Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan
Rating:✯✯✯✯✯
This cover is awesome! It glows in the dark!
I found Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Book store to be both intriguing and interesting. I found the nerdy-artsy “cast” relatable:
-Clay Jannon: works at a rarely visited shop alone. (I used to work by myself at the satellite store for a dry cleaners and that felt like being in a glass front prison some days.)
-Mat Mittelbrand: creator of small worlds. (I love making miniatures!)
-Kat Potente: homeschoolerish, Googler (My sister mocks me for it, but I Google everything! If I want to know how to do something like cut wine bottles, or pick the lock on the filing cabinet at work that no one has the key for, or find a song I can only remember vague lyrics for I Google it! If someone at work asks me the best kind of wine to cook goat with, or the ingredients to chop suey, or what kind of noodles they should use for this weird recipe they found online, you guessed it, I Google it!)
☩
The theme in this book that stood out to me most was the seeking of immortality. There’s Kat who is seeking through science and technology; a secret society who is searching for it through a coded book connected to a myth; and there is Clay, who comes to the conclusion that what you leave behind can be a way of living on.
Now I have never understood the desire for earthly immortality. To me this world has offered up blood, sweat, tears, stress, heartache, and BILLS. I have no desire for an eternity of the rat race we live everyday. But I do believe in life after death. (I can’t imagine this voice in my head ever shutting up.) I believe in two options for this after-life – heaven or hell.
I, like the Unbroken Spine, believe in a “codex vitae”, but it’s not encrypted or coded, it’s simply the Bible. I believe what it says, that because of sin, we as humans are all destined for hell. But that God sent His sinless son, Jesus, to die for me, to take on my punishment for the things I’ve done, and to save me from hell and the punishment I deserve. That I will reside in heaven, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and adopted as a child of the King.
Maybe you now think I’m as loco as the Unbroken Spine, and that’s okay. In fact, I’m not unconvinced Christians are who the author based the Unbroken Spine on. Now that I’ve gone down a rabbit trail, I encourage you to read the book an tell me what you think. If you’ve already read it I would enjoy hearing your thoughts as well.
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