I was so intrigued by the premise and the world of this book, but unfortunately every time the action got going, it got ground to a halt by interminable info dump conversations, and these were virtually the only way the plot moved forward between bot battles.

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is Indian author Samit Basu's (writer of the fascinating novel The City Inside) new take on the story of Aladdin. The story is advertised by the marketing copy as a mash up of Aladdin and Murderbot, and to be fair there is something to that as Basu weaves a Sci-Fi story from the first person perspective of a story-bot who is supposed to stay invisible and record a story...and who naturally gets more and more involved with events instead. Add in two main characters in a young woman and her brother, a monkey-bot, who each want to use a piece of alien tech - a ring and a lamp, of course - for their own revolutionary (and a little selfish) purposes, and you have a take on Aladdin that is a little bit familiar but at the same time is very different from the takes you may be used to.

The result is an excellent and fun novel that stays somewhat true to the framework of the original story while also still featuring twists, turns, and characters that will surprise and delight a reader. The trio of main characters - monkeybot Bador, revolutionary girl Lina, and storybot Moku - are an utter delight even as they all think and behave in very different ways and Basu infuses them and the plot with a frequent humor that will make you smile even as the story never verges into comedy. Meanwhile, the story deals with some very interesting and relevant themes of oppression, individual rights for different types of beings, colonization, empire and how to change all that, and the various possible means of revolution. The end result is this is another winning installment from Basu that is well worth your time.



Plot Summary:
Moku is a story-bot, whose purpose is to process and record the narraties of his users...at least as far as he knows. To aid in this, he has high tech far beyond that of the world around him, allowing him to be invisible and to mess with cameras and other systems, as well as to read the thoughts of other bots. But he's been dormant for ages, and when he is found and awakened, he finds himself surprised at the story he's found himself in and how he's become a part of it.

For Moku's new users - users plural - are Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries who seeks to change Shantiport and to free it from the grip of the Tiger Clan, and her brother Bador, a monkey-bot, who wants to both be a hero and get off planet and to fight for Bot rights. The two of them are searching for a legendary artifact that could reshape reality according to its users wishes and allow them to achieve their dreams....if it doesn't wind up in the hands of the greedy billionaire oligarch who co-rules the city first. And as Moku, Lina, and Bador get caught up in their own desires and plotting, they soon will find themselves forced into desperate measures that will change Shantiport forever....

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is, as advertised, a Sci-Fi take on the story of Aladdin. So there's a magic ring, a magic lamp, a vizier-like antagonist who is desperately searching for the lamp etc. You also have a Jinn - well a Jinn-Bot - who gives those who control the lamp three wishes....although there's a way to possibly set the Jinn free...although in this story, unlike say the Disney version, whether that might be a good thing is another question. At the same time, Basu adds quite a lot of depth to the story via it's sci-fi setting: so you have bots with varying degrees of sentience (some are actually controlled by humans, to Bador's dissatisfaction) who struggle with unequal rights even as they sometimes fraternize with humans, you have the interplanetary Tiger Clan who controls Shantiport and keeps it somewhat oppressed, and you have an interplanetary space hero who is hanging around Shantiport with tech and abilities that are far beyond that of anyone else in the City and whom everyone is trying to woo despite his claims of neutrality, and you even have a persistent rumor that the world Shantiport is on is about to be ended for some reason.

It's using this setting that Basu does excellent work with its three main characters. In Lina, we have a young woman who was raised in a family heavily surveilled by the Tiger Clan (her father was supposedly executed for being a revolutionary even as he was a member of the Tigers) who was brought up despite that surveillance to understand how unjust Tiger Rule is, through the usual means of Imperial and Colonizing power meant only to prop up its powerful owners at the expense of those who are impoverished. Indeed, as Lina notes, the young prince of the ruling Tigers tries to go out to see what the City is really like but is deliberately kept away from anything that shows him the real dirty side of what happens to those not in favor with Tiger rule, so there is little hope of making things better. And so Lina wants to desperately find her father's last artifacts, the ring and the lamp, in order to lead a revolution to make things better...in contrast perhaps to her mother, who cynically believes that direct change even with the artifacts may go badly wrong, and that a slower more expert driven change may work....after her mother uses the artifacts to get some personal revenge (something Lina feels the urge towards but doesn't think should be a primary concern). At the same time as Lina is a revolutionary firebrand, all that comes from a state of caring which makes it easy for her to care tremendously for her younger brother Bador, even with him being a monkey-bot rather than a blood relative.

Bador is similarly desperate to cause change, but not in always the same direction as his sister, because he's always felt looked down upon as a Bot by both his sister and mother (who won't always trust him with all their secrets because of fear his programming could get hacked), despite his love for them, as if he is somewhat lesser for not being flesh and blood. And while Lina wants to change the world and then to stay, Bador wants to leave and be a space hero....after he strikes a blow for Bot Kind to show that they are deserving of equal rights. And uh, Bador is incredibly reckless at times, with his plan at one point being to intervene in a sham contest between giant bots to fight each other to the death even though he's just a tiny monkeybot, even if that bot shape of his is highly advanced. And then looking upon both Bador and Lina is Moku, who is supposed to only take in a story but can't help be invested in the two siblings and find himself incredibly frustrated at times when they (through Bador's recklessness or Lina's caring for other human desires) make decisions that could so easily go awry. And so he gains initiative on his own to some extent...although he's still basically more of a viewpoint character than an active protagonist, and is far more cowardly than the siblings.

The resultant plot that comes about from the combination of these characters, this setting, and the Aladdin narrative is a story that is often incredibly fun all the while it deals with serious themes like dealing with obtaining freedom from colonization and imperial rule and how it is possible if at all to deal with correcting the injustices left behind in a post colonial world. You have a number of really good character arcs, and while some things do occur as they did in the original one thousand and one nights version (well, not that that version is actually originally in the classic One Thousand and One Nights), enough happens in surprising new ways to keep the reader continuously on their toes. It's an excellent book and I would heavily recommend it to anyone looking for a frenetic, really fun, and innovative take on an old story with a lot relevant to say.

I absolutely adored Samit Basu’s previous novel, The City Inside, and while The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport doesn’t quite meet the bar set by that novel it’s still a phenomenally clever, enormously creative, and endearing novel.

The story is told from the point of view of Moku, a long-lost piece of alien tech known as a story-bot. His function is to observe, record, and then assemble people’s lives into stories. He was found at the bottom of one of Shantiport’s many polluted rivers, down in the muck inside of a vault by one of the book’s other main characters, Bador. Bador is a bot himself: even though he has the visage of a monkey and has eyemojis instead of eyes, he’s the little brother of a human girl named Lina. Lina, Bador, and their mother have all been under tight surveillance ever since their family patriarch disappeared under the auspices of being a dissenter. In the years since then, Lina’s been working hard to ferret out where their father hid all his hidden tech around the city and Bador has been reluctantly helping her while growing more rebellious and outspoken about bot rights and his dreams of becoming a space hero and getting out of Shantiport.

This is an Aladdin retelling, but it’s not a tightly-woven one. Basu admits in the afterword that the characters kind of went and did their own thing somewhere along the way and I assume he had to keep pulling them back in line with his original ideas. That’s totally okay. Most fairy tale retellings have to have an elasticity to the weave in order to let the author’s interpretation flow through it. I think the problem is that along with the Aladdin retelling, there’s a huge subplot to this book with bot-fighting (in the blurb you can see the nod to Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, which I’ve never read), and those bot-fights, along with the parts of the plot that come with them, take up huge chunks of page time that felt a lot like filler to me. While the bot-fighting is an important part of Bador’s journey as a character (and Moku’s, too, to an extent), I came away feeling that a lot of it was just empty page time.

The great thing about having a story-bot as a narrator is reliability. Moku is honest, to a fault. Honest and honorable. He’s sweet, caring, anxious, brave, excited, curious, studious, reflective, and capable of great amounts of emotion. At first he’s so limited in what he wants to do, thinks he can do, and thinks he needs to do, but as the books goes on Moku evolves as he begins to care about Bador and Lina as if they’re his family. He’s idealistic, romantic, and a little naive because all he knows are stories…and humans are messy. Moku is honestly my favorite character in the whole book and the only one who made me cry.

There’s a great layering in this book about the differences between generations on how to solve problems: whether to solve it in small, incremental steps and hand off the power to the next generations and trust them to make the best decisions or to make big, sweeping changes and hope the dust settles where it should. It’s about raising your children to think big and to dream big dreams and then telling them, “Hold up! I know we said to dream big, but you can’t just change everything just like that! It’s too much change! You have to think smaller and slower!” is okay or if it’s time for you to stand aside and trust that you raised your kids to do the right thing. The power has to be handed over sometime. Small changes don’t work forever. Some changes just can’t wait for a committee hearing.

Samit Basu is a masterful storyteller and an immaculate worldbuilder. He doesn’t miss anything in his books. Shantiport is a sinking city that was once beautiful. It’s been colonized too many times and has changed ruling clans again and again. It’s besieged by typhoons and pollution and mostly ruled by criminals. Basu gives you all the vibes, helps you paint the pictures in your mind, and lets you feel the humidity, the squelching mud, the glittering holographs, the plasma swords, and more. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read even though it's a little too long and a little too messy. I still highly recommend it.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Dystopian/Fairy Tale Retelling/Science Fiction

*4.5 stars rounded up

Lina, a travel guide and her brother Bador, a monkey-bot with emoji eyes, live in the city of Shantiport, once a gateway to space but is now run down and ruled in part by the oligarch Shakun Antim, Oldport contractor Paneera, and the Tiger Clan.

Bador’s dream? To win the bot tournament and become a space-faring adventurer. Oh, and to advocate for bot rights.

Lina’s dream? To rebuild Shantiport back to its former glory by overthrowing the power structures in a bloodless revolution and overcome divisions and inequalities at the core.

Along the way Bador discovers Moku, a bot inside a container buried in the river, who helps Lina and Bador by trying to unlock encrypted vaults where their family archives and private journals have been hidden away after their father’s disappearance.

My favorite part of this book? Moku! He narrates the story, which makes sense because he’s a story-bot, processing the life narratives of his users by studying their behavior and physical data from his surrounding. I adored the way he became so attached to Lina and Bador, and his humorous view of the world. If you’ve enjoyed the Murderbot series by Martha Wells, you need to pick up this book!

Basu has a gift for creative world-building, something I noticed right away in his novella, The City Inside. He’s definitely upped his game here! The world of Shantiport was complex, from the governmental systems to the technology to the setting. I’ve never seen an Aladdin retelling done quite like this before. It was amazing!

What brought the story down for me just a bit was the final third. I felt either there was non-stop action or pages of philosophical monologues. The pacing and structure could have been tightened up a bit.

But besides that, this was such a fun book to read! I was impressed with Basu’s imagination and character-work. I will absolutely be reading whatever he writes next!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the digital arc. All opinions are my own.

TL;DR

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu is a fun adventure set in a wonderful science fiction city. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

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 of my aunts or uncles can tell you I was always imagining things, and a portion of my imagination was always elsewhere. Science fiction and fantasy provided exotic elsewheres that couldn’t be found on Earth. But on the few occasions where I traveled to places like St. Louis or Chicago, I found an even more exotic location, the big city. Despite my small town roots, I enjoyed the city because it wasn’t just flat. There were layers upon layers. It felt like a science fiction setting to me. Even though that feeling wore off very quickly in the real world, that feeling, that sense of wonder and possibility, stuck with me through science fiction and fantasy stories. Whether the streets of Jeff Vandermeer’s Ambergris or China Miéville’s New Crobuzon or Catherine Valente’s Palimpsest, I love a good city setting. In The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu, I had that same sense of wonder as Lina and her brother Bador explore and adventure in the lovely city of Shantiport. This is a city that I want to visit again.

Tiger clan currently rules Shantiport, and they are in a three way power struggle with gangster Paneera and tech billionaire Shakun Antim. Tiger clan keeps close surveillance of the whole city, and extra special attention gets paid to Lina, Bador, and their mother. Zohra, mother to Lina and Bador, is a descendant of the once ruling clan, Elephant, and she married a member of the Tiger clan, Darkak. When they were young, Darkak and Zohra were idealists who sought to better the city and the plight of the people in it. However, Darkak disappeared one day and is presumed dead. That doesn’t stop Tiger clan from believing he betrayed them and that his family will also betray them. Lina and Bador have been raised to be careful, to be seen as good citizens. But they are as rebellious as their parents. Bador dreams of being a champion in a bot fighting tournament run by the gangster Paneera. He dreams of this because he is also a bot who currently wears the form of a monkey. Lina is a full human, and she has plans within plans. She has learned to adopt different faces to show the outside world in order to accomplish her goals. When Lina tricks her way into the graces of the son of Tiger clan’s ruler, she enters into a game of power that she’s not quite prepared for. Connected to it all is their father and the mystery of what happened to him.

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu is a first person point of view novel that follows Lina and Bador on their adventures through Shantiport. The main point of view is a hover bot whose purpose is to document the life of its user, and it’s chosen to accept Lina and Bador as its users. The book is a bit slow paced at first. The mysteries, characters, and world-building kept me glued to the page. Shantiport is a city that I’d like to return to.

Lina and Bador

Lina is fully human. Bador is a bot designed and created by his and Lina’s parents. They act throughout the book as siblings, and it’s great. Basu does a wonderful job depicting the complexities of the sibling relationship. At times they fight; other times they help each other. Small slights get blown up. They each vie for their parents affection and attention. Added to all this is the layer of Bador being a bot. He has a chip on his shoulder that he is treated differently because he’s a bot. This reminded me of every sibling argument about who the favorite was. I loved it.

These two are great characters, and at first it seems like their goals are different. Early in the novel, Bador notes that he fights for bot rights while his sister fights for human rights. This is an oversimplification of their respective goals, but it’s a good example of how they feel as if they’re working at cross purposes. But in the end they’re family because at its heart, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu is telling the story of their family.

Shantiport

I loved the setting of Shantiport. It combines the dystopian feel of far future science fiction cities with fun elements not usually given to dystopian settings. There’s a Kaiju versus giant robot battle in the beginning of the book. That by itself makes it a special setting. Basu doesn’t stop there, though. Shantiport has a lived in feel to it that extends to both bots and humans. There’s an entire neighborhood that was abandoned by humans and taken over by bots. In what we see, it’s a place of fighting, and a place of their own. The Tiger’s live in a palace. The buildings float as the rain floods the city. Plazas become lakes. Lower class citizens will scavenge in the mud for tech to sell. That’s where Bador finds the narrator bot. Lina works for a tour company. And surveillance is a constant that hovers at the back of people’s minds. Of course, with more privilege comes less surveillance. But cameras are everywhere; as are bot enforcers. Shantiport is a city that needs to be explored.

It would be amazing to see it come to life. I don’t know if a movie or TV series would do the setting justice or if a video game would be best. First, I pictured a Blade Runner type of setting with Indian influences mixed with the ecological disaster of flooding and sinking into the mud. Then I began to think of some of the artwork from Cyberpunk: 2077 with an Indian stylization. There are plenty of artists out there who could bring this lovely city to life.

The Narrator Bot

I have a confession to make. I almost didn’t read this book. For the first four pages, it reads like a third person point of view over Bador’s shoulder. It isn’t until the fourth page that I learned the narrator is another bot. I was so confused, and I almost quit. Because this was a review book, I started over, and I’m very glad I did. Because the narrator bot has an interesting journey in this book. At first, I believed the bot when it said its purpose was to monitor and record its user’s life. It’s a sort of persistent journal/vlog. As the story grows, so does the narrator bot. It changes beyond what the reader assumes its functions to be. Since this bot was found by Bador in the mud where its memory was erased, it’s difficult to say whether the changes were inevitable or if they came about through contact with Lina and Bador.

Being in the narrator bot’s head while it grew and changed drove as much of the story for me as the other aspects. Basu portions out these changes in the beginning until at one point the narrator bot is confronting Bador. The narrator bots journey added an extra layer to the story that I didn’t expect but was pleasantly pleased by.

Conclusion

Samit Basu’s The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport was an unexpected delight. Despite the rocky start, I dove into the book and loved it. Shantiport is an excellent setting that I wish to return to, and Lina, Bador, and Narrator Bot are characters that I want to meet again. Basu has given readers a treat, and I highly recommend you give this book a read. You won’t be disappointed.

This was so fun! I love the mashup of Aladdin and sci-fi. The plot was intriguing and kept me reading without getting bored. Definitely recommend for fans of Aladdin, robot monkeys and fast plots.

How can I even describe this book. Blade Runner meets Dragonball Z? Dune meets Super Mario Brothers? Snowpiercer meets uh… Arthur?

I was laughing constantly when I wasn’t tearing up. This book has everything and WAY more - and what an ENDING!!

🥳🥰🤩😛😂🥹 (Look I’m just trying to compensate for the fact that unlike Bador I don’t have eyemojis, I simply have standard human eyes that cannot reflect knives/prayer hands/scream face/heart emojis when that is what I’m feeling inside!!)

I’m rounding up with this one because I really enjoyed the vibrant and detailed world building. But I found the story a little too cluttered as if the author had way more to say than would fit in a single book. I’d absolutely read another book by this author, this one was good and filled with slightly rough potential. I think the author could turn out a really gem with a few more books. I’d still recommend this book to any genre reader who likes the sound of the book’s description. Even if it isn’t absolute perfection it was enjoyable! (A five star scale really isn’t enough for nuance!)

I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. The writing just dragged and dragged. It bogged down the story quite a bit.

What I liked:
The siblings were fun. I enjoyed that it was a gender bent retelling of Aladdin.

What didn't work for me:
The plot was far too slow for my taste. For a retelling of Aladdin, I would have expected things to move much more quickly than they did. I also felt like Basu was trying to address too many issues in one story - income inequality, colonialism, society's mistreatment of those considered "other." It just moved too slowly and felt too all over the place.

I have really enjoyed Basu's writing in the past, but this one did not strike a chord with me.

This is a romp around a doomed city loosely based on Aladdin. I enjoyed Bador quite a bit and the things the author had to say about bot intelligence. Will be looking up his other book for sure. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC

I was so lucky to have received this as an ARC at San Diego Comic-Con! All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read more!

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu is described as an exuberant new sci-fi adventure with heart that reads like a mash-up of “Aladdin” and Murderbot—with gloriously chaotic results. I was so excited to start this book and have to say, it was a true joy.

From the opening, Basu hits the reader with the world and doesn’t stop. For as slow paced as the action in the beginning, the world and the city of Shantiport is sprawling, chaotic and non-stop, a cyberpunk city teeming with people that feels as big as it is. And I absolutely adored the fierceness for which Lina loved Shantiport.

The primary character is really Lina, a headstrong young woman with a mission she is nearly single-mindedly focused on, and Bador, her monkey-bot brother in the midst of what feels like a teenage rebellion, as he feels that his family doesn’t share enough with him or take his big ideas seriously. The POV character is actually Moku, a story-bot, and I loved watching Moku grow from his beginning as a story-bot with his memory wiped clean. Bador’s emotions are palpable on the page, while Lina–in line with her character–is hard for Moku to read, all the way to the end.

The story has slow moments but also lots of action. How can it not when it’s “a galaxy with magic lamps and space empires and alien artifacts”? Overall, I found The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport to be a fantastic story with an intriguing world that grabbed me and wouldn’t let me stop reading.

Favorite quotes–because I had at least two!:
“I have this in many worlds–people who believe some aspect of their nature, or their person, justified their exclusion. You exist, and you deserve to belong.”

“Actually, I create a thread of hope out of nothing, and pull on it.”

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for allowing me to read this book as an ARC so I could share my honest review.

3.5 stars. Got a little more chaotic toward the middle. Basically, a cyberpunk retelling of Aladdin with loads of different issues tackled and even a robot monkey.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this e-arc.*

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley.

Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is a loose reimagining of Aladdin in a sci-fi setting in a distant galaxy complete with kaiju, Transformer-like bots, and drones. The setting of Shantiport felt very alive and fleshed out as did the politics and character motivations as situations changed with new information being given to the reader.

Lina and Bador are an unconventional pair of siblings (Lina is human and Bador is an android) with two very different goals and it feels quite real when they are on the page together. It can feel a bit distant as our POV character is the drone, Moku, but the love does come through.

This is a fun book with a ton of references if you love sci-fi and the parts that it takes from Aladdin don't bog it down or make it feel like the reference is just shoved in there. It's just the right amount for the work and what it wants to do.

The characters do grow and change as they get closer to achieving their ambitions or the ambitions they were told to want with several side characters making you ask a lot of questions as to who's wide they're on.

i have not enjoyed a sci-fi novel as much as i enjoyed this one. the pacing was captivating, the world-building superb. the characters were likeable, and even funny at times.

basu's THE JINN-BOT OF SHANTIPORT is advertised as aladdin x murderbot and it did not disappoint.

if you're looking for a modern sci-fi that is jam-packed with adventure then this book is for you.

thank you, netgalley + the publisher for the eARC

There is such lush, intricate world-building in this book , it would be a delightful movie. The descriptions of different parts of the city, and the bazaar, and the castle, are evocative of a Moroccan bazaar. There is a tone of racial prejudice against the bots, amid all the other clan and race issues, which makes for much action and intrigue.

The main family in this story are very complex, and I was immediately engaged in Moku's story, as well as Bador and Lina. There is so much going on, back in time, and in their present time, that the story is non-stop. The flow is good, always wanting to turn a page and find out what's next.

I could totally see a sequel to this, with " certain person's" story being carried on.

This is a very original take on several modern pop cultural references: mix Aladdin, anime, Bollywood, and Bladerunner. What we get is non stop action, an inventive setting, and a lot to really like here. Yes, characters are interesting but also lacking in depth - frustratingly so at times. But the story's originality carries the tale nicely to the end.

Story: Shantiport is dying but Lina and her family want to save it. They all have different ideas on how to do so but everything hinges on a hidden legacy of alien tech left by their father in a secret location. The family would love to find the vault where it is hidden but so would a very powerful high placed official; a man with a history to the family, a grudge, and who may even be responsible for their father's death.

The story is told from the perspective of a special bot who doesn't have a past (and whose past is hinted at but never explored). There are the usual Aladdin suspects: an evil vizier, an ineffectual ruler, a royal love interest, and then our diamond in the rough (in a nice juxtaposition, Lina is the commoner and a not-prince is her love interest). Although there may be a lot of Disney's version of Aladdin here, it is still a mature novel with adult themes.

The anime aspect comes in the form of Lina's android 'brother' - a monkey-shaped AI who dreams of kaiju battles and power ups. We see both Lina and her brother Bador from the perspective of the 'story bot', so at times it can be really hard to get a grasp on their characters. More so for the very ambivalent prince and obviously evil 'vizier'. Dialogues seemed very stilted and odd, which may lend to making the book feel more sci fi or at worst somewhat disenfranchising from the warmth and heart of the story.

In all, this was very enjoyable. Admittedly, I did skip over the 'anime' battles since I found them less interesting and somewhat disconnected from the more interesting story of Lina and her family. The Bengali theme of saris, clans, and architecture were well represented and I really appreciated that aspect of the writing. The story moves well, has a good denouement, and is a fresh take on sci fi. This is very readable - you don't need to be into sci fi to enjoy the story. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

World / Setting
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is a standalone tale that takes place in a cyberpunk-ish sci-fi world with bots and humans, space travel and aliens. Shantiport itself was meant to be the shining beacon of progress and trade on its planet, but is now plagued by inequality, government surveillance, and a tyrannical ruling clan. The common people struggle to get by and the city’s infrastructure—a system of canals and water-leveled foundations—is failing and causing flooding and destruction. There is a rumor that the world is ending and those with the means are taking the opportunity to escape the planet, further upsetting the economics of the city. Bots are sort of recognized as people, but there are clearly some unequal power dynamics involved and a disenfranchisement of the bot population along with the less-privileged humans of the city.

Characters
We follow two main characters, siblings Alina and Bador. They are the children of two resistance leaders of the past generation: their father “disappeared” presumably by the ruling clan, and their mother living under intense surveillance. Alina is a human and wants to save the city of Shantiport from the injustices and collapse its people face, and somehow shape it into a social ideal of equality and resource distribution. She is a bit idealistic and is determined to make some lasting change in the city, and often jumps into things in a way that feels a bit ill-considered and impulsive. Bador is a bot and has given up on the city; he wants only to escape to better planets and adventure in the stars. His plan is to fight in a bot tournament, win, and be taken up by the legendary (i.e. perhaps only a legend) space heroes. He's witty and snarky and, while he resents it a bit, he always shows up to help when Alina needs him.
The odd thing is that it’s told from the first-person perspective of a third character, Moku, who is a story-bot—a sort of biographer bot trained to observe and record a life. I’m generally a fan of odd narrative styles, but this choice didn’t quite work for me. Having a narrator who is his own character, present in scenes but not often taking part, only relaying the events to the reader added a strange distance between the reader and the characters. And since the reader is so external to the "main" characters, their motivations and justifications often come in lengthy sections of dialogue, if at all. Moku’s observational commentary throughout is fairly entertaining and his interactions with Bador especially are often fun, but as a character-driven reader I struggled with the distance from Alina and Bador and while we were close to Moku, we didn’t get much characterization since he was primarily an observer for so much of the story. I will say, when Moku does find some agency in the story at about 75%, I started to get really engaged and loved him. By the end all three have satisfying character arcs, but it was more of a struggle to get there as the reader than I would have preferred.

Plot
This is a sort-of retelling of Aladdin, so a lot of the plot points are going to be recognizable to readers familiar with any version of that tale. The line is blurred between tech and magic, with the titular Jinn-Bot being alien tech so advanced as to essentially be able to perform magic. We have a power-hungry antagonist, a folk-hero legend and setup, and a ring and a lamp. However, the story definitely takes on a life of its own, and takes a much broader look at the influences of power, and clearly wants to deal with the issues of social inequality and flawed systems, as well as the pitfalls and costs of resistance and reform. There are a lot of big ideas explored throughout the book, and it occasionally felt like it was distracting itself from one thing to go explore another. Taken all together I think it largely worked and succeeded in its ambitious goal, but between the many threads and the narrative style having to address some of these ideas through long monologues or lengthy character dialogues, it didn’t always feel the most elegant.

Recommended Audience
Readers who enjoy sci-fi settings that explore big social ideas.
Readers who want to read some pretty wild bot and mecha fights, with lots of wink-and-nod references built-in.
Readers looking for retellings and reimaginings of classic folk tales.

Thank for the ARC!

Set in Shantiport, a city sinking into chaos, "The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport" weaves a captivating tale of family, revolution, and the power to reshape reality. Lina, born into a legacy of failed revolutionaries, is determined to save her beloved city. Her brother Bador, a spirited monkey bot, dreams of interstellar exploration. When a tech billionaire manipulates Lina into retrieving a reality-altering artifact, their fates intertwine with ancient forces.

This gripping narrative unfolds against a backdrop of societal decay, political intrigue, and technological marvels. With the addition of a sentient, wish-granting off-world tech, the story takes a thrilling turn, leaving the city's powerful elites in disarray. "The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport" promises a rollercoaster of emotions, complex characters, and a world on the brink of transformation. Don't miss out on this epic journey, filled with surprises and thought-provoking themes!

I received an advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley and Tordotcom..This is an honest review based on my opinions.

This is a wild cyberpunk retelling of Aladdin. We follow a pair of siblings, Lina and Bardur. Lina is a tour guide in the city of Shantiport. She loves her city. She loves the people in it. She will do almost anything to save it. Her brother Bardur is a monkey-shaped bot with an obsession for becoming the best bot fighter he can be so that he can escape Shantiport and become a space hero.

After finding a story bot, Moku, the siblings attempt to fulfill their father's life's work. In the process, they make fierce enemies, potential friends, and mysterious allies.

I'm honestly finding this book particularly hard to review. It has so much in it that I found enjoyable, and I appreciated the time that I spent with it. I know that it's not going to be for everyone, though.

There's lots of political intrigue here in between bouts of mad bot fighting. The quests that the siblings went on are intriguing, and I did want to find out what was going on.

There were, however, moments of conversation that stretched for pages and pages and pages.

By the end, though, I was riveted, and I think I liked it a lot. You might like it too if you enjoy political intrigue with a side of mayhem and a jinn bot.