{"id":4654,"date":"2026-03-18T15:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T21:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=4654"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:13:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:13:54","slug":"book-the-suitcase-clone-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/book-the-suitcase-clone-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Suitcase Clone (2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheThe Suitcase Clone
<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2022
Author: Robin Sloan
Length: 78 pages<\/p>\n

Much like Ajax Penumbra 1969<\/em><\/a> helped fill in some of the lore for Mr. Penumbra\u2019s 24-Hour Bookstore<\/em>, Robin Sloan expounded on his book Sourdough<\/em><\/a> with The Suitcase Clone<\/em>. This short story doesn\u2019t necessarily share any of the main characters from Sourdough<\/em>, but it gives some insight about the mysterious \u201ccreature\u201d that\u2019s in the sourdough while also providing an interesting look into intellectual property theft when it comes to specific wines\u2014which itself is reason enough to read this short story.<\/p>\n

Sloan takes a somewhat unorthodox approach to the point of view here, which took some getting used to. His language bordered on being too flowery, and it lost me as to what was happening at least a few times. But in terms of straight vibes, The Suitcase Clone<\/em> successfully gives off that eerie, otherworldly feeling that helps add to the mystery of this almost microorganism entity. Reading this story is what I would imagine taking mind-altering drugs would be like as one travels the countryside of France. It\u2019s not something I would do personally, but I can see the appeal of it.<\/p>\n

As it\u2019s a distinctly different feel when compared to the standard analog\/digital style Sloan uses in his other, full-length books, I\u2019m glad this backstory wasn\u2019t forced into the main plotline for Sourdough<\/em>. You don\u2019t really gain any huge revelations as part of this prequel story, but rather have a context for the weirdness that ensues in the main book this stems from. As a fan of this author, I\u2019ll always read anything he puts out, but The Suitcase Clone<\/em> almost feels too experimental for me to get my head around.<\/p>\n

A trippy vibe that sets up some of the weirdness in Sourdough<\/em>, I give The Suitcase Clone<\/em> 3.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" 1\/2<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Suitcase CloneYear: 2022Author: Robin SloanLength: 78 pages Much like Ajax Penumbra 1969 helped fill in some of the lore for Mr. Penumbra\u2019s 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan expounded on his book Sourdough with The Suitcase Clone. This short story doesn\u2019t necessarily share any of the main characters from Sourdough, but it gives some insight about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,54],"tags":[3107,55,394,1048,4454,2246,8,1453,1490,1452,4453,2525,1663,1500],"class_list":["post-4654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-5-stars","category-book","tag-3107","tag-book","tag-france","tag-novella","tag-organic","tag-retro","tag-review","tag-robin-sloan","tag-short-story","tag-sourdough","tag-the-suitcase-clone","tag-trippy","tag-weird","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4654"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4662,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4654\/revisions\/4662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}