tamanna asked Robin Sloan:

Hey Robin, I loved Penumbra! How did you get the idea for such an awesome bookstore? Does it reflect a bookstore that you might have gone to in your childhood? Also, there are a lot of books nowadays that are including sci-fi features in a not-totally-sci-fi way, like dystopia. How do recommend using something new, like tech, and melding it with something that readers know so that it doesn't come off as overdone?

Robin Sloan Penumbra's bookstore doesn't have a direct inspiration, but it definitely reflects elements of two of my Bay Area favorites: City Lights Bookstore, in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, and Green Apple, out in the Richmond. Both truly wonderful places.

I think the key to using technology effectively is to have some real affection for it. It can't just be scary; it can't just be "other." It's part of our lives now, and sometimes it's destructive, sure, but it's also hugely generative and nourishing—I mean, look, we're using technology to have this conversation! So I think it's important to go beyond good and bad, beyond killer robots and mind-control serums, into the real lived experience of technology.

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