagonist. Each of the characters provides the reader with enough back story to make them come to life on the page. They are all quirky, a little eccentric in some cases or downright arrogant but they all play a crucial part in the story line; as does the store of the title and them books themselves.

This book is a combination of mystery, adventure, philosophy and unrequited love, whilst containing lots of points and issues that would make discussion points for either a book club or dinner table conversation. We see how old and modern technology can come together and, at times cross the boundaries into each realm without the world blowing up; are given an indication at just where we might be heading in the way of technology, and why we need to preserve in their original form the old knowledge that is still around. Secret societies are always a good read, but I thought the Author did a great job at hinting that maybe the ‘great Google, which is also featured in the book, may be a modern day secret society. To find out what I mean by this, you will just have to read the book.

I powered through this book in a few hours and would highly recommend it to someone who is looking for an adult adventure novel, with more than a liberal dash of mystery and humour thrown in.

Edited on Tuesday, 12th August: Esther Bochner of Macmillan contacted me and asked if I would like to include an exerpt of the audio book. So, for all you audio book lovers here it is:
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/excerpt-from-the-audiobook-of[/embed]


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/08/11/review-mr-penumbras-24-hour-bookstore-robi...





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
( )

It was a good enough story but not really my thing. I did speed through it so it’s engaging enough but I didn’t love it. ( )

Going against the trend here but I found this just okay. I didn't mind reading it but I wouldn't particularly recommend it to anyone. There were some bits that didn't make sense even in the slightly mystical world the author created. There were some scenes that seemed to go nowhere. Many of the characters were one dimensional stereotypes. The end result of the whole thing was pretty anticlimatic, although I did expect it. It reminded me of the secret decoder scene from the Christmas Story movie. Speaking of slightly mystical, that was one of the things that just went nowhere. The face in the bookshelves was pretty silly especially since they were all reading different books and the coded books were all written after the founder died so how could they have revealed the founder's face? Especially since the books were arranged on the shelves in accordance with the layout of the physical store? I'm assuming that the other stores throughout the world were not the same height and breadth etc. And then that had nothing to do with the final solution. So too many problems for it to get a higher rating from me. ( )

Stopped after listening to ... 50 pages? ok- but a little precious for me. ( )