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Alif the Unseen
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AtU: Background reading?
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Well, there are always the [Color] Fairy Books. I think the Indian one is purple, but you'll want to check me on that. Also (and these you can get free on Kindle, probably other ereaders as well because they are public domain) check out Andrew Lang's collections.
The two books I can think of right off the top of my head are The Thousand and One Nights (also sold as The Arabian Nights) and the Quran, both of which should help with a grasp of the political, social, religious and mythological elements of the book. There are probably more out there that may be more helpful, but those are the first two that come to mind.
I finished Alif early, so I picked up her memoir The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam. The ending feels cut off a bit abruptly, but other than that, I found it a wonderfully way to see Cairo as she learned to see it, and to see Islam the way she learned to see it, and that reflected nicely on Alif the Unseen.
Oh excellent. Definitely adding that to my reading list! 80% in and golly! I really want to see which bits and pieces! especially of the djinn. Have traditional background in theology and/or folklore. I kind of feel like someone picking up Gawain and the Green Knight and not knowing whether Christmas and Morgan le Faye were both important parts of traditional Christianity. Or better yet, I'm watching BBC's Merlin never having read a single text, Arthurian or otherwise, from Brittain before.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam (other topics)Alif the Unseen (other topics)
Does anyone have suggestions for background reading w/r/t Middle Eastern mythology/folklore/mystical theology? Especially anything about angels and djinn? Angel-mythology is my personal hobbyhorse, but I expect that general background reading on mythology will be helpful for a lot of people when approaching a fantasy novel founded on a different tradition than we're used to.