Alif the Unseen

By: G. Willow Wilson

Narrated by: Sanjiv Jhaveri

Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients — dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups — from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif — the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind.

The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the “Hand of God”, as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground.

When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.

©2012 G. Willow Wilson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Entertaining and insightul

What did you love best about Alif the Unseen?

Story takes the reader into parts of a culture and land that is unfamiliar, yet exciting. A mixture of religion, culture, technology, and adventure appeals to a wide variety of readers.

Have you listened to any of Sanjiv Jhaveri’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Sanjiv managed to portray different voices for each character. I found this not only entertaining, but useful as a listener.

Any additional comments?

Altogether a great listen that compels me to desire more.

Good Read

I enjoyed this book. It was creative and gripping at the same time. I would recommend it to anyone.

A Thousand and One Nights for our time

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely! It is more than just an entertaining story. It is a window into a culture that we often see in two dimensions through the filter of governmental and extremist actions.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Alif and the girl next door of course.

What about Sanjiv Jhaveri’s performance did you like?

Sanjiv's performance was spot on. He is an excellent linguist capable of many varied accents. He had studied the text and was spot on with his reading, building to climaxes and softening to a whisper at all the write times.

A Fantastic Listen

This is one of the better books I've listened to on Audible. The characters are great. The pacing is wonderful and the whole thing hits me on a philosophical level as well as a story one. I did not know how I would feel about the combination of djinn and computers in a middle eastern setting, but it's so unlike anything I've ever heard before that it works like gangbusters.

The only minus points I would give the book is that the first half is much better than the second although I did find the conclusion to be quite satisfying. There are so many quotes from this book that really stick with me and that is rare for an audiobook.

I'd actually recommend this book to any and everyone. I really do think it's that good and that people would benefit from getting a different perspective on this kind of novel -- one unlike almost every other piece of commercial fiction you see.

What a Disappointment

The premise of the story is good. The execution is not. I listened to this book at 1.5 speed and it still seemed to drag. I kept checking to see how close I was to finishing it. It was a book club pick (not mine) or I would have abandoned the book early on.

Couldn’t finish.

Got bored with this one. I did not get even halfway though and couldn’t get any further.

A disappointment

What disappointed you about Alif the Unseen?

Too much minute description of everything, from walls, to floors, to every creatures, to clothing, while the story drags and drags and drags.

Would you ever listen to anything by G. Willow Wilson again?

Probably not. If this is his typical style, I probably could not get through another book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Sanjiv Jhaveri?

Don't know...but his attempts to give every character a different voice failed miserably. He was awful.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Can't think of any.

Just not good

What disappointed you about Alif the Unseen?

I was hoping for a rich picture of the middle east, interesting characters, and some fun fantasy. Instead, the characters are barely developed and the creatures are so unimaginatively written (lots of faceless blobs), that I couldn't bring myself to care about them.

The biggest disappointment was the ridiculous idea of a guy writing code so quickly, mindlessly and amazing that it simply melts computers. The explanations of how and why things work are way beyond the normal suspension of disbelief that the reader expects in a fantasy novel.

Lastly, it was more an advertisement for Islam than I expected. I felt like the author's agenda was to show how this religion is so wonderful. I don't mind reading religious fiction, but I want to know about it ahead of time. If you want a good book that includes the Djinn, I would send you elsewhere—The Golem and the Jinni is far more developed and interesting.

Would you ever listen to anything by G. Willow Wilson again?

no

How could the performance have been better?

The reader's exaggerated performance of the supernatural characters was distracting and terribly annoying. He also made the American convert sound like a witless idiot, when her character was plainly not written that way.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I was very disappointed, and more than a little irritated.

A let down

I was absolutely in love with the Bird King, so I thought I’d explore this authors other books. The main reason it was so disappointing is that the main character was unlikeable to me. He was whiny, self-important, and didn’t have to lose anything at all. He got magic, the girl, and self-righteousness. It really just didn’t hit for me at all.

The side characters were very interesting but it explored at all. Overall, the themes about metaphor and story were fairly heavy handed and clumsy. That could’ve been done better by using actual metaphors and multiple meanings instead of saying “Things have lots of meaning! Look at all the meaning!”

The setting was cool, but I thought the “convert” character was a weird soap box for the author and didn’t add anything to the story.