Let's call it...3.4 stars.This is an interesting little curio by the author of the fantastic Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. While it lacks that tale's magical allure, this novella has a lot of interesting stuff happening--demon eBay, a weirdly transformed San Francisco, intelligent and sentient computer servers...it's just a little, well, weird. Which is not a bad thing. I think Sloan could master this format if he wants. This tale just feels a little bit all over the place. Still, a worthwhi...

I have no idea what I just finished but I enjoyed every minute of it. A short read, but I have to go back and reread from the beginning because it moved so fast and it is a new world. This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Robin Sloan and they were all unexpected. I read the acknowledgements at the end.

I liked it. Forgot what it was called but it stuck in my mind. I eventually posted a question on a book stack exchange

This is really more like 3.5 stars. The ideas are fun but there are too many for the length. I would have loved a full novel to explore more of it for longer. I suppose this is a reflection of the crowd-funded process when something is written outside the normal method (you know, with editing!)But virtual worlds... near-future San Francisco... quantum computers... detective stories... falafel... if you like those things you are likely to enjoy it.

I’m not sure what I think of this Kindle novella. It’s too weird. It starts as a PI comedy. It proceeds as an odd kind of mystery, on the intersection between the internet and demons. It ends in a tragedy, with an assortment of loose ends still dangling. And in between, there are too many unanswered questions. But all the same, it was an absorbing read, very much 21st century. Although I’m not sure I liked it, never once did I want to abandon the book, so I can’t give it less than 3 stars. The p...

I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this novella about detective Annabel Scheme, as told by the A.I. whose "eyes" are in Scheme's earrings so he can whisper info in her ear and do 360° surveillance. It has all the verve and energy that I found in Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and that was lacking from Sourdough. I wish Robin Sloan would revisit this story and tell us more about that world, maybe helping resolve more about the ending.

I enjoy Robin Sloan's writing. The alternate reality with a familiar setting is great. I find myself totally immersed in his writing because of this. He draws you in quickly and wholly. I purchased the audio and electronic versions via the author's website and haven't put it down yet (so to speak). This is one of those "driveway reads". Meaning you find yourself sitting in the driveway listening until either the end of the chapter or a convenient stopping point. The main character Annabel is des...

This is a free online novella (https://www.robinsloan.com/annabel-sc...) which is a kind of cyberpunk Sherlock Holmes - a detective with an AI sidekick that lives in her earrings. Features a quantum computer gone wrong that has warped half of San Francisco with a kind of wormhole, and quite a lot of hijinks.

It took me a little while to really get the setting and characters in this book, but after the first few scenes gave Annabel a chance to establish her character and identity and I had a better sense of the overall tone, I really started to like it. I especially loved the concept of Doctor Faustus as the demonic ebay for selling various elements of yourself in exchange for ... well anything you can think of. I'm still not too sure what 'quantum' computers really do but the eccentricity of it appe...

HELLLLLLL YES. My kind of thing. A totally wild quantum mystery adventure, set in an alt-San-Francisco with all sorts of weird stuff like a 2002 album from the Beatles and a MMRPG about Jesus and Jerusalem. Oh and there are demons. LOVED it, can't wait to read the new Annabel Scheme novella, always love a Robin Sloan joint.

Just changed my rating from 5 to 4 stars because upon reflection I felt it was basically the first few chapters of a longer book, and he should have gone ahead and finished it. If this was the first installment of a serial, I'd have been thrilled, but I don't think it is.Despite my complaints about what wasn't right about this book, I still give it a high rating because I really enjoy Sloan's writing and world building. I liked the setup. I liked the action. There just wasn't enough of it.The wo...

I've started trying out Storygraph, and one of the main features that drew me in was the ability to search for a book recommendation based on various inputs: not just genre, but pace, mood and length as well. So I thought I'd give it a try and buy one of the books it recommended -- and thus, Annabel Scheme, "perfect for people who like Sherlock Holmes, Douglas Adams, ghosts and/or the internet".Annabel Scheme is a detective in a cyberpunk/horror landscape, with all kinds of weird and wonderful d...

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!

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...

A free version of the book is available on the author's website: Annabel Scheme . An additional Annabel Scheme story serialized for publication is also available. Its on the website: The Strange Case of the New Golden Gate .

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...

So imagine a private investigator with an AI sidekick, our narrator, that goes along for the ride in the detective's earrings.Imagine placing our private investigator and AI sidekick into a future San Francisco with quantum computers creating all sorts of bizarre temporal and spacial problems that need investigating.And imagine finding a really good writer like Robin Sloan to write a really good novella about our pair of protagonists.Then imagine that if you go to Robin's website you can downloa...

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...

10/5/20: Re-read before reading the new book Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate,6/17/13: I wanted a short book to read and came across this on my Kindle with no memory of buying it. It turns out that I did because I had read the author's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and loved it. This novella was completely different. It's an odd mish-mash--mystery, futuristic noir, quantum computers, characters inside video games--just rather odd, all in all, and I was totally on board....

So. I like everything about the concept.An alternative SF, where the startups are less FinTech and more OccultTech. A private investigator. Some weird stuff.Sloan does a good bit of developing this world - from Grail (Google), to the coffee shop, to Fog City, to online gaming ... it's all fascinating.But there's no story attached. I never feel like I relate to either of the main characters (Scheme or her intern, Hu), the case they start investigating at the start is boring and resolved halfway t...