Alif the Unseen is a mess of a book, but in a good way. There is elements of cyberpunk, graciously borrowed from Neuromancer. There’s revolutionaries straight from today’s news stories. There’s teenager drama that would be right at home at Degrassi High. And underneath all of that is the Quran. Alif is a “grey hat”, which is what H4X0rz (sorry, I’m from the 90s, I had to) are calling themselves now, I guess. Alif’s clients needs to keep their sites of objectionable content up and out […]
Alif the Meh
In a Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker with the handle Alif shields his clients — whoever will pay, including dissidents, Islamists, and Westerners— from online surveillance. Alif loves an upper class woman, Intisar, who has unfortunately been betrothed to a princely type. Alif is of course heartbroken. But then Alif’s computer is breached by a nefarious “Hand”, despite his expert precautions, and Intisar secretly sends him The Thousand and One Days, an ancient and secret book of the djinn. Things get weird, and Alif […]