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26th out of 30 books
—
5 voters
Annabel Scheme
by
Robin Sloan (Goodreads Author)
Annabel Scheme is a detective story set in an alternate San Francisco where the digital and the occult live side-by-side. It's a short, snappy read -- about 128 pages/128,000 Kindle locations -- and perfect for people who like Sherlock Holmes, Douglas Adams, ghosts and/or the internet. Finally, it makes a great Kindle gift. In Scheme's San Francisco, an indie rocker's new...more
ebook, 111 pages
Published
November 26th 2010
by robinsloan.com
(first published 2009)
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I have two books on my Kindle at the moment that were funded by Kickstarters, neither of which I participated in. One is awkwardly and choppily written, with cardboard characters and no sense of humour. This is the other one.
Set in an alternate world in which Google's place is filled by a company called Grail (a brilliant name for a search engine, by the way), and Wikipedia's by "Open Britannica", Annabel Scheme is difficult to categorize. Is it a detective novel? An urban fantasy? A technothril...more
Set in an alternate world in which Google's place is filled by a company called Grail (a brilliant name for a search engine, by the way), and Wikipedia's by "Open Britannica", Annabel Scheme is difficult to categorize. Is it a detective novel? An urban fantasy? A technothril...more
From the author’s website:
“This is a story about a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century. Holmes is a woman, Watson is an AI, all the good cases are on the Internet, and something very strange has happened to San Francisco…”
The publisher’s review compared this work to Douglas Adams. Big talk, but Robin Sloan has delivered with Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore, so maybe the comparison is earned. Completely independent of that other work (as excellent as it was) this book stands on its own and stand...more
“This is a story about a Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century. Holmes is a woman, Watson is an AI, all the good cases are on the Internet, and something very strange has happened to San Francisco…”
The publisher’s review compared this work to Douglas Adams. Big talk, but Robin Sloan has delivered with Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore, so maybe the comparison is earned. Completely independent of that other work (as excellent as it was) this book stands on its own and stand...more
I read this so fast because its super short--around 130 pages. I got it because I loved the author's book, Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore. This one is also set in San Francisco, but in an alternate universe of San Fran, and is a mystery of a different type.
To be honest, it was just too weird for me. Very smart! But very weird. There were demons and people coming back from the dead and they go into a video game at one point, and I'm usually cool with demons and ghosts but I just wasn't expectin...more
To be honest, it was just too weird for me. Very smart! But very weird. There were demons and people coming back from the dead and they go into a video game at one point, and I'm usually cool with demons and ghosts but I just wasn't expectin...more
Sloan's first novella is a fun roller coaster ride through a bizarro San Francisco with quantum instabilities, sentient servers, ghosts, and demons. It's partly an SF/cyberpunk story, partly a mystery with a quirky techie female Sherlock and a humorous computer as Watson, and partly a mirror world exploration of technology and Bay Area culture. The story is narrated by a sentient computer server named Hu and, while this may seem gimmicky, Hu's narration is consistently the best part of this nove...more
aaaahhhh this is awesome except it is too short!!
annabel scheme is a well thought out, creative, and somewhat unique story that takes all of the fun stuff of life and puts it in the same pot.
so first thing, as sloan does so well in penumbra, the real function and ability of computers. it is frustrating how dependent on technology our culture is and how little the people understand about how it works. making a server a character is a pretty ingenious way to humanize something we typically dismi...more
annabel scheme is a well thought out, creative, and somewhat unique story that takes all of the fun stuff of life and puts it in the same pot.
so first thing, as sloan does so well in penumbra, the real function and ability of computers. it is frustrating how dependent on technology our culture is and how little the people understand about how it works. making a server a character is a pretty ingenious way to humanize something we typically dismi...more
Alternate Universe Speculative Cyberpunk Detective Fiction. Annabel Scheme runs a detective agency specializing in digital and occult cases. Her partner, Hu, lives in a server farm and watches the world through Annabel's earrings. They just took a case: Someone's distributing new music, made by dead artists. It's impossible, but ever since the Shard went up, San Francisco's seen its share of the impossible.
Five stars. Excellent world-building with an economy of words (my favorite kind because it...more
Five stars. Excellent world-building with an economy of words (my favorite kind because it...more
I picked up Annabel Scheme after reading Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store. I wanted to see what his other writing was like beyond the shorts posted on his site, so this seemed a good way to go.
Overall, I loved the concept and the world Scheme and Hu inhabited. The Grail/Fog City situation was interesting and I liked the idea of blending the occult with the internet in such an amusing way.
Beyond that, it felt shortish and underdeveloped at times, as if it were a frame for a larger project. Still...more
Overall, I loved the concept and the world Scheme and Hu inhabited. The Grail/Fog City situation was interesting and I liked the idea of blending the occult with the internet in such an amusing way.
Beyond that, it felt shortish and underdeveloped at times, as if it were a frame for a larger project. Still...more
Since I loved Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore so much, thought I'd go back and pick this earlier book up. It's not as good. Sort of a mish-mash between video games and the paranormal and maybe a murder mystery thrown in, but it's all too confusing and there's not enough character development.
Kudos to Sloan for huge improvement in between. Look forward to the next.
Kudos to Sloan for huge improvement in between. Look forward to the next.
A sci-fi tale about an occult detective at the start of her career. The best part is the satire of Google (called Grail) which Sloan also did in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. I liked the concept of the server in her earrings, but the video game setting, which is pivotal but not as lengthy as in Neal Stephenson's Reamde, is not as good, either. Worth a look, but not my favorite.
The first Kindle book I read on my new iPad. Robin Sloan is a genius writer ... I'm anxiously awaiting the publication of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel
A lightning-fast, whip-smart short novel in the best tradition of Stross and Stephenson. After reading the first Kindle sample page, I purchased the book immediately; I wasn't disappointed. Like a roller-coaster ride, it was over too soon -- I'm looking forward to Sloan's next work.
This was a cool little novella. I meant to purchase the book of his that everyone is gaga over this year, but this little guy was sitting with the gum and 5-Hour Energy at the Amazon check-out.
Fun if you want to make fun of Google, so fun for all.
Fun if you want to make fun of Google, so fun for all.
I think we can expect great things from Mr. Sloan.
An excellent novella. I wonder if we'll see more of Annabel Scheme. With the success of "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" Mr. Sloan should have some 'freedom' to do what he wants, and I hope he wants to do more like "Annabel Scheme".
An excellent novella. I wonder if we'll see more of Annabel Scheme. With the success of "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" Mr. Sloan should have some 'freedom' to do what he wants, and I hope he wants to do more like "Annabel Scheme".
Excellent short story, crazy that it is available for free. This and Penumbra cement Robin Sloan as my favorite new author, and one to watch over the next few years!
Felt like it was trying to find how to get where it was supposed to go without a map or a true destination. Hu reminds me of Hal, a little too much so.
Clever, entertaining, and intelligent. I'm so happy I gave Robin some kickstarter money to print this :)
Mr. Sloan, I am now obsessed with your work. This was excellent--I only wish it were longer.
Apr 13, 2011
Wealhtheow
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Wealhtheow by:
Punk
Highly recommended by Punk. Available free online here: http://robinsloan.com/annabel-scheme
Reminds me of CharlieStross more than a little, with its mix of the quantum and the occult.
I read this after the 24 hour bookstore And I can't wait for her to write more!
It took me a few pages to get the gist but a fast fun read
Fabulous. I couldn't put it down.
Looking forward to reading more.
It's a fun afternoon read.
Really ingenious fun quick read mocking/celebrating Google.
Not bad, if not particularly original. Felt like a good student's effort; you can see the talent, it just needs more development.
6,5/10
Loved it
Interesting...
"Holy shit.", Hugin muttered after the climax of this short story. And holy shit it is indeed, culminating into a thrilling standoff between demons, quantum computers, electric detectives, long-lost love, and Annabel Scheme, accompanied by her trustworthy companion Hugin Nineteen.
There are some flaws in the storytelling, which don't bother me too much. Sloan writes a lot better in first novel "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour-Bookstore", which was one of my favorite books last year!
3,5/5
There are some flaws in the storytelling, which don't bother me too much. Sloan writes a lot better in first novel "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour-Bookstore", which was one of my favorite books last year!
3,5/5
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Robin Sloan grew up near Detroit and now splits his time between San Francisco and the internet. He graduated from Michigan State with a degree in economics and, from 2002 to 2012, worked at Poynter, Current TV, and Twitter. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is his first novel. You can learn more at robinsloan.com and follow along at @robinsloan.
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