Robin Sloan

At last, the story that definitively bridges the world of Sourdough to that of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. It's all one Penumbraverse. James Bascule is adrift. College beckons-but not quite strongly enough to actually get him to campus. A trip to Europe showed him a world bigger than his Northern California upbringing-and yet, one broken heart later, Northern California is where he's returned. Back to his old bedroom, paying his bemused parents...

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web-design drone - and serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has landed him a new job working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. After just a few days on the job, Clay finds that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to...