Alif the Unseen

G. Willow Wilson
Alif the Unseen Cover

Alif the Unseen


The characters and setting (the Middle East) allow Wilson to explore elitism, sexism, class, race and politics. Programming methodologies and metaphors mix, leading to the unseen world of the Djinn and a race for freedom. This is a very good novel.

Alif is a grey-hat computer hacker, selling protection to whoever will pay, with State security not far away. A book delivered from a former girlfriend opens his eyes and changes his life, and a program that he wrote may just change the world.

Both Dina and The Convert are strong female Muslim characters, and each has a different viewpoint. The plot of this saga doesn't always seem to have direction, and some of that wandering happens around the introduction of The Convert - largely an avatar of the author. The main character can be frustratingly dense at times, but that is also an aspect of the plot.

I enjoyed this novel, and expect I will think about aspects of it for quite a while. It has more than a few similarities to one of my favorite novels, Snow Crash.