Ajax Penumbra 1969, Robin Sloan
Ajax Penumbra 1969, Robin Sloan
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Ajax Penumbra 1969

Author: Robin Sloan

Narrator: Ari Fliakos

Unabridged: 1 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/24/2013


Synopsis

From Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, the story of Mr. Penumbra's first trip to San Francisco—and of how he got entangled with the city's most unusual always-open enterprise…

It is August 1969. The Summer of Love is a fading memory. The streets of San Francisco pulse to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. And of jackhammers: A futuristic pyramid of a skyscraper is rising a few blocks from City Lights bookstore and an unprecedented subway tunnel is being built under the bay. Meanwhile, south of the city, orchards are quickly giving way to a brand-new industry built on silicon.
But young Ajax Penumbra has not arrived in San Francisco looking for free love or a glimpse of the technological future. He is seeking a book—the single surviving copy of the Techne Tycheon, a mysterious volume that has brought and lost great fortune for anyone who has owned it. The last record of the book locates it in the San Francisco of more than a century earlier, and on that scant bit of evidence, Penumbra's university has dispatched him west to acquire it for their library. After a few weeks of rigorous hunting, Penumbra feels no closer to his goal than when he started. But late one night, after another day of dispiriting dead ends, he stumbles across a 24-hour bookstore, and the possibilities before him expand exponentially . . .

About Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between San Francisco Bay Are and the San Joaquin Valley of California. He is the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough.

About Ari Fliakos

Ari Fliakos is an actor with experience in television, radio, film, theater, and voiceovers. His narration of Seth Patrick’s Reviver won an Audie for paranormal fiction. He has narrated Black Site and Tier One Wild by Dalton Fury, as well as Gangster Squad, The Inquisitor, and Shotgun Lovesongs. On screen, he is best-known for his roles in Law & Order, Pills, and Company K.


Reviews

Goodreads review by karen on August 09, 2020

this was fine. maybe if i had read it closer to when i read the book itself, i would have appreciated it more. it's cute, but i hadn't felt any real urgency to gain readerly access to brief origin story-episodes in the life of young penumbra, so this didn't answer any big burning questions or make m......more

Goodreads review by Jimmy on December 03, 2013

I loved Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, so when I saw this I just had to have it! It tells some of the back story behind Mr. Penumbra and how he came to end up in San Francisco. The only bad thing about it is that it's far too short! I'm ready for a full-length addition to the story of Mo and his......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on December 29, 2021

Having read 'Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore' quite some time ago, this novella acts as the back story for its main character. Given the year, the story takes place shortly after the famous SF 'Summer of Love' complete with its coffee houses, oddballs and independent bookstores. Once Ajax becomes a......more

Goodreads review by Dan on May 26, 2014

I didn't know this was a thing. I received a second copy of the wonderful Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore as part if the Nervous Breakdown's Book Club and was a little disappointed until I found this slim little volume included as part of the selection. It turns out it was also signed by the author......more

Goodreads review by Katie on September 30, 2020

It's funny how we decide what's important to us. I had resigned myself to the idea that maybe it would be okay if I don't meet my personal goal of reading 5 owned books each month (two physical, two ebook, plus one more of either category). Only to get about halfway through my work day and decide NO......more