Adult urban fantasy/cyberpunk. I picked this up because I loved the Ms. Marvel comics written by G. Willow Wilson, and while this is very, very different stuff, it was a fabulous read. Somehow I went into this thinking it was a middle grade or young adult novel. It's not. The content is quite dark and adult. It's the story of a twenty-something hacker living in an Arabic city state simply called The City. Alif is secretly in love with the daughter of a high-ranking family, and (SPOILER) when she...

Just when I think that young adult fantasy has nothing new to show me, this one comes along to change my mind. Granted, this is being marketed as an adult novel, but I would disagree with that classification. If anything, this is more of a hybrid. The main character is an early twenties hacker/activist (“hacktivist”) who’s living at home and dealing with his over-attentive mom, the annoyingly devout girl next door, first heartbreak, and an all-powerful instrument of the state who wants nothing m...

Dear People who Read Books,Please read this book.No, really, I mean it. Okay fine, I will tell you why you need to read this. The characters in this novel, while not being teenagers, are young adults and therefore this novel meets the criteria set (by me) to be called Young Adult. Okay, let me begin again. Properly this time.Alif the Unseen is set in a city in Saudi Arabia and it is, perhaps, one of the few books I have read that manage to write in a setting like Saudi Arabia without preaching a...

VAGUELY SPOILERISH (though nothing major).In the introduction to his magnificent book The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea, Arthur Lovejoy turns a memorable phrase when he describes those who thrill to "the metaphysical pathos of obscurity." This book, I fear, is subject to that particular weakness. There's lots of stuff about stories/computer code/metaphor/multiple interpretations/multiple realities that just doesn't make any sense (at least, not to this heathen). When Al...

DnfedI read a chapter and a page of this and I drew the line when this guy was keeping the stained bed sheet of his "first time" as some sort of pride possession!!!

Alif the Unseen is such a unique book. It's a computer-science heavy fantasy novel set in the modern Middle East. There is coding, firewalls, cloud servers and genies, all in the same book. Doesn't that sound amazing? This book is fantasy blended with real science, something that I've never seen before. It's a big risk that pays off.Very rarely to I go quite as highlighter happy as this book made me. It was smart, clever, funny and thought-provoking."How dense and literal it is. I thought it had...

Well, this is a wonderful book! I love loved it! It's about Alif, a hacker in the Middle East, who has an ill-fated romance with a woman, is stalked by a mysterious government hacker called The Hand, and interacts with real Djinn who actually exist, invisible among us. It's totally fascinating! A really enjoyable read that combines politics and tech and magic in a wonderful way. Recommended for people who like Neal Stephenson or Da Vinci Code, just a fantastic thriller with magical overtones and...

A clever mashup of equal parts efreet fantasy and golden hackers in a Big Brother Muslim state seems like a winner at first glance to me. I love everything about the first two and the addition of throwing it into a Muslim culture MAY or may not have been a winning move. Sometimes it can come off strange or cheesy or uncomfortable.Fortunately, Wilson's strong writing and respectful nature carried a number of complex and interesting characters into a great tale with romantic elements, stronger hac...

The end of the year, and I decided to finish with a bang, picking the most promising books lingering on my ToBeRead list. It’s been one interesting read after another, and if they weren’t all equally amazing, most have been thought-provoking and interesting. Alif came to my attention as a genre-bender, an urban fantasy set in the Middle East and about a computer hacker on the run. Great characterization, trim plotting, an unusual urban setting with clever fantastical elements means it was one of...

My friend and I were discussing the problem of finding books featuring non-white protagonists written by non-North American descended authors. We noted that, more often than not in our limited scope, we’d find non-white protagonists written by White authors, or, white protagonists who find themselves in non-white environments, written by white authors. Generally speaking, the result is hit-or-miss when it comes to a respectful representation of a culture that one is not raised in.I was impressed...

Popsugar Challenge 2020 - A book by an author with Flora or Fauna in their name 'They had no idea what it was like to live in a place that boasted one of the most sophisticated digital policing systems in the world, but no proper mail service'. This one quote represents my time in the Middle East perfectly! This is a techy fantasy novel written by the comic author of Ms Marvel based in the UAE and the middle eastern sand swirls off the pages. I felt these streets, I loved the Egyptian, Indian an...

I don't know if it was because of the poorly appealing characters or something else, but my interest in this story went from zero to -100 in a matter of a few dozens of pages. I forced myself to go on but came across nothing intriguing enough to make up for that. I simply did not care in the slightest. Too bad.

Book 9 completed for #RamadanReadathoni survived!!!!! 🙌oh man, i was sold when i heard this was a cyberpunk book about a renowned hacker set in the middle east. it sounded absolutely geniuswhat i didn't know what that the main character is a piece of trash and how the portrayal of arabs and muslims was kind of strange?? idk, it wasn't all negative (there were religious characters that were fleshed out and relatable and Good People and i appreciated that) but there were just some stereotypes that...

This is a truly genre-bending Islamic hacktivist jinn fantasy cyberthriller, which has to be the most original novel in English in 2012. It is a surprisingly seamless melange of American comic-book sensibility (a fast-moving plot; a coming-of-age storyline) within an Islamic setting, contemporary (a corrupt unnamed Gulf city rife with repression, and ripe for revolution) and imagined (an alternate genie (or jinn) universe). At the same time, amidst all the furious plotting, it asks deeper questi...

Executive Summary: A blend of fantasy, technology, politics, and religion that just worked for me. I really enjoyed this book. Full Review I seem to be a hot streak lately. I try not to give out 5 stars lightly. Based on good reads, I've given 5 stars to roughly 13% of the 221 books I've rated as of this writing. 18% of those have been given out this year. It's not exactly relevant to this review, but I'm an engineer and that sort of thing interests me.I forget where exactly I first heard abou...

******************************Potential spoilers are hidden******************************Let me break down my thoughts about this book from the moment I noticed it on GR till I turned its last page, because somewhere along the way something went really wrong. Here comes -often- those moments when I find myself putting a book down, pausing, looking around at all the glowing reviews and five star ratings, and asking myself the question... Did I read the same book? That was a disappointment!!This b...

This novel falls squarely into the pile of contemporary SFF books that is, sadly, growing at an alarming rate in my recent reading explosion: it’s yet another a well-meaning exercise in bringing to life a severely under-represented milieu (in this case, the modern Middle East), complete with a deep dive into its culture and mythology, that all but collapses under the weight of flimsy plotting, thin characterization, and serviceable but ultimately mediocre sentence-to-sentence craftsmanship. I do...

I seem to be a detractor here on Goodreads. Strangely, I read this book fairly quickly which is unusual for something I eventually give 2 stars. But it seemed to unravel towards the end, with yet another hackneyed battle between good and evil... I just couldn't stomach it, probably because after 400+ pages I hadn't really come to care for the characters that much. This book has all the trappings of a page turner -- genies, exotic Isalmic locales, technology, political intrigue and revolutions, e...

I really enjoyed this. Realistic and fantasy aspects mesh into a richly believeable world, the characters are satisfyingly flawed and sympathetic, book-within-book goodies abound and every plot hinge, whether the fulcrum is a romantic moment, a sharp insight, the revelation of a possible enchantment, an unexpected appearance (especially the occasional deus ex machina) or the use of honed hacker skills, had me grinning. Furthermore, power dynamics are complicated when (twice) privileged character...

This review will be scattered because I don't have much time. So be it. I really enjoyed reading a fantasy novel that truly wove in culture (politics, practices, cultural conflicts, words used, and all). This novel read like it was written by someone closely connected to its setting. I like that. There's an ambitiousness in it. It's not afraid to comment on things (and not afraid to show the negative sides. It's sure that it will not fall into cliche) and it's thoughtful and loving in how it goe...