It was an interesting mix between modern day life, and other things beyond what we can see with our own eyes. It had many central ideas one of them being that technology is becoming more prominent in our world, and that it should be used for the good of everyone. That comes from the fact that google is a major part of the book, and one of the main characters works there. Also, kindles and nooks, and all of those e-readers come into play at later times in the book. Multiple times throughout the plot, technology, whether it be video games, or computer programing, introduces itself to the plot.
As the plot unfolds, so does the technology, sometimes quite literally. One of the gadgets used in the book is a book scanner. This scanner happens to be made out of a pizza box, a camera, and not much else. Another gadget used later in the book is Google's super computer, which takes up an entire room, and is probably smarter than the average human. E-readers appear more than once throughout the course of the book, and actually cause some of the conflict in the middle of the book.
Several of the characters develop into complex beings throughout the book. These include the guy telling the story, genius googler, Kat Pontete, Mr. Penumbra, the owner of the bookstore, and some other friends, and visitors to the Mr. Penumbra's. Each of these characters develop differently, and intertwine with the narrator's storyline. Starting with Penumbra, each character meets (or is contacted by) the narrator, and you learn more as the plot unfolds.
I really liked this book because it was funny, modern, and just appealed to me. It had a great storyline that traveled from San Francisco to New York City and back again. It had references to other books and places within it. The book also provided insight on technology, like kindles, and talked about computer programing. All modern things. The book also revolved around a cult, which focused on getting the key to eternal life through codex viate. I would have rated it a 4.5 out of 5 stars because of it's humor and good plot.
Here is an article that describes the book better than I. Though I did think that it was very good, goodreads.com has a more unbiased look at the book.
