In Robin Sloan’s new novel, Clay Jannon has stumbled upon a job working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and stumbled into some sort of crazy mystery. What follows is a literary adventure story full of technological puzzles and a good old-fashioned love for books. At the center of it all, there is a fictional trilogy called the Dragon-Song Chronicles. Clay and his best friend were obsessed with the fantasy series as kids and it comes up again now that they are adults.
But the edition of the Dragon-Song Chronicles that becomes an essential part of the plot is not a hardcover but rather, the audiobook. As such, it only seemed right that the audiobook edition of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore be particularly exceptional. And so it comes with some great extras. For one thing, there’s bonus content that Sloan wrote exclusively for the audiobook. In addition, the program features a cameo by a special voice: Sloan himself! While Ari Fliakos is the narrator of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, the author is the narrator of the Dragon Song Chronicles, the audiobook-within-the-audiobook.
Listen to an excerpt from the first chapter and let us know what you think.
Samantha Beerman is spreading the word about audiobooks. Check out the array of free audiobook excerpts she provides here on Tor.com.
