Don't Let "Alif the Unseen" be Unread!

Now for the "proses" part of "Wine and Proses." Recently, I checked out "Alif the Unseen" from the Bedford library and was intrigued by the comparisons on the back made between it and Harry Potter (had Hogwarts been located in the middle of the Arab Spring uprising.)
And really, while this comparison is easy to make - I don't really think it's accurate. Harry Potter was mostly about the gradual honing of a wizard's skill over a number of years. This book was more about Alif being tossed into a malestrom and surviving mostly by his self taught talents, inborn skills he wasn't fully conscious of and LOTS of dumb luck.
Still, this doesn't detract from this exciting fascinating book which is perhaps the best science fiction book set in the Arab world that I've ever seen. (Another notable effort is Kim Stanely Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt.) The story telling is quick and deft and it's really hard to put down.

Strongly recommended, it's the first book I've given a 5* rating on Goodreads in over a year.