Alif the Unseen
Alif the Unseen is about a younger hacker in an unnamed Arab state. He begins the book with no real ideals. He helps people get around and hide from the censors in his country, and he's willing to sell this service to anyone who can pay. But when the censors start to come after him, he develops a conscience and ends up leveraging his online social network to help spark a revolution.
It was published shortly before the Arab Spring.
What started as science-fiction very quickly came true. It happens to all science-fiction, more or less, eventually. The great authors have an uncanny knack for predicting the trajectory of our culture. And that Wilson's predictions so quickly came to fruition speaks to her close involvement with this community.
Of course, in her version of events the djinn are real and there's an element of magic to the code Alif writes. But the point stands that not everything in this book ended up being as far-fetched as it may have seemed while it was being written.
The story was exciting and enjoyable and different than what I'm used to reading. I'm not all the familiar with the Arab world or with Islam, but it's an area I'm interested in learning more about. This was a good first step in that direction, using literature and fantasy to introduce some of the dystopian and mystical elements of those worlds and make them more immediately familiar.
It was published shortly before the Arab Spring.
What started as science-fiction very quickly came true. It happens to all science-fiction, more or less, eventually. The great authors have an uncanny knack for predicting the trajectory of our culture. And that Wilson's predictions so quickly came to fruition speaks to her close involvement with this community.
Of course, in her version of events the djinn are real and there's an element of magic to the code Alif writes. But the point stands that not everything in this book ended up being as far-fetched as it may have seemed while it was being written.
The story was exciting and enjoyable and different than what I'm used to reading. I'm not all the familiar with the Arab world or with Islam, but it's an area I'm interested in learning more about. This was a good first step in that direction, using literature and fantasy to introduce some of the dystopian and mystical elements of those worlds and make them more immediately familiar.
Comments
Post a Comment