#jinn science

[gnosticinitiation]

Jinn Science:

Any sincere Gnostic Arhat can beg for the magical assistance of the great Apostle Philip.

If you love Philip, then when you are dozing meditate on him. Exclude from your mind any other thought, and when you feel in your soul the joy of his presence, speak the following ritual sentence,  “To heaven, Philip!” 

Then, with a steady and firm step come out of your bedroom and with force submerge yourself into the twilight zone.

On behalf of the Great Cause, I solemnly declare that I owe this extraordinary formula to a divine spirit called Isabel, whose human personality is certainly a humble barefoot nun from a medieval monastery, which in these times is submerged within the fourth vertical.

May the suns of enthusiasm shine upon thy way, very dear and gentle reader.

May the forces of the tiger accompany you.

May the fireflies of wisdom light up thine intellect.

May the rustling pine give shade for thy rest.

May the emerald frogs point out the trails by croaking relentlessly.

May she, nature, be prodigal with you.

May the universal force bless and direct thee.

-Master Samael Aun Weor, from his book, "The Secret Doctrine of Anahuac"

--------------------

Jinn State:

(Arabic; literally "hidden from sight," from the root  جَنّ / جُنّ j-n-n which means 'to hide, conceal'.) The condition that results from moving physical matter into the fourth dimension.

“A body while in the “Jinn” state can float in the air (Laghima) or be submerged within the waters (Prakamya), or pass through fire without being burned, or be reduced to the size of an atom (Anima), or be enlarged to the point of touching the sun or the moon with the hand (Mahima). A body submerged within the supra-sensible worlds is submitted to the laws of those worlds. Then, this body is plastic and elastic, so it can change form, decrease its weight (Laghima), or increase its weight (Garima) willingly... When Jesus was walking upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee, he had his body in the state of “Jinn.” Peter was able to liberate himself from the chains and to leave the prison, thanks to the assistance of an Angel who helped him place his body in the state of “Jinn.”” - Samael Aun Weor, The Aquarian Message

[ninja-muse]

Does anyone want a gender-swapped far-future Indian retelling of Aladdin with a subplot involving robot kaiju battles? How about a sci-fi novel full of anticolonial resistance and borderline unlikable characters that is also action-packed and funny? A book that moves from "sure, that might as well happen" to "oh, that got real" over the course of a page, and you both can and cannot trust the narrator?

That said, this is a good book but not a great one. For all the detail that Basu's poured into this, everything from street bazaars to tech terms used out of their present contexts to stoic superpowered space heroes to the incorporation of robots and AIs, the world of Shantiport still never felt real, and there was a little bit more "sure, why not" than I personally like in a plot. It also took a while for me to warm up to "Aladdin" and feel like I understood her, and some minor characters felt one-dimensional or archetypal. But a lot of that comes from the narrative POV, which is necessary to the story and so cool, and the rest comes from anime, Bollywood, and other pop culture tropes and Basu's intent to make this feel cinematic, which is all fair. This isn't a novel so concerned with a finely drawn world that it disregards set pieces and writes out all daring rooftop chases and improbable coincidences.

In short, this is a book that is both intensely smart but is also written to entertain. It was delightful to see all the Aladdin moments in this future context, and even better to see Basu using the story to talk about individual rights, corruption, colonization, oppression, resistance, and reclamation.* The set pieces were great, don't get me wrong. I loved the heck out of the world and how he conveyed it. I loved the narrator even more. (I'm going to call Basu masterful just for what he did with them.) I loved never quite knowing what to expect, either from Basu or the characters, and how what felt like extraneous moments or subplots got tied back in. The villain and the jinn were both fantastic. It's chewy in the way of sci-fi with a point. It made me laugh.

So yes, while it's not a perfect book, it's still pretty darn good and worth the read. It would have been a highlight of my reading month even if August hadn't been as lukewarm as it was, and I'll be watching for whatever Basu puts out next. Well worth the 10 months it spent on my TBR….

*Would it have been nice to see more of that rather than being told? Sure, but I'm not sure how Basu could have worked that in without breaking something more central to the book.

[readtilyoudie]

EDENS ZERO Vol 13

[machetelanding]

[judgeitbyitscover]

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Cover art by Sparth

Tor, October 2023

Shantiport was supposed to be a gateway to the stars. But the city is sinking, and its colonist rulers aren’t helping anyone but themselves.

Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. She loves her city and would do anything to save its people. This is, in fact, the plan for her life, made before she was even born.

Her brother, Bador, is a small monkey bot with a big attitude and bigger ambitions. He wants a chance to leave this dead-end planet and explore the universe on his own terms. But that would mean abandoning the family he loves―even if they do take him for granted.

When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumored to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings. And when you throw in a piece of sentient, off-world tech with the ability to grant three wishes into the mix… None of the city's powers will know what hit them.

[eric-mrozek]

Ahsoka is going to be out tonight, so why not join me on YouTube for an encore look at the Star Wars prequels! It'll be fun!

[aut2imagineart]

Glad I was able to finish this before my big trip on Monday.  It's become customary that whenever I create a set of characters I create a height comparison featuring them.  This set is from my story concept Gladius.  Here's a summary of all of them from left to right. S: a hardened yet compassionate wonderer who wields a glades sword possessed by a mysterious and powerful entity. Creek: a young, orphaned sapient troodontid who S took under his wing after rescuing her. Svana: a steadfast knight with a secret mission that requires S's help. Zarveen: a fierce yet composed Rakshasa assassin who was sent to eliminate S but is now make to aid him in uncovering who wants him dead and why. Rohaan & Jinani: A kind, young Sufi apprentice whose wise beyond his years & his affectionate and overly protective Jinn guardian. Makeda: A wrongfully exiled queen & weapons master who seeks strong allies to aid her in retaking her throne Curious to know which is your favorite so like always, comments and critiques are welcome.

[saturneers]

The work on this figure and its genuinely scary face is everything.

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

~ books read in 2024 ~

#1: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Bador descends on the public square, jumping off a second-floor ledge and landing lightly on a tile in the outermost row.

Rating: 3/5

Three Sentence Review: This book was a passable retelling of the Aladdin story, with a cool and well-utilized futuristic cyberpunk twist, but it didn't completely live up to my expectations. Something about the writing style was not to my taste, and while I mostly enjoyed the main characters, many of their plot-driving decisions did not make sense to me. I will admit that I enjoyed the narration / framing device, which (spoiler alert!) created a story that was simultaneously in first and third person.

[myrnaminkov]

Lina picks up the final lamp. As soon as she touches it, thin curly blue lines appear on its surface, and fade away. Bador pauses too, and watches as a puff of smoke emerges from the lamp’s slender spout. It’s holographic, not real smoke. As we all stare, it grows, then begins to form a shape.

And then it flickers, and vanishes.

There’s a sound of an explosion from the other end of the corridor. The whole room shakes, and the walls ripple.

Holographic letters appear around the lamp, in a flowing script.

“I don’t know what is says,” Lina says. “Bador, can you read this?”

“No.”

“I can,” I say. “It’s an error message. It’s out of charge.”

Samit Basu. The Jinn-Bot of Shanitport. 2023, Tor.

[dude1818]

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

Bit delayed since I was on vacation, but earlier this month I read The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu. I generally enjoyed it. It was a fun adventure in an eccentric setting, and the setup was very compelling: the POV character, Moku, is a cambot who's supposed to just hide in the background and record what his clients do. The protagonists, the brother/sister pair of Bador (monkey-bot) and Lina (human), instead keep dragging Moku into having an active role in their schemes, and it's a great dynamic to read

The basic outline of the plot is that Shantiport is a shitty place to live. Lina and her mother have a long-term plan to overthrow the crown and oligarchs that oppress the city and bring in an era of post-scarcity democracy. Bador just wants to get off the planet, or at least lead a bot uprising against the humans. To do this, they're trying to get their hands on the Jinn-bot, an off-world AI that essentially can grant any wish due to the differential in tech level between galactic civilization and this backwater planet. Of course, the powers that run the city know the Jinn-bot is out there and want it for their own use, too

The setting feels like if you took the Battle Angel Alita world and dropped it in the Murderbot Diaries universe. A lot of the narrative also feels like it might in response to Murderbot, although I don't know for sure. (The author says he wanted to tell a modern Aladin story, but it's been two decades since I've seen the Disney movie, so I can't comment on that)

Unrelated, Moku shares a similar energy with SecUnit, and I adored him. ("I'm not upset. I am not capable of that emotion," [Moku] say upsetly.) I really dug the humor. A lot of it comes from the juxtaposition between this very traditional story and setting and the very modern technology, and it was hilarious. ("The Jinn grants wishes. Three per user." "Why three?" Bador asks. "It was judged to be an appropriate free trial period," the jinn says. "More wishes can be unlocked in Unlimited Mode.")

Main complaints were when a character (usually Lina) would go on a social justice rant and totally break the flow of the story. It wasn't out-of-character, but it felt out-of-universe, and I'm sure there was a better way to get the point across without it being so jarring. Also jarring was the romance arc Lina was in. Moku even mentions that it was weird, but pointing it out doesn't make it less weird to read

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Author: Samit BasuPublisher: Tor.comReleased: October 3, 2023Received: ARC Find it on Goodreads | More Sci-Fi Reviews Book Summary: Shantiport has been fighting for its life for years. Lina and her family are painfully aware of this fact. Yet their ability to act has been limited, thanks to the level of security they’ve been placed under. All that changes when Bador, a small monkey bot, digs…

[primmlife]

Review: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

Review: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu from Tor.com. #bookcommunity #books #reviews #highlyrecommended

I grew up in a small farming village in the middle of Illinois. Outside of my small town, we were surrounded by fields of corn or soybeans, whatever was in rotation. Our big trips was to the capital city of Illinois, Springfield. It’s population of, roughly, 100,000 people was huge to me. While I loved growing up there surrounded by family, my mind was always elsewhere. Often, not on Earth. Any…

[torpublishinggroup]

GET BOOKT

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The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

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[seven-oomen]

Obi-Wan (according to the wiki) was 25 when he was in his last year as a padawan under Qui-gon Jinn. (So presumably he was 14/15 when he started).

Anakin on the other hand was exceptionally young when he started at 9. (And finished at 19). Usually they start at 14ish (like Ahsoka).

Padmé was 14 when she was elected queen of Naboo.

Cal Kestis is presumably somewhere between 11 and 13 when he became a padawan to Jaro Patal.

Like I'm sorry, but it is insane if you think about it. That children are either elected into office (Padmé) or recruited and sent out into war or 'peace missions'(Ahsoka, Anakin, to an extent Obi-Wan). And have that be par for the course in a universe.

And I know it's science fiction, I know these things happened in our past too. But forgive me for adressing these problems in my own fanfics. Because fuck me.

[jscalzi]

Starter Villain a Locus Award Finalist

That’s the cover to the Italian version, incidentally. I’m thrilled Starter Villain is a finalist for the Locus Award this year. Here are the other finalists in the Science Fiction category: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, Samit Basu (Tordotcom) A Fire Born of Exile, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz; JAB Books) Red Team Blues, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Ad Astra) Furious Heaven, Kate Elliott (Ad Astra;…