Category 13: An Oprah Book Club selection (my choice featured on one of Oprah's Summer Reading Lists)
Alif the Unseen
Author: G. Willow Wilson
Publisher: Grove Press
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: June 19, 2012
Page count: 433
Genres: scifi, cyberpunk, fantasy, mythology
Page count: 433
Genres: scifi, cyberpunk, fantasy, mythology
Date read: December 30, 2018
Number of times read: 1
Format: audiobook/hardcoverSource: Audible/Laurier Library
Summary
In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the "Hand of God," as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground.
When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.-- via Goodreads
In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the "Hand of God," as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground.
When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.-- via Goodreads
Review
Written by the author who brought us Kamala Khan as the new Ms Marvel (which is an awesome run, I finally got around to starting it this year haha), this book is very much in the same vein as Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Homeland which predate this book by a few years. It's in the same vein but it's also wholly original. As I was reading Alif I keep seeing similarities in theme and action to things that happen in Little Brother, they're mirrors of one another tackling the same sort of issues but from completely different directions. Doctorow's book is a decidedly Western treatment, and Wilson's Alif is absolutely an Eastern perspective. One of the central aspects of Wilson's book is Islamic mysticism/mythology. This is the first time I've ever seen science fiction blended with Islamic mythology, it makes me want to email my Islam professor from undergrad, Meena Sharify-Funk, and see if she's read it because I think she would absolutely love it...in fact I am going to take a couple of minutes and do that. And done.
I really enjoyed this book as it was simultaneously familiar but also very new and different for me. The way Wilson blends modern high technology and contemporary political concerns with the fantastical elements of Islamic mythology is engrossing. She posits a metaphorical link between computer programming and mysticism that is actually really intriguing to think about as someone who only has a moderate level of knowledge about each. I've heard comparisons between scientists and the religiously devout, but never with computer programmers before, but it makes a certain amount of sense to stop and think about. There are a couple of times where it goes very deep with these lines of thought and manages to stay as realistic as something that contains magical jinn can.
One thing I found really problematic was the character of the Convert and her treatment. She is never given a name, she is referred to as the Convert or the other girl or the American from the time that she is introduced right up to her last mention. It's incredibly frustrating and I don't understand the choice on the part of the author, who is herself a convert to Islam. Maybe this was something she herself experienced and so she decided to put it into the book? I don't know but it's not a good choice in my opinion. Other than that one issue I thought it was a very well handled portrayal of everything she was trying to portray. I think it was a smart choice not to give her Eastern security state any specific identity it's just a generic desert town in the Middle East. It's representative of the issues not of any one specific locale.
The Jinn are very interesting. I wish she'd spent more time to focus on them and their society or included an appendix or something about them. We learn that there are many different types and that there seems to be a hierarchy, but beyond that, even though we spend quite a bit of time with the Jinn we never really learn much more about them. We don't learn everything they are capable of and we don't really learn about their society. I can understand that because they weren't the central focus of the book, but I wish there was some way for us to get more information about them.
The book ended at a very abrupt point, we're in the middle of a revolution that started because of Alif's actions and the plot of the book. But we just end on Alif and Dina walking back home after the climax. We never find out what actually comes from the Revolution, and we don't get definitive endings for Abu Talid or the Convert which I find unsatisfying.
Have you ever read a book that mirrored another book that you've read? Did you find yourself thinking about the juxtapositions while reading it?
I really enjoyed this book as it was simultaneously familiar but also very new and different for me. The way Wilson blends modern high technology and contemporary political concerns with the fantastical elements of Islamic mythology is engrossing. She posits a metaphorical link between computer programming and mysticism that is actually really intriguing to think about as someone who only has a moderate level of knowledge about each. I've heard comparisons between scientists and the religiously devout, but never with computer programmers before, but it makes a certain amount of sense to stop and think about. There are a couple of times where it goes very deep with these lines of thought and manages to stay as realistic as something that contains magical jinn can.
One thing I found really problematic was the character of the Convert and her treatment. She is never given a name, she is referred to as the Convert or the other girl or the American from the time that she is introduced right up to her last mention. It's incredibly frustrating and I don't understand the choice on the part of the author, who is herself a convert to Islam. Maybe this was something she herself experienced and so she decided to put it into the book? I don't know but it's not a good choice in my opinion. Other than that one issue I thought it was a very well handled portrayal of everything she was trying to portray. I think it was a smart choice not to give her Eastern security state any specific identity it's just a generic desert town in the Middle East. It's representative of the issues not of any one specific locale.
The Jinn are very interesting. I wish she'd spent more time to focus on them and their society or included an appendix or something about them. We learn that there are many different types and that there seems to be a hierarchy, but beyond that, even though we spend quite a bit of time with the Jinn we never really learn much more about them. We don't learn everything they are capable of and we don't really learn about their society. I can understand that because they weren't the central focus of the book, but I wish there was some way for us to get more information about them.
The book ended at a very abrupt point, we're in the middle of a revolution that started because of Alif's actions and the plot of the book. But we just end on Alif and Dina walking back home after the climax. We never find out what actually comes from the Revolution, and we don't get definitive endings for Abu Talid or the Convert which I find unsatisfying.
Have you ever read a book that mirrored another book that you've read? Did you find yourself thinking about the juxtapositions while reading it?
Overall Rating
 |
| 4.5 bolts |
I did it! I completed Book Riot Read Harder 2018! It was a very near thing this year, but I did it haha.
No comments:
Post a Comment