A review by moreteamorecats
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

3.0

Consistently entertaining fantasy. A quite decent Harry Potter joke just past the midpoint and repeated references to a character reading [b:The Golden Compass|119322|The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)|Philip Pullman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1333617993s/119322.jpg|1536771] specify the genre as myth-based and YA-friendly, both of which are true here. The first half looks like it's going to be Stephensonian post-cyberpunk, but halfway through

it turns out we're going to be hanging out with lots of jinni, which is a different genre entirely

. I wasn't entirely convinced by the central metaphor, but once I accepted that the Big Religious Ideas lurking around the edges are more backdrop than subject, I settled in and had a rollicking time.