G.

Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen is a heterodox novel that mixes technology, magic, religious thinking and a dystopian scenario. It is not a story about any of those elements, but one that uses them to achieve literary merit and transcend the boundaries of traditional Sci-Fi to show the power of information. Wilsons protagonist, identified as Alif, is a computer hacker based in some emirate known only as The City. He helps anyone that wants to stay anonymous in the cyberspace Islamists, communists, fellow hackers, activists until he is faced with the threat of a super program of State Security that he calls The Hand. A brief love story turns into a crazed race to discover the secrets of the Alf Yeom, a book written by djinns and sought by the Hand. This setup would confuse many fans. However, it is not long before the tone of the novel makes itself clear. "So the stories aren't just stories, is what you're saying. They're really secret knowledge disguised as stories," says Alif, when confronted with the existence of hidden knowledge in the Alf Yeom. Vikram the Vampire promptly replies "One could say that of all stories, younger brother." That is how this novel presents itself; a multi-layered story with many discourses about religion, coding, the nature of information and more. On the surface, we see the social impact of the new communications brought by the Internet. The entire basis for the plot is the conflict between censors and hackers working to liberate the flow of information. The political ramifications of this repression are apparent, and almost prescient of the Arab Spring. The predictive power of the novel is startling and very reminiscent of the ambitions from early Sci-Fi, but the true association is with social science fiction. All transformative factors that allow for the revolution are direct consequences of interaction between society and a new technology the Internet. Giving a new pathway for the addressing of grievances, it allowed a degree of social cohesion against the regime that was much more difficult without it. The hacker culture is presented as acting in reaction to regimes tyranny, and as a great resort that was previously impossible. As NewQuarter01 says, Thats why I started hacking. I didnt want to be on the wrong team. Coding is an essential part of the book, but treated with almost no regard to scientific accuracy. Readers of William Gibsons Burning Chrome will recognize a style that emphasizes coding as a transcendent experience; Alif puts his lines in terms of fairy tales, recognizing patterns in the stories of the Alf Yeom. This soft approach is present across the book. The reader does not know much about djinn society or the extension of Alifs network, instead discovering the information as it proves itself relevant to the plot. The relationship between the seen and the unseen in a common theme, and the novel plays with the notion of coded information. There is a delightful remark about how censors prohibit all kinds of political books, but allow whatever liberal propaganda that manages to masquerade as a childrens book. This soft Sci-Fi is very prominent during the New Wave period, but it is hard to make a case of Alif being New Wave. The narrator can be trusted, and the style is devoid of any complications; it is your standard third-person narrative that was so popular in the Golden Age. The novel is ultimately optimistic, and lacks the irony so present in the movement. The characters are rather flat; we have the holy man, the convert, the hero, the villain and some others almost completely characterized by their part in the plot. There is no gray area good hackers will destroy the bad State security. The importance given to the peoples revolution would please the Marxist Mr. Moorcock, but this story would never be published under his care.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the book lies in the creation of a setting that mingles East with West. There is a tendency to consider the East as a region full of magic, where ancient tales still bear respect. Meanwhile, the West is characterized as a bastion of rational thought, negating the unseen completely. Vikram the Vampire remarks its an American quirk. Half in, half out. A very spiritual people, but in their hearts they feel there is something shameful about the unseen. Using a wealth of Islamist stories, the backbone of a magical world is created.