Book review: 'Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan

This is a book I've had my eye on for a while (I mean books, google, secret cults, what more could you want?). It's mainstream contemporary fiction rather than science fiction, but is one geeks will enjoy. Yes you, you know who you are! Anyway here's my review which will also be going up on Goodreads soon.

Clay Jannon, formerly chief web designer at the New Bagel Company, is unemployed and looking for a job. There aren’t that many good jobs about, what with the recession and all, so when he walks past a bookshop with a job advert in the window for a night clerk he soon applies. It doesn’t take him long to realise this is one seriously weird book shop, doubling as some sort of library for a weird secret cult. Or something like that. With the help of friends including best friend from school Neal who made millions from boob simulation software, and girlfriend Kat who works at Google, he sets out to try and figure out what is going on…

This is a very fun, albeit strange book. It successfully brings together the world of old books, even older mysteries and modern technology in a way I’m not sure anyone has before. It is very up to date, and talks a lot about Google, iMacs and Kindles, OSR software and hacker communities. Computer geeks will love this book, as will book lovers. If you are a computer geek and a book lover, well you are probably already firing up Amazon to buy the book…

I enjoyed the book a lot. It was a fun book, you never quite knew what was going to happen next, and the many culture and tech references dropped in were great to see. It might have hidden mysterious and secret societies in common with The Da Vinci Code but it is not a thriller. There’s never really any great physical danger for the characters, it is much slower paced and gentler than that, and all the better for it.

I debated whether to give this book a 4 or 5 star rating. I gave it 5 in the end, it won’t be my favourite book of the year, it didn’t have characters to fall in love with, a plot that keeps you glued to the page or truly beautiful writing, but it was a lot of fun. And that’s what books should be all about.

If you are after a bit of bookspotting, well it's been a busy weekend and no opportunity to spot anything. Working from home tomorrow, then at sport's day at my daughter's school in the afternoon, so next opportunity for Bookspotting is Tuesday.

A Bit of Friday Bookspotting

After a couple of days off, I'm back again for some more bookspotting. Only one book spotted this morning. It was 'Free at Last' by Tony Benn. It spent the whole 20 minutes I was on the train on the table not being read, the woman whose book it was seemed more interested in chatting than reading. Maybe it is the sort of book she wants to be seen reading but isn't enjoying. Or maybe not.


Tony was a career politician, and served as a Labour MP for 47 years between 1950 and 2001. He was very left wing, all for the working man which was very interesting as his father was a hereditary peer. On his father's death Tony Benn was due to inherit his father's title, but this would have prevented him continuing as an MP. He fought for and successfully won the right to renounce his title. He was a great writer, diarist and public speaker (I once went to one of his courses at an economics conference in London). I've always respected Tony Benn as being one of the few conviction politicians - he would do anything as long as it was right, sticking up for his constituents.

He was a real serial political diarist, nine volumes in all spanning thousands of pages. I am sure it would be an amazing experience to read through all of the diaries,you'd learn an awful lot of history and politics as well as find out about a great man. The only problem for me is that I wouldn't want to just read one, I'd want to read them all and that's a hell of a lot of reading.

The train was slightly delayed again this afternoon, so I was hanging around the station waiting for a while. It was literally packed on the platforms, there must have been a couple of hundred people. Literally at least a hundred people must have been on their mobile phones but only one person was reading a book. It took a couple of passes for me to get a clear view. It was 'Scott's Last Expedition' by Robert Falcon Scott. Basically, these again are diaries (it was obviously a diaries day), but in this case, these were Scott's diaries of his expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He achieved this, but he wasn't the first as Norway's Roald Amundsen got there first. Scott's expedition hit misfortune, and he and his team died of cold and starvation only 11 miles from base camp. The journals were discovered with his body, several months after he died.

I then got on the train, but that was a complete blank, no reading (other than me that is - I was reading of course). It's the weekend now, so I doubt I'll spot anyone reading until next week, but I'll keep my eyes peeled!

Bookspotting Day 2

Okay so I caught a later train this morning to work, and was looking forward to hopefully spotting more books on the 9.38 train to Preston.My logic was these wouldn't be busy commuters but more leisurely travellers so there might be more books to spot. Nothing. No book in sight anywhere, in my train carriage or on the platform (and there was no one in the waiting room -I checked!). Disappointing.

I was getting a slightly later train back, in part because of the thunderstorm and torrential rain about the time I normally leave. The basement at work was flooded and the car park under a foot of water. Got to the train station to find that while all the trains were running normally, the station facilities were not. The waiting room, shop and cafe were all closed, with station staff rushing round with brooms, brushing water out of the buildings and onto the train tracks. Great, I thought, with everyone (literally) flushed outdoors there'll be more chance to spot people reading. I scanned the whole packed platform - nothing. Surely today wouldn't be a complete blank?

I had a few minutes before my train, so I wandered over to the next platform just to see. Nada. Zip. Then right at the end of the platform I saw a woman hunched over a book. Unfortunately I couldn't see what she was reading, and she really was right at the end of the platform, there was nothing beyond her and it would have looked really odd to walk past and then back. Plus my train was about to arrive.



As I walked onto my platform, I passed a guy in a baseball cap reading a big hardback book, probably a library book from the look of it (I've had a lot of those cumbersome hardbacks from the library before now) Despite giving him more scrutiny than was probably wise, I only got a couple of words 'Iron Mountain', so I quickly pulled out my phone to look it up. Sure enough I found the exact book: 'Daylight on Iron Mountain' by David Wingrove. It is the second book in the Chung Kuo science fiction series, a future history about an Earth dominated by China. The first book is 'Son of Heaven'. Interestingly, this series was first started in 1989, so although it is very fashionable and hardly prescient to write now about a future dominated by China, in the 1980s it was more of a long shot. For more information on this series, I suggest reading this Wikipedia article - there's a lot of books!


Then I got on the train and found three people reading books as I walked to my seat! Reading is clearly alive on well, on the 5.28 train to Barrow in Furness anyway! The books were:

'The Impossible Dead' by Ian Rankin - I used to read Ian Rankin's Rebus novels, until I watched a few tv adaptations and got lost between what I'd seen/read and what I hadn't. I've since lost track of what he's been writing, except he finished with Rebus and moved on. Apparently he's got a new character, Malcolm Fox, a divorcee in his 40s. According to one review he is quieter and 'warier of confrontation' than Rebus, but a great new character. Anyway, this is the second Malcolm Fox novel, the first is 'The Complaints'.

'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. A classic science fiction novel, published in 1931 that accurately predicted many technological and societal changes. Regularly in the top novels of 20th century lists.

'A Feast for Crows' by George R R Martin - Book 4 of A Song of Ice and Fire, which began with Game of Thrones. The woman with this book was obviously reading ahead of the TV series, something I've been considering.

Another good day of Bookspotting, in the end anyway!

A spot of Bookspotting...

A few years ago I had a an idea for a blog - Bookspotting. Sort of like trainspotting but less geeky (somewhat). As with so many ideas, it got shelved as there's too many ideas and too little time, but have thought about it from time to time. Well I decided this morning I'd give it a go for a bit, despite the fact that it is much harder these days. Reading is on the decline, and lots of people are reading on their Kindles or phones - nigh on impossible to spot what they are reading unless you are sat next to them and peering over their shoulder. But some of us still read real books from time to time, so I'm going to try and spot what they're reading. I have a short train journey to and from work each day, which should give me ample opportunities.

I suppose you are asking why bother? Well partly because after seeing a study that showed reading is massively on the decline, I want to see how true this is. But the main reason is because I'm interested in what other people are reading. It is all to easy to just read the same type of books by the same authors, always heading to the same spot in the bookshop. Discovering new books and authors can be great fun, but where to find them? Bookspotting introduces a randomness to book discovery, you just never know what the person opposite you on the train, or sat next to you in the dentist waiting room is reading. I'm going to try and spot books on my daily travels, find a bit about them, and share online! Should be interesting I hope. Here goes...

Spotted one! I've only just sat down on the 8.27am train, and I spot a young woman on one of the seats across the aisle from me reading 'An Autobiography: Or the Story of My Experiments with Truth' by Gandhi. Sounds heavy going and it is a thick book, but gets 4.5 stars on Amazon. Read it if you want to find out more about Gandhi's life and learn some of his wisdom.


Shortly after this I realised I must have had a stroke of beginners luck as the woman next to me whips out a book too. The book is 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver. It's about a woman whose son commits a murdering rampage at school, killing seven of his fellow pupils. Two years later and she is, understandably, still trying to come to terms with this. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction and was made into a film. There's a 3 for 2 sticker on the front of the book, and it looks new so the reader probably bought it herself from Waterstones or WH Smiths, it's good to see that some people are still supporting bricks and mortar book stores rather than buying from Amazon.

No sign of anyone else reading a book (even a Kindle) in my train carriage. There's a guy reading a magazine, and someone else marking exam papers, but the rest of the passengers (and it is a full train) are either staring out the window or are glued to some electronic device or other. Still, this is a promising start!

The train journey back started frustratingly. The train was late, so I wandered up and down the platform looking for anyone with a book, I even peered in to one of the station cafes - not a book in sight. Then I spotted a man on the platform opposite reading a book. Bingo! Alas I couldn't make out what he was reading, and then my train arrived, obscuring him from view. On the train things didn't improve much. The only person reading in the carriage (apart from me) was a guy in the bay opposite me, reading a thick, well read paperback, its spine cracked in multiple places. The book was in his lap most of the time though, and I couldn't make out what it was. I didn't want him to spot me keep glancing either (I can imagine it now: "Oi you, why're you staring at my crotch?". "Me", I'd protest, "I wasn't, honest, I just wanted to see what book you were reading." Yeah right!). When my train arrived in the station I was resigned to giving up, but a quick glance from behind as I was waiting for the doors to open revealed the title and author at the top of the pages he was reading: 'The Generals' by Simon Scarrow. The author writes historical fiction and is most known for his 'Eagle series' set in the Roman empire. The Generals is the second book in his 'Revolution' series focusing on Wellington and Napolean. The first book in the series is 'Young Bloods'.

I thought that would be it for the day, but then after getting off the train I walked past a woman sat reading on the platform. This one was all too easy to spot: it was 'The Chimp Paradox' by Dr Steve Peters, subtitled The Mind Management Programme to help you achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness'. Quite obviously a self-help book, it does what it says on the tin. I've seen this book around before, I think it is quite popular and acclaimed. The 569 reviews on Amazon seem to think so anyway.

Anyway, that's it for today. More soon hopefully.

SF & Fantasy on Kindle - Cheap Deals (April 2014)

I just spotted a couple of real SF & Fantasy bargains on the UK Kindle store, so thought I'd hunt down as many bargains as I can find that're available at the moment. Some of these will be Amazon's monthly deals, so presumably will only be around for another couple of days. Other deals are because the publisher (or author) decide to promote one or more of their books. You'll often found a book gets really reduced just before the next book by the author comes out. Anyway, here goes.

'Anathem' by Neal Stephenson - £0.99. 1000 pages of Neal Stephenson has got to be a good deal!

'Among Others' by Jo Walton - £0.99. This was the winner of the 2012 Hugo Award & the 2011 Nebula Award. It's about a teenage girl who's a big science fiction fan, who gets caught up in ancient magic... Also available for 99p by Joe Walton is 'Farthing' - Book One of the Small Change Trilogy.

'The Dreaming Void' by Peter F Hamilton - £1.19. First book in his Void Trilogy, and at over 800 pages a real bargain. It helps if you've read the Commonwealth books first (Pandora's Star & Judas Unchained), but it is not essential by any means.

'Blue Remembered Earth' by Alastair Reynolds - £1.99. First book in his Poseidon's Children series, but works well as a standalone too.

'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi - £1.19. Debut novel for John Scalzi. Good, if simple military SF. Several of Scalzi's other books are cheap too.

If you know of any other good deals, let me know in the comments.

Castle TV Series - really cool crime drama

I'm not usually big on long running TV crime series, but was stuck for something to watch the other day (waiting for our weekly fix of Game of Thrones and Nashville), and so decided to try out Castle. Interesting but slightly cheesy scenario - in the first episode there's a string of copycat killings, with the modus operandi the same as those in crime novels by bestselling author Richard Castle. The detective on the case, Kate Beckett, brings Castle in to help her. They solve the crime, and the higher up powers that be in the police force decide that Castle is useful (and good for PR), so they team up on a regular basis - much to Castle's delight and Detective Beckett's dismay.

On the face of it, the storyline each episode is nothing earth shattering. What makes this series so good is the characters, Castle & Beckett and the interplay between them. Castle in particular is a great character, a witty, charming lovable rogue. Detective Beckett makes an excellent foil to his charm and there's something of a love hate relationship. A will they, won't they thread runs through the series too.

If that wasn't enough, there's a couple of other interesting things about Castle. Castle plays a bestselling crime novelist, and periodically has poker nights with actual real life bestselling crime writers including Michael Connelly and James Patterson. These scenes only last a minute or two but are slightly more than cameos, with the writers  discussing Castle's latest case.

In episode 1, Castle has just killed off his main character and during season 1 creates a new character for a series of novels. The main character is a female detective - Nikki Heat - and is based on Castle's crime writing partner Kate Beckett. This work in progress is mentioned regularly throughout series 1, but - and here's the kicker - if you go on Amazon there is a series of novels by 'Richard Castle' starring Nikki Heat. Now Castle is a fictional character so obviously he couldn't have written the books, but no one knows who is writing them. The only clue we have is that it is someone who has appeared on the show, and Michael Connelly has confirmed it isn't him. So there's a bit of added mystery to enjoy!

There are 10 episodes in season one, I'm on the last of them now, but so far there are 6 seasons and counting, all the rest of them with 20+ episodes. So lots more to enjoy!

Game of Thrones Season 4 - Thoughts so far

I have been neglecting my blog of late, despite having lots to blog about so am going to try to rectify that over the next couple of weeks. Some board gaming posts coming up, but first I wanted to share my thoughts on Game of Thrones Series 4. Major spoilers coming up for the first three episodes of season 4 (episode 3 aired in US on Sunday 20th April, UK Monday 21st April).

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT  

"Switch to red alert."

"Are you sure sir, it does mean changing the bulb?"

Sorry, little off-topic quote there, not from Game of Thrones. You probably have to be in your 30s to get that old science fiction reference though!

Anyway, back to Game of Thrones.

Firstly, the first two episodes were a bit so so I thought. After the drama of the last season, I felt it started quite slow but maybe that was just me. Plus I'm watching episode by episode now rather than having a full season's boxset to consume in one go, so only getting bitesize chunks at a time which makes it a bit different. The ending of episode two really shook things up a lot with Joffrey dying and a whole whodunnit thing going on. Though if you've read the books you'll know of course. Unless they change things.

Episode Three had a lot going on, with bits of rather a lot of storylines. The most interesting of which (if you don't count Danaerys marching on yet another city, always a fun watch particularly as she's far and away the hottest female character in the series) is events in King's Landing, with a new King soon to be crowned, Tyrion standing trial for poisoning Joffrey (which he blatantly didn't do) and a rather unsettling encounter between Cersei and Jaime Lannister which looked a lot like rape. This is causing a lot of debate, not because it appeared to be rape, but because in the books it isn't rape and the context is very different. Plus it seems completely at odds with Jaime's redemption character arc. 

Anyway, on the subject of a new King, I can't quite remember what happened to Gendry, Robert Baratheon's bastard son, but I'm sure he's still around somewhere. Could he be putting in an appearance at some point? Of course I'm not sure who would support him, maybe Margaery Tyrell could marry him and they could kick out the Lannisters? Wishful thinking, I couldn't see it happening, but you can dream...

My biggest problem, after the Red Wedding, is I just don't know who to root for, certainly who to root for that can actually do anything about the Lannisters... Other than Danaerys that is, but she's across the Ocean and not looking like she'll be coming to Westeros anytime soon. 

Oh well, that's it for this week. As compelling viewing as ever, roll on the next episode.