Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson ISBN: 9780802194626
on June 19, 2012
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 433
Format: Hardcover
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In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker, who goes by Alif, shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, revolutionaries, and other watched groups—from surveillance, and tries to stay out of trouble.
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 himself 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.
This “tale of literary enchantment, political change, and religious mystery” was a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (Gregory Maguire).
“Wilson has a deft hand with myth and with magic.” —Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
Characters: 8, Alif is certainly a flawed character, but realistically so, and he goes through some growth-through-failure throughout the book. The secondary characters are additive to the story, in plot if not in character journey (it’s a pretty even split, which are there to enable an action for the sake of the plot, and which are there to reflect Alif’s flaws/needs at him for growth). I didn’t care about all of them, but I cared about enough of them to keep reading.
Atmosphere: 8, having never been to the Middle East and not knowing Arabic or Persian (and not knowing Islam very deeply) there were definitely cultural things lost on me that I think were probably additive to the story. I also couldn’t follow along with a lot of the coding references- I was piqued by the comparison of metaphor with religion with writing code, but the quantum computing stuff went over my head. Regardless, the description of the jinn, the contrast of the Old Quarter and New Quarter in wealth disparity/history/quality of life, and the physical description of the characters were nicely detailed without being overly florid or too sparse to imagine.
Writing: 8, the description-to-dialogue ratio felt natural, and each character had a distinctive voice (honestly, of all of them, I could see/hear Sheikh Bilal best). I love the juxtaposition of modern and ancient that was in every layer of this story, but I’m simply not well enough to ponder those depths (not the story’s fault, but it’s probably better than I think it is, because of my own limitations).
Plot: 8, the plot was solid- I did feel it dragged on a bit after the initial conflict was revealed, and I struggled to understand how the Hand came to know the existence of the Alf Yeom and come up with his plan. But in the usual pattern of life-interrupted-things-get-bad-things-get-worse-final-showdown, it was satisfying. The story starts and ends with love, but that’s a super simplistic way of summing it up and it was definitely more layered than I expected from the book summary. As an aside, I had no idea the Quran mentions jinn and I am charmed as hell to be reminded that non-Western religions don’t dismiss/demonize non-humans/the unseen.
Intrigue: 9, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to finish this before the end of the month. There were points where I just wasn’t emotionally invested. But then I’d find myself reading 80 pages in a day…so clearly, I was invested even if I didn’t realize it. I also went through some pretty bad depressive episodes in January, which makes it difficult for me to concentrate on anything, and still managed to read a few chapters of this each day, which speaks well of the story and the writing.
Logic: 8, as mentioned before, a lot of the computer stuff went entirely over my head. And each time that happened, I was pulled out of the story. So I’m not the ideal audience for this book. But every character acted in accordance with their motives, their fears, their hopes, and their integrity…for good and ill.
Enjoyment: 8, aside from the bits where I felt like an idiot and had to just accept my lack of understanding and move on, I enjoyed the adventure of Alif’s journey…but mostly, I enjoyed the concept of the jinn and the religious aspects (not the state-mandated crap but the earnest attempt to reconcile conflicting concepts and the nature of faith). Also, I really wanted more stories from the Alf Yeom, even without the framing device.
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