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 […]
My first-ever cyperpunk novel, guys!
I am not–strictly speaking–a sci-fi reader. I had never heard of The Diamond Age until my sister recommended it to me. My sister is an awesome person. She has read so many books that I have recommended to her, including ones for my dissertation, that I thought it was long past time I returned the favor. So I picked up The Diamond Age. It starts with a man named Bud who buys an illegal skullgun, beats a man, and is then sentenced to death. The […]
Alif The Unseen
“if you can’t pay with things, you could pay with skills,” said Sakina, motioning to the shadow. “Well, wait a minute,” said Alif, looking from the shadow to Sakina. “My skills are more or less limited to computers… I’m not sure how much help that is to an, ah, to a…” Effrit, said the shadow. I’m an effrit. And I’ve got a two-year-old Dell desktop in the back that’s had some kind of virus for ages. The screen goes black five minutes after I […]