Saudi novelist Abbas’ sci-fi debut takes place in two overlapping worlds as a young Jinn reaches out to a human in another dimension.
Hawjan, his mother and grandfather have occupied the same house for years. However, they’re powerless to prevent a young human woman named Sawsan and her family from moving into their home in a parallel dimension. As a result of the new occupants, Hawjan—a man in his 90s, still a youth in the Jinn people’s eyes—is pushed to the outskirts of his longtime home. Despite this, he’s surprised to find himself drawn to Sawsan and even more surprised that he’s able to communicate with her—first through a Ouija board and then by simply typing to her on his tablet. Soon, he finds himself in love with her, pining over the unbridgeable gap. Later, evil Jinn have plans for Hawjan, and they’re not afraid to use Sawsan as a bargaining chip. Hawjan later promises his firstborn son to a dark king and teams up with Sawsan’s human suitor to save her life. This sci-fi novel provides an appealing glimpse into a different mythological tradition. The biggest problem for American readers, however, may be the book’s matter-of-fact patriarchy; sentences such as “There is, in my opinion, a strong relationship between feminism and childhood” may be hard for some Western feminists to stomach. (It can’t be denied, however, that American sci-fi also suffers from a glut of male-dominated narratives.) Abbas and translator Bahjatt are the co-founders of The League of Arabic SciFiers, which has the stated objective of bringing the genre to a wider audience—certainly a noble goal. Unfortunately, in this novel’s case, Bahjatt’s translation is often awkward and occasionally incorrect (as in the apparent confusion of “feminism” with “femininity” above).
More of a curiosity than a compelling read for an American sci-fi audience.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-9948205821
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Yatakhayaloon
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
