Reading science fiction like it matters since 1989.
J.R. Sarmoun; $13.99 tpb; 340 pages
While the goal may be to equip the driver to martyr himself at a moment’s notice, one wonders about traffic safety in this environment. Jokes about the Ford Pinto come to mind.
In this terrifying milieu, Ismaeel meets Tarzan, a homeless snack vendor and bomb maker, who leads him to Pir Pullsiraat, who provided the ticket and cash. Pullsiraat is the tightrope bridge over Jahannum, which each believer must cross, and Pir means guide. True to his name, Pir Pullsiraat sends Ismaeel—in the company of Chaacha Khidr and on a bicycle—across the tightrope to experience Hell and the borders of Paradise for himself.
He barely manages. Then he accepts the mission Pir Pullsiraat and Chaacha Khidr want him to undertake: to stop the Khalifa from performing some as-yet unspecified but horrendous “spectacle.” To do this, he must earn the trust of his extremely religious father. He is given help in the form of (1) a telepathic headband that lets Pir Pullsiraat contact him at plot-critical moments and (2) a perfect recall of the Qu’ran.
Asif Ismael writes clearly and well. The book could do with more light copy-editing to deal with some obvious typos and similar errors, but it is more polished than a lot of self-published works I’ve seen.
Ismaeel himself is not the world’s most engaging protagonist, but the characters he encounters make up for it quite nicely. (After all, how interesting is Alice herself absent Wonderland?) He is curiously passive (except when he isn’t), not very good at following instructions, and a complete horn dog. While he spends some time contemplating the meaning of the things he sees, he takes them very much for granted. Drugs are involved. How much Ismaeel trusts his experiences seems a little strange to this reader, at least. One would expect him to question the reality of his visions.
Over the Tightrope is an engaging and satirical first novel. To call it “promising” would do it a disservice as it is quite enjoyable in its own right, but it does seem to be the first gleaming of a possible major talent.
Dan’l Danehy-Oakes lives in Alameda, California.
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