#the jinn bot of shantiport

[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.

[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

[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.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

set in a cyberpunk Calcutta-inspired city, loosely inspired by Aladdin

chaotic monkey bot who wants to fight in underground mecha/bot tournaments and leave to become a space hero

his human sister, the daughter of failed revolutionaries who has been working her whole life to free their city from oppression and inequality, especially with the recent rumors that their planet is scheduled for destruction

and an old unearthed bot whose function is to observe & record the story of a client who meets the siblings and quickly becomes involved in their lives

and a treasure hunt to find an old and powerful piece of alien tech that has the power to radically change their city

[torpublishinggroup]

Release Roundup - 10.3.23

it's tuesday, and that means NEW BOOKS

we're running down everything releasing new from us today, right here 😎

👇title info below👇

Tor Books

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

After the Forest by Kell Woods

Princess of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

TorDotCom Publishing

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Nightfire

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson

Forge

Valley of Refuge by John Teschner

The Murder of Andrew Johnson by Burt Solomon

[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.

[le-trash-prince]

Things I loved about The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

The narrative device of a storyteller bot

The mutability of Lina's character and the fact that we only come to understand her on her own terms

The relentless fight for equality for humans and non-humans

Non-humanoid queer and nb robots!!!

Moku 🥺

Bador's desperateness to be treated as a person

The humor!

Bador's eyemojis 😍

Juifur being a true himbo

Tanai's bishounen aura ✨

The not-so-subtle digs at other versions of Aladdin

[bookblogforbooks]

Book mail book mail book mail book mail

@tordotcom @torbooks

[rocket-candy-heart]

Have not found a single book that has gripped me so far this year. I have, in fact, read only TWO new books so far this year which makes me wonder what is going on.

[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…

[lilibetbombshell]

[wannabe-british-fangirl]

And with that, 2023 comes to a close...

(Never mind that I finished this book at about 12:35am local time. I am still counting it on my 2023 reading list!)

I honestly surprised myself with how much I read this year. Audiobooks played a big part in that, as did letting go of my previous reluctance to read / listen to more than one book at a time.

A few notes (mostly for my own benefit) about my reading journey this year:

Having a reading planner was quite enjoyable! I liked keeping better track of exactly when I started & ended each story. It also gave me space to jot down my thoughts immediately after finishing the book, which greatly helped in some cases where it took me a week plus to create the moodboard.

The Lord Edgington Investigates series in audiobook format is an absolute gem for any George Blagden fans out there! He is a great narrator, and the stories are genuinely entertaining as well.

The Invisible Library books continued to impress this year. I hope to finish the series in 2024!

I enjoyed diving into Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles this year at the recommendation of a family member. But I will admit, I am intimidated when it comes to considering where to start with any of their other series...

Branching out into some additional genres this year was fun, including memoirs, graphic novels, and middle grade books. I have a goal to read at least one non-fiction book next year.

Re-reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians was so much fun that I plan to re-read more Riordan-verse in 2024!

This moodboard marks the 101st one I have made since I started tracking my books this way in 2020. I enjoy doing it, even if many of them don't get any notes. I will keep at it next year, but perhaps with some format changes...

First up in 2024 will be finishing a book I started earlier this month - The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport. After that... we'll see! Feel free to pass along recommendations if you have any!

~ books read in 2023 ~

#38: Juniper's Christmas by Eoin Colfer

I'm sure you know Santa's story. Everyone knows it, but since it's one of the greatest tragedies of all time I shall summarize here before we move on to the story of a girl from London who would track down Santa Claus when he hid himself away from the world.

Rating: 5/5

[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…

[nzbookwyrm]

[aroaessidhe]

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, Samit Basu

[torpublishinggroup]

GET BOOKT

A guide of books to gift the people in your life and yourself!

For the person who made a 200+ slide powerpoint about Neon Genesis Evangelion for a presentation party… Also for those who attend presentation parties…

The Archive Undying by @emcandon

For all former and current theater kids (affectionate)...

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For the reader who prefers their off-the-wall science fiction tempered with social commentary, or enjoys social commentary in a space opera font…

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

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For the friend with the SHUDDER account…

Piñata: A Novel by Leopoldo Gout

For the burned-out chosen one who’s so, so tired…

The Saint of Bright Doors by @adamantine

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The Water Outlaws by S. L. Huang

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Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

For the “smash first, questions later” friend in your life…

Ebony Gate by Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle

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The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older

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For the reader who wished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was actually Jonathan Strange/Mr Norrell…

The Last Binding trilogy by @fahye, including: 

● A Marvellous Light

● A Restless Truth

● A Power Unbound

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Not enough books? We agree. Check out our other GET BOOKT guide.