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timinbc's review against another edition
3.0
There's plenty of good stuff in this book, but it's very uneven. Wilson makes my list of authors to watch, though.
I enjoyed following a protagonist who isn't very competent or confident. Some of the supporting characters were interesting and/or amusing. The details of life as a Muslim were good, and the individual interactions with the jinn were good.
It was a little off-putting that the jinn are all generally grumpy but really softies at heart. On the escape into the Empty Quarter, it all went a little too well to be credible, with a guy just happening to be there and to be the sort who would go to great lengths to help them.
Vikram was great. Some of the minor characters were unusually credible, because they were individuals rather than ciphers so the hero would have someone to talk to or save.
The "marid" turning out to be one particular example of his kind was unnecessary and cheap.
Wilson has clearly had advice from computer people, but isn't one herself. Alif does some wildly implausible things with his computers, and does them ludicrously quickly. At a couple of points, he takes some time, but the action of the plot is somehow suspended so he has that time. Some of his stuff, if applied to a car, would be roughly the same as bending a spoon, reaching under the dash with it, and having the car fly. Or taking a cellphone photo of an globe and, with a few deft keystrokes, developing a telepathic GPS system. The handwaving explanations are superficially plausible, but don't stand up to thinking.
The start dragged very badly, and I almost bailed on the book. Then we met Vikram and it was all good.
The end seemed awfully familiar, perhaps similar to a recent Neal Stephenson or something similar [edit: but I am not suggesting anything but coincidence). And it seemed a bit rushed or careless, as if Wilson was in a hurry to wrap it up.
Finally, this book doesn't seem to have decided if it's for a young-adult or a grown audience. The point of view seems to change occasionally. Alif's imprisonment is particularly dark.
Still a very worthwhile experience.
I enjoyed following a protagonist who isn't very competent or confident. Some of the supporting characters were interesting and/or amusing. The details of life as a Muslim were good, and the individual interactions with the jinn were good.
It was a little off-putting that the jinn are all generally grumpy but really softies at heart. On the escape into the Empty Quarter, it all went a little too well to be credible, with a guy just happening to be there and to be the sort who would go to great lengths to help them.
Vikram was great. Some of the minor characters were unusually credible, because they were individuals rather than ciphers so the hero would have someone to talk to or save.
The "marid" turning out to be one particular example of his kind was unnecessary and cheap.
Wilson has clearly had advice from computer people, but isn't one herself. Alif does some wildly implausible things with his computers, and does them ludicrously quickly. At a couple of points, he takes some time, but the action of the plot is somehow suspended so he has that time. Some of his stuff, if applied to a car, would be roughly the same as bending a spoon, reaching under the dash with it, and having the car fly. Or taking a cellphone photo of an globe and, with a few deft keystrokes, developing a telepathic GPS system. The handwaving explanations are superficially plausible, but don't stand up to thinking.
The start dragged very badly, and I almost bailed on the book. Then we met Vikram and it was all good.
The end seemed awfully familiar, perhaps similar to a recent Neal Stephenson or something similar [edit: but I am not suggesting anything but coincidence). And it seemed a bit rushed or careless, as if Wilson was in a hurry to wrap it up.
Finally, this book doesn't seem to have decided if it's for a young-adult or a grown audience. The point of view seems to change occasionally. Alif's imprisonment is particularly dark.
Still a very worthwhile experience.
kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
The story swaps back and forth between Alif's adventures and the advice the Princess Farukhuaz is being plied with by her nurse, much as The Thousand and One Nights flips back and forth between the princess telling stories to stay alive for one more night.
My Take
The Internet's call for freedom and its unseen ability to rouse a people clashes against a religion interpreted to keep the oppressive in power in a fun, romantic, and terrifying adventure that spans the digital world of programming; the mystical with its jinn, effrit, and spirits; and, the repressive state of a nameless Middle Eastern country. Its hero is a squealing child who mans up and discovers the truth of those around him while Dina is the secret strength behind it all, LOL. The weaker sex? Pshaw.
Alif the Unseen is a story which coasts as does Alif before it dips into a deeper understanding, using the everyday-ness of Alif going about his day, a rebellious, spoiled teen with an affinity for the computer — no difference there between this Muslim boy and an American computer nerd, LOL. Where it differs from a "typical" American household is the lack of questions as Alif does as he pleases, the casual ease with which Alif accepts the pampering by his mother and the maid, the foods his mother tempts him with, the interactions between men and women, the dress, the worries, the...well, everything. It's Alif mourning the loss of his minted yogurt and the fragrance of chickpea flour reminding him of home. It's detached and yet inclusive. I don't know this culture, and yet the inner emotions of missing home, of wanting life to go back to the comfortable and expected, the fear all speak to everyman and pull us in.
The external is an interesting look inside an unhappy people's thoughts. Is it fiction? Or is it a reflection of how people really think? It certainly makes me appreciate my "sanitary postal code and tidy laws" where we have hot-and-cold running water and 24/7 electricity everywhere. A country where we can freely speak our minds — hey, NSA, you listenin'?
Some one-offs…
Ha, I like what Wilson says about the Philosopher's Stone! I think Vikram's been watching too many Star Wars' movies *she says with a laugh* And there's the convert's frustration with Vikram and Alif...she's right, too. Page 157. Nor is it a sentiment restricted to non-Westerners. Every group of people reacts the same way to another whom they don't trust or understand.
The Story
A love affair gone wrong stimulates Alif into playing with a software program that, in theory, can find anyone based on their rhythms, how they use language.
The success of that keystroke logger program and the Alf Yeom set the Hand on Alif's trail, and we see what anger, frustration, and the Internet can do.
The Characters
Alif (Mohammed) is an Indian-Arab computer hacker/programmer protecting the discontented, who is in love with a girl above his station. His father has another, more legitimate family. Dina is a neighbor's daughter whom Alif has known all his life.
Intisar is from a wealthy Arab family and sneaks out to meet Alif. Abbas Al Shehab is the man her family intends for her to marry.
Abdullah runs the local Radio Sheikh and collaborates with Alif. Faris is one of Abdullah's moles in the Ministry of Information. Raj is very enterprising with cellphones. Nargis is their in with Vikram.
Some of those whom Alif protects include:
Jahil69 whose porn site infuriates the Saudis. TrueMartyr and Umar_Online push for Islamic revolution. Jai_Pakistan, OpenFist99, and TheRealHamada have their own issues.
Vikram the Vampire is a black market thug and a 2,000-year-old Sanskrit legend, who can change shape. Azalel is Vikram's sister, a sila, and grateful to Alif. The convert is an American woman in town to study history at the university. She has converted to Islam, but I suspect it's mostly for how much easier it makes her life. Sheikh Bilal is in charge of the Al Basheera mosque where Alif takes refuge. Prince Abu Talib Al Mukhtar ibn Hamza, a.k.a., NewQuarter01, is angry with the system.
Tin Sari is the keystroke logger program that Alif modifies. The banu adam are the mud people, us.
The Hand works for the State and is feared by the hackers.
Reza is the Persian mystic, a member of a heretic sect, the Battini connected to the Assassins, who writes the story of the Alf Yeom wa Yeom, The Thousand and One Days, as told him by a jinn and containing "all the parallel knowledge of my people, preserved for the benefit of future generations". The Moqlas manuscript. The princess' nurse tells Princess Farukhuaz stories intended to engage her interest in marriage.
The Empty Quarter…
…is the domain of ghouls and effrit who can take the shapes of beasts. Sakina is one of the good jinn. Shaytan is an outcast jinn. I picture the fiercely protective marid as the genie from the Disney movie, Aladdin, with his huge torso and a tapering swirl of smoke for his legs.
The Cover
The cover has a bright yellow background with a Moorish-style arch bordering the top and bottom with a maze of green-on-green geometric designs. The edge is picked out on either side in a very light green with the darker center. The first word in the title, the Alif, is the green of a computer circuit board, complete with lines of solder.
The title is a trick of the book, for it writes its own chapters, O Alif the Unseen, for you may hide behind a new name, but the bits and bytes of the Internet are not unseen.
My Take
The Internet's call for freedom and its unseen ability to rouse a people clashes against a religion interpreted to keep the oppressive in power in a fun, romantic, and terrifying adventure that spans the digital world of programming; the mystical with its jinn, effrit, and spirits; and, the repressive state of a nameless Middle Eastern country. Its hero is a squealing child who mans up and discovers the truth of those around him while Dina is the secret strength behind it all, LOL. The weaker sex? Pshaw.
Alif the Unseen is a story which coasts as does Alif before it dips into a deeper understanding, using the everyday-ness of Alif going about his day, a rebellious, spoiled teen with an affinity for the computer — no difference there between this Muslim boy and an American computer nerd, LOL. Where it differs from a "typical" American household is the lack of questions as Alif does as he pleases, the casual ease with which Alif accepts the pampering by his mother and the maid, the foods his mother tempts him with, the interactions between men and women, the dress, the worries, the...well, everything. It's Alif mourning the loss of his minted yogurt and the fragrance of chickpea flour reminding him of home. It's detached and yet inclusive. I don't know this culture, and yet the inner emotions of missing home, of wanting life to go back to the comfortable and expected, the fear all speak to everyman and pull us in.
The external is an interesting look inside an unhappy people's thoughts. Is it fiction? Or is it a reflection of how people really think? It certainly makes me appreciate my "sanitary postal code and tidy laws" where we have hot-and-cold running water and 24/7 electricity everywhere. A country where we can freely speak our minds — hey, NSA, you listenin'?
Some one-offs…
Ha, I like what Wilson says about the Philosopher's Stone! I think Vikram's been watching too many Star Wars' movies *she says with a laugh* And there's the convert's frustration with Vikram and Alif...she's right, too. Page 157. Nor is it a sentiment restricted to non-Westerners. Every group of people reacts the same way to another whom they don't trust or understand.
I like what Dina says about books, that people will insist "books can change the world" when they feel good about themselves, and "it's only a book when anybody challenges them."
The Story
A love affair gone wrong stimulates Alif into playing with a software program that, in theory, can find anyone based on their rhythms, how they use language.
The success of that keystroke logger program and the Alf Yeom set the Hand on Alif's trail, and we see what anger, frustration, and the Internet can do.
The Characters
Alif (Mohammed) is an Indian-Arab computer hacker/programmer protecting the discontented, who is in love with a girl above his station. His father has another, more legitimate family. Dina is a neighbor's daughter whom Alif has known all his life.
Intisar is from a wealthy Arab family and sneaks out to meet Alif. Abbas Al Shehab is the man her family intends for her to marry.
Abdullah runs the local Radio Sheikh and collaborates with Alif. Faris is one of Abdullah's moles in the Ministry of Information. Raj is very enterprising with cellphones. Nargis is their in with Vikram.
Some of those whom Alif protects include:
Jahil69 whose porn site infuriates the Saudis. TrueMartyr and Umar_Online push for Islamic revolution. Jai_Pakistan, OpenFist99, and TheRealHamada have their own issues.
Vikram the Vampire is a black market thug and a 2,000-year-old Sanskrit legend, who can change shape. Azalel is Vikram's sister, a sila, and grateful to Alif. The convert is an American woman in town to study history at the university. She has converted to Islam, but I suspect it's mostly for how much easier it makes her life. Sheikh Bilal is in charge of the Al Basheera mosque where Alif takes refuge. Prince Abu Talib Al Mukhtar ibn Hamza, a.k.a., NewQuarter01, is angry with the system.
Tin Sari is the keystroke logger program that Alif modifies. The banu adam are the mud people, us.
The Hand works for the State and is feared by the hackers.
Reza is the Persian mystic, a member of a heretic sect, the Battini connected to the Assassins, who writes the story of the Alf Yeom wa Yeom, The Thousand and One Days, as told him by a jinn and containing "all the parallel knowledge of my people, preserved for the benefit of future generations". The Moqlas manuscript. The princess' nurse tells Princess Farukhuaz stories intended to engage her interest in marriage.
The Empty Quarter…
…is the domain of ghouls and effrit who can take the shapes of beasts. Sakina is one of the good jinn. Shaytan is an outcast jinn. I picture the fiercely protective marid as the genie from the Disney movie, Aladdin, with his huge torso and a tapering swirl of smoke for his legs.
The Cover
The cover has a bright yellow background with a Moorish-style arch bordering the top and bottom with a maze of green-on-green geometric designs. The edge is picked out on either side in a very light green with the darker center. The first word in the title, the Alif, is the green of a computer circuit board, complete with lines of solder.
The title is a trick of the book, for it writes its own chapters, O Alif the Unseen, for you may hide behind a new name, but the bits and bytes of the Internet are not unseen.
kryskross's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Death, and Blood
guppyur's review against another edition
3.0
Really enjoyed this. Pretty solid story in its own right, and it's pretty rare for a book so steeped in Islam to come to my (or mainstream, really) attention. I'm glad it did. Not so many new (to me) frontiers left to discover these days.
Several times while reading, something struck me as strange, and I realized that it only seemed strange because of my lack of familiarity; recast in more familiar terms, most of it became totally normal, and I realized I needed to recalibrate.
The story involves a fair bit of computing; it isn't all practical, but it's plainly written by someone who understands what they're writing about, which is so rare in creative media.
I haven't read as much this year as I'd like, and it's partly because some of what I've read hasn't pulled my attention back to it, so that I wanted, when I wasn't reading, to go read. This did.
Several times while reading, something struck me as strange, and I realized that it only seemed strange because of my lack of familiarity; recast in more familiar terms, most of it became totally normal, and I realized I needed to recalibrate.
The story involves a fair bit of computing; it isn't all practical, but it's plainly written by someone who understands what they're writing about, which is so rare in creative media.
I haven't read as much this year as I'd like, and it's partly because some of what I've read hasn't pulled my attention back to it, so that I wanted, when I wasn't reading, to go read. This did.
ebarrett3's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t know why it took me so long to start reading this. Partly, I had the wrong impression of it based on the cover. It is so much grittier than I anticipated and now I’m ready to go on a dystopian novel binge. Recommend for readers 14+
nicohusko's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
canaanmerchant's review against another edition
5.0
Alif the Unseen is a timely fantasy novel set in what we now know is only the beginning of the Arab Spring. Alif is the codename (though he calls it a handle) of a hacker in an unnamed gulf emirate.
The book is fast paced and gets to right to it quickly. Alif gets into trouble, in a fast and big way and is on the run from an oppressive state that can track him both online and "IRL" plunging Alif into way more real than he could have ever imagined. Both Alif and the State resort to supernatural help as well while the Alf Yeom a mysterious book said to be the product of Jinn remains at the center. Alif soon discovers that there is much more the world than what he sees. It's funny that the characters most willing to accept the present of the fantastic in the story are also the most disconnected from modern technology, something increasingly used by many of us to create and live out our own fantasies.
Wilson is able to give a voice to a wide array of characters that have close paralells to today. There is tension between the nation state and the old way of doing things, conservative vs. liberal wings of islam, and a plethora of other tensions present both in the novel and the real world. Some of the best characters are the women. There is an American known as "the Convert" who is an excellent cipher (in a book and plot filled with them) for sensitive westerners who despite our best intentions still can manage to not get it about other cultures. Dina is Alif's neighbor and a woman who chose the veil at a very young age when it wasn't even expected of her social station. Her character is given a lot of agency and does a lot to subvert many of our orientalist impressions of a veiled woman.
Another delight are the (too few unfortunately) tales direct from the Alf Yeom, the book Alif is responsible for. Those that are there are wonderful subversions of different types of fables and other morality plays that remind us that a lesson is something not inherent to any story.
The book is fast paced and gets to right to it quickly. Alif gets into trouble, in a fast and big way and is on the run from an oppressive state that can track him both online and "IRL" plunging Alif into way more real than he could have ever imagined. Both Alif and the State resort to supernatural help as well while the Alf Yeom a mysterious book said to be the product of Jinn remains at the center. Alif soon discovers that there is much more the world than what he sees. It's funny that the characters most willing to accept the present of the fantastic in the story are also the most disconnected from modern technology, something increasingly used by many of us to create and live out our own fantasies.
Wilson is able to give a voice to a wide array of characters that have close paralells to today. There is tension between the nation state and the old way of doing things, conservative vs. liberal wings of islam, and a plethora of other tensions present both in the novel and the real world. Some of the best characters are the women. There is an American known as "the Convert" who is an excellent cipher (in a book and plot filled with them) for sensitive westerners who despite our best intentions still can manage to not get it about other cultures. Dina is Alif's neighbor and a woman who chose the veil at a very young age when it wasn't even expected of her social station. Her character is given a lot of agency and does a lot to subvert many of our orientalist impressions of a veiled woman.
Another delight are the (too few unfortunately) tales direct from the Alf Yeom, the book Alif is responsible for. Those that are there are wonderful subversions of different types of fables and other morality plays that remind us that a lesson is something not inherent to any story.
bridge_overbooked's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I was surprised that I had never heard of this book before I included it as part of a Read Around the World Challenge - it won the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel! I enjoyed some aspects of this book, especially the mythology and learning more about Arabic and Islamic cultures. However, the pacing was extremely uneven, the supporting character development was weak, and the technology was not coherent. I was interested in how the book unfolded, but I was ultimately not satisfied with the ending and expected more.
"Alif the Unseen" is a blend of cyberpunk and fantasy set in an unnamed Middle Eastern city on the brink of revolution. The story follows Alif, a young Arab-Indian hacker, who finds himself entangled in a dangerous web of politics and magic after his forbidden relationship with a woman from a higher social class is discovered. With the help of a jinn and a group of rebels, Alif must navigate a world where technology and ancient mysticism collide while fighting against a corrupt government and powerful adversaries. As he discovers the true extent of his abilities and the secrets hidden within the digital realm, Alif learns that liberation can only be achieved through embracing his identity and confronting the forces that seek to control him.
"Alif the Unseen" is a blend of cyberpunk and fantasy set in an unnamed Middle Eastern city on the brink of revolution. The story follows Alif, a young Arab-Indian hacker, who finds himself entangled in a dangerous web of politics and magic after his forbidden relationship with a woman from a higher social class is discovered. With the help of a jinn and a group of rebels, Alif must navigate a world where technology and ancient mysticism collide while fighting against a corrupt government and powerful adversaries. As he discovers the true extent of his abilities and the secrets hidden within the digital realm, Alif learns that liberation can only be achieved through embracing his identity and confronting the forces that seek to control him.