Alif the Unseen: Cyberpunk, Middle Eastern Style

Cyberpunk has been my speculative fiction variety of choice since I picked up Neuromancer by W. Gibson all those years ago. Cyberpunk books are typically set in an urban environment, full of dark alleys and hyper-neon avatar playgrounds. There are usually plenty of brown faces among the casts of characters, it is “urban” after all, but they aren’t often center stage and real variety of ethnicity and worldview can be hard to find. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson promised my favorite cyberpunk features in a new setting, a nameless emirate in the Middle East, so I was immediately drawn in. This location is defined by sunshine and heat; there are no skyscrapers casting eternal shade. The characters are different too, with no slick fixers or monolithic corporations — just Alif (not his real name) a scrawny grey hat hacker, the only son of an Arab father and an Indian mother. Alif’s trying to get the girl of his dreams, Intisar. I was a computer geek with girl issues. That sounds pretty ordinary to me. Things go badly with Intisar, as they do when a poor mixed boy gets involved with an aristocratic girl. Alif enlists the aid of his neighbor, Dina, the daughter of Egyptian laborers who has been like a sister to him. Dina has made the controversial decision to wear the full face veil and body covering, or hijab, as a sign of religious piety. As Alif explains about Dina: For an upper-class Old Quarter girl like Intisar to veil was one thing…a shabby Alexandrian, expected to bec…