Review: Like A San Francisco Earthquake Aftershock.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 11, 2013
O.K. You finishedMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Noveland you loved it or admired it or were impressed by it or just got a kick out of it. It was, in any event, so well written that you immediately checked to see if there was anything else out there by Robin Sloane. There wasAnnabel Scheme, which was well enough reviewed but not anything like "Penumbra". And then this nice short Kindle Single popped up just when you were resigned to waiting for Mr. Sloane's next novel. Oh, boy.Well, I found this short story very satisfying. Ajax Penumbra is a fine character and it is a pleasure to have him drawn from the novel's shadows and set right on center stage. This version of San Francisco is as moody, vital and strange as the later version that serves as the novel's backdrop. The writing is a bit less flashy, but its calm restraint and attention to delicate detail is welcome. If anything, it may benefit from not having to carry the burden of a novel's full scale plot, with its loose ends and sometimes strained resolutions.So, a very nice stand alone if you want to sample Mr. Sloan and a very satisfying companion to "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore". I could get to like this Kindle Single phenomenon.