Alif the Unseen in Into the Forest

Jun 29, 2012 Christine rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-myth-and-fairy, diverse-hero-or-heroine, diverse-and-women-authors, fantasy-steampunk

My relationship with this book is problematic. On one hand, I love it for what it is. Finally, we have something that draws on Eastern and Islamic tradition. It’s great and wonderful. We need books like this.

On the other hand, it is so predictable and some parts of the book just don’t work for me.
So three stars.

I loved the idea- the combination of the Arab Spring, fantasy, and Islamic faith is beautiful. Several sections of the book are so engrossing that the reader is easily lost in the wor ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2012 Julia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: magical-realism, humor, contemporary-fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, literary-ficton, vampires, urban-fantasy, alternative-history, shifters

This novel is most of my favorite genres, sub-genres and tick boxes, all mixed together. It is science fiction and fantasy. And that doesn’t happen often. It’s urban fantasy and it’s also set in a border world. It’s got jinn, djinn and genies (spelled all of those ways,) computer hackers, religious and irreligious people; feminist Arabs and people who aren’t there yet. It’s got revolution and did I mention computers, jinn, iffrit and others?

Readers who like The Golem and the Jinni may like this ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2017 Melanti rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, 2017, abandoned

One of my pet peeves in books - especially science fiction books - is bad science or poor use of technology/technological terms. A lot of the aspects about the hacking plot sound like the author just threw together a bunch of terms she'd heard of and thought sounded cool but never bothered to actually understand - not even via a few minutes of Wikipedia research.

There's more to it than the hacker plot, of course, but I was so busy shaking my head and snickering at all of those mistakes I found i ...more

2 likes · Like · see review