Alif the Unseen

G. Willow Wilson--graphic novelist and author of Seattle Times "Best Book of the Year" The Butterfly Mosque--has here turned her hand to an intriguing combination of dualing computer programmers and supernatural beings (jinn, demons, marid and others). Set in an unnamed City of an unnamed country in the Middle East, this is a world strictly structured and controlled by a royal family with powerful censors who monitor every communication. Alif, the cover name for a person who helps anyone trying to hide from the government censors--collectively known as "The Hand"--has generally been successful in keeping his clients a step ahead of trouble and out of jail. Then one day his life begins to unravel. The woman he has secretly loved, slept with and married--Intisar--has told him she is promised to another by her father, and wishes no further contact. As revenge, he develops a program so that she cannot find him online. But "The Hand" intercepts and turns the unique identifying algorithm against Alif's clients. Suddenly, Alif is on the run and everyone who knows him is in danger from the secret police as well. The wild ride that Alif and his long-time childhood friend, Dina, begin will involve seeking help from not-quite humans, imprisonment and torture, and finally full-blown revolution. This book is very timely given events in the Middle East. This book has been compared to works by Neal Stephenson (see Cryptonomicon or Snow Crash) or Philip Pullman (e.g., Golden Compass) and certainly the creation of detailed alternate worlds merits that. But it is unique in its focus on the world shaped by this particular culture and set of beliefs.