448 pages
Published April 2, 2013 by Grove Press.
Portrayal of technology was a bit distractingly fantastical, and towards the end the villan plot got to be a bit predictable. Otherwise I really loved this book a lot.
This book is a lot of fun and quickly sucked me into its world. There are some ideas I wish it had expanded on. Ironically it seems a bit thin about some of the ideas that the author--as a USian convert to Islam who lived in the Middle East for a while--is more qualified than most to talk about, like the ways it plays with the contrasts between "western" and "Islamic" ways of seeing the world. I have to wonder if there was some fear, from editor or author, of putting off American audiences by going too deep into those. Still well worth a read, though.
This book is a lot of fun and quickly sucked me into its world. There are some ideas I wish it had expanded on. Ironically it seems a bit thin about some of the ideas that the author--as a USian convert to Islam who lived in the Middle East for a while--is more qualified than most to talk about, like the ways it plays with the contrasts between "western" and "Islamic" ways of seeing the world. I have to wonder if there was some fear, from editor or author, of putting off American audiences by going too deep into those. Still well worth a read, though.
Fascinating and original story set in an unnamed Gulf emirate in which a "gray hat" hacker who helps others evade state censorship and surveillance is given a book that contains the text of a 1001 days, an account of the wisdom of the jinn. A fascinating mix of popular culture, hacker culture, and the ancient stories that are part of Islamic culture. Imaginative and thought-provoking.
