Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for the ARC.

This was a fun sci-fi novel set in a sinking cyberpunk world that was loosely inspired by the tale of Aladdin. Lina is a the daughter of failed revolutionaries and she has been trained her whole life to do what her parents couldn’t do: save her city. In the meantime, her brother Bador, who is a monkey-shaped robot, is feeling overlooked and ignored. Forget about saving Shantiport, he’d much rather leave forever. With a rumour circulating that the planet is about to die, time is running out for whatever Lina is planning.

The way the story is written really reflects that ‘race against time’ feeling. It’s so fast paced that it’s basically one escapade strung after another with not much room to process a ton of ideas that I thought were cool. I have such mixed feelings about this book.

I really liked a lot of the character concepts and plot elements separately. We meet an invisible drone, a wish granting Jinn, a corrupt oligarch who makes an extremely good villain, a space hero, and various other interesting characters. There are even Mecha-Kaiju fights run by a mob boss which provided a lot of action-packed scenes and I thought were a fun way to learn more about Bador and track his growth.

-The narration was fantastic! Moku, the invisible drone was the narrator and since he split his time between Lina and Bador, we get to see all the important moments through him as he struggles to not form his own opinions. At first I didn’t like it because it created some distance from the characters, but the way the story developed helped me to really appreciate that choice and he ended up being my favorite character.

-The city itself! Shantiport’s different neighbourhoods, from the rich people’s abandoned apartments, to underwater neighbourhoods, to secret treasure chambers, and the seedy underbelly of the town, the descriptions really bring the city to life and it felt vibrant and decaying by turns.

However, I just sometimes felt like the novel was a tiny car, stuffed to the brim with clowns, and I didn’t know why some of them were even there. There was a whole side character arc that I wish wasn’t there and is the source of most of my issues with the book. Especially concerning the ending, which I didn’t like. Lots of threads were left dangling and not in a fun ambiguous way that invites theorizing but in a frustratingly anticlimactic way.

Read this if you like:

-Action-Adventure Sci-fi
-Robot narrators trying to understand humanity
-Creative South Asian voices in SFF

DNF at about 25 %, it just could not keep my interest. The characters weren’t engaging and their storylines were quite disjointed. At the quarter mark I didn’t see that progressing any faster so I chose to set it aside.

to describe this story as “cyberpunk Aladdin” is true, but also (I think) reductive; it’s a rollicking adventure in its own right, featuring (among other things) an extremely queer cast, troubled sibling relationships, thoughtful commentary on revolutions and politics, giant robot combat tournaments, an incredible sense of humor, and a charming robot narrator. literally what else can you ask for from a book? in short: I loved it, and if you want a fun, engaging, laugh-out-loud funny sci-fi read, I highly recommend picking this one up.

simply everything about this book was excellent. the worldbuilding was creative and extensive, and though the story drops you right in with very little explanation, it’s not difficult to follow (especially if you have a basic familiarity with common sci-fi conventions). I won’t say too much about the plot, because its frequent unpredictable and chaotic twists and turns are a significant portion of what makes the book so fun, but it kept me totally engrossed from start to finish. the characters are wonderful and complex, and even the minor characters are well-developed and feel vibrant (even when they’re clearly aimed at fitting a certain archetype or role — shout out to Tanai the Space Adventurer!!). there’s plenty of wonderful humor, and underneath it all is a lot of very serious thought about power, and oligarchy, and revolution.

a charming, fun, and engaging read from start to finish: highly recommended, and out on 10/3! thanks so very much to Tor and Netgalley for the ARC!

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book eventually shaped up into a truly fascinating hi-tech story that straddles an interesting line between Aladdin and classic Monkey King tropes. It revels in so many robot dynamics, poor port town underworld stuff, and the even more classic "be careful what you wish for".

I'll admit that I enjoyed it much more after the wishes start coming in. The build-up was necessary but to me, it felt a little slow. It's great for those of us who love robot characters, however, and when things get spicy, I'm loving the mythology and SF mix. Later on, everything takes off in interesting directions.

It's definitely an interesting SF adventure that pulls in a lot of great old myths and stories. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

Thank you for this free ARC, the opinions that follow are my own.
This was such an intriguing SF book. I enjoyed the world building and the characters (especially Bador)! My main criticism about this book was the info dumping. Otherwise, really enjoyable read!

Weird. Ridiculous. Unhinged. Perfect.

This is on par with Gideon the Ninth for being just... a fun, irreverent, absurd sci-fi space adventure... thing... that I did not want to stop reading. There was not one single thing about this book that I didn't enjoy, and I just hope there is a sequel one day even though it functions as a standalone, because I am greedy and I want more of these characters. ESPECIALLY my little trash monkey, Badur.

So much fun to read. I needed this.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

A brand new scifi that is being promoted as Aladdin meet Murderbot, and it was fantastic. It takes place in a dystopian high surveillance city and we follow some characters who are fighting back. This does take more of a funny, delightful route which is right up my alley. It's a really nice unique change to your serious complex scifi.
Full review to come on YouTube

Wow!
I loved this!

The pacing of the novel is generally well-maintained, with a good balance of action, discovery, and character development. However, there are moments when the story drags a bit, particularly in the middle section. Nonetheless, the gripping climax and the resolution of the plot ties up loose ends and delivers a satisfying conclusion.

Rahman's storytelling prowess shines through as she seamlessly integrates themes of friendship, family, and the consequences of one's actions into a tale of magical intrigue. The book also subtly touches on issues of diversity and multiculturalism, adding another layer of depth to the narrative.

Must buy author!

Samit Basu set out to write an Aladdin retelling. And he does it; exploring the themes and characters at play. You’ll find familiar plot points and dilemmas even as Basu adapts the setting, the power structure, swaps out some genders and offers single roles to multiple cast members. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport will be familiar to Aladdin, but Basu delivers so much more.
In the “Acknowledgments,” Basu admits that while building a “new house for a fable that I could see was tired and lost,” […] “ the place I set the new story in, and the people who lived there, started demanding to be let in. This book is what happened after they took over and invited their friends.” He goes on to call them “unruly creatures” and the novel reflects that. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport has some unusual aspects to its structure.
Basu opens the first chapter in third person introducing us to Bador, a Bot in the sincere likeness of a monkey but for his eyes which are a length of screen that telegraph “eyemojis.” Partway through, Basu introduces a Bot, Moku, whom Bador has recently salvaged and awoken. With the turn of the page, we are in a first person narrative via Moku and the novel will continue through the self-described biographer Bot for as long as we have them. It felt odd, the shift, and I appreciated the turn of the page even if we didn’t get a more conventional new chapter to observe the unanticipated shift in POV. The thing is, it actually works in the greater scheme of the novel. While Basu needed to set the stage, dropping us mise-en-scène and quickly grounding the characters of Shantiport, Bador, and his sister Lina, there is a necessity for Moku to be just as present as the others from the very beginning, Chapter 1.
Moku becomes the narrator, going against their standard protocols and splits their time between the siblings. At first Moku is able to access Bador’s thoughts so we gain some third person limited observations of his thinking, but once that stops—for narrative reasons—we are left solely to what Moku observes, feels, speculates, and self-reflects. They are an enjoyable narrator and they foreground a lovely aspect of the novel which is emotional-passionate self-determining Bots. Bots who have personhood and struggle in a human-ruled society/culture to win that acknowledgement (to say nothing of the rights that follow).
What it means to be limited to Moku’s observer function is to follow the logic of the plot and not a logic in conventional structure. There is no predictive alternating between protagonists and their plan. In a way, Moku becomes as subject to the characters and their antics as the author claims he was. Whoever gets Moku’s company delivers the action and develops their part of the story. This looks like going from an mob-run Arena Bot fights involving kaiju to local and planetary history lessons to the introduction of a galactic space hero to the seduction of a Not-Prince to standard familial drama to chase scenes or narrow escapes to pages of debate on governance delivered by revolutionaries—this is not the order, just a gist of the kind of blocking of narrative that can occur. It means setting down the novel could mean picking it up and finding yourself in a new facet of the story. It can be unexpected, and it works—if you find the passionate, articulate characters compelling. It can feel dense at times (I can’t say a slog, because Basu is lending you energy from the text, but I see some of us scanning pages).
Moku’s observer function also means that at times we are given huge blocks of dialog between characters. Some may need to annotate who is saying what. I like Basu’s decision to rely on the reader tracking a two person exchange for pages, because ‘X says’ will drive you around the bend. And while the discourse may feel heavy with inaction, it’s still part of the action-intrigue of the novel, just as much as the Bador’s more bombastic mob-interactions and Lina’s romantic endeavors.
The characters with their own distinct personalities and agendas may add an unruliness to the way the story is told, but Basu brings it all together with plenty of twists and turns. He uses the growth of already un/predictable characters to glorious effect. Whose plan will succeed? And what is their plan?! Will a character follow through? What is actually going on?
Lina is the hardest to read for Moku and everyone else in her life (including the reader). You get a better sense of her as the story progresses, but mostly through the ways in which she defies expectation—the narrator’s, not just ours. Bador is the more expressive, declarative sibling. He communicates his desires as he has them; admits he’s winging it; and is not only comfortable with, but seeks to integrate chaos. He reminds me of Rocket from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy—the films (I haven’t read the comics). Bador has an overt ferocity, a similar sense of humor, and experiences incredible conflict with his difference and his place within a family unit. He is both incredibly selfish and incredibly loyal; and so is Lina. It’s a gorgeous aspect of the novel, the divergences between companions-turned-siblings and how the two of them, as a unit, work. I love that they work; not how they were designed to, but how they each determined to work.
Self/determination is a much talked about conversation in the novel. Besides the setting and the ways the Bots function and are described, explorations of what it means to be autonomous find familiarity for those who’ve read Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries. It makes sense in the context of Aladdin as well. Reinvention, reprogramming. What would it look like to live under different circumstances? And who will empower you—or leave you alone—to do it? Who has the power to determine people’s fortune? Who sets the terms and conditions? Who and what is the collateral damage?
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is unafraid of weighty topics (have I mentioned imperialism…colonialism?). Jinn-Bot will find its counterweight via questionable strategies on the part of the heroes and bad-ass secondary characters (even the villainous kind). The characters and their various activities dictate the novel’s pacing, but eventually, even they will get swept up into a page-turning conclusion. Basu manages to bring everything and everyone together into a conclusion that none of them could actually foresee. The unruly creatures played their roles to the fullness of their being, holding nothing back (not even Lina or Moku). Like Aladdin, who defied expectation and took hold of the power he found himself in possession of, the world could not be left unchanged. Of course, the consequences of that is on the novel’s mind, all the way through to its conclusion. It’s a wild ride, involving things well outside of one’s control—rich or poor; Bot or human; Author or Reader.

A reimagining of Aladdin that is as engaging as it is complex, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport has a great balance of original lore and new ideas.

It took me a little bit to really get into this novel, but once I did, I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

My knowledge of the story of Aladdin is mainly the Disney version, which is what I based my reading of the book on (I watched the movie just about a million times as a kid. It was the first movie I remember watching in the theatre and Jasmin was one of my childhood heroes).

That being said, this novel is not just Aladdin reworked following the same story. Not at all! First of all, the world-building is absolutely fantastic. The story takes place in Shantiport, a major city of a planet that is part of a larger universe that includes aliens, external wars, and galactic concerns, but almost none of that is mentioned aside from in passing. In this way, the universe feels extensive and serves to ground the city’s concerns. You totally understand that this is a backwater planet (in the sense that it’s far from trade lines and has minimal political weight, not that it’s like pastoral) with a struggling economy, and that aspect plays greatly into the plot and story.

The technology is incredibly detailed and both awesome and terrifying. People are watched constantly, it’s common for AI to have sentience, and everyone is equipped with enhancements and mods. In this way, the tech feels seamlessly integrated into the story and is also a major component of it. Basically, the world-building is top-notch if you love high-tech stuff but aren’t as into like cyberpunk.

The writing style is wonderful because it’s a mix of first-person and third, but not in the way you expect. We have the main character, who is a bot, that two other characters befriend, who narrates the story. But because he’s an observer bot he’s telling the story of the other characters and while he sometimes dips into first person, the description of battles and other events is told in third person as he’s watching it but not involved in most of it. It’s a great way to include both types of POVs and I thought it was clever.

In terms of the characters, the narrator was my favourite, and it seemed to me that he was based on the flying carpet from Aladdin. In a similar way, the novel contains other loosely based on characters. In this case, we have Lina, whom I originally thought was supposed to be Aladdin, but that gets twisted around, and Abu, who is Bador, but in this case, he’s a super-advanced AI monkey that can talk and wants to be an arena fighter, and Jasmin is Jaiful, a prince. The Jinn doesn’t show up until halfway through, and the Jafar character is fine as a villain, but the best depiction is that of Iago. It’s wild and I loved it.

There’s also a rather fun twist at the end between two characters that was amazing in how surprising it was and how it felt to me, like a funny allusion to a scene in the Disney movie.

In terms of critique, the writing is a bit too reliant on description at times, and I felt it hard to really engage with a few of the characters - Lina especially - but I was so intrigued by the worldbuilding and action scenes that I didn’t need that to remain entertained. There were some long dialogue exchanges that felt a bit didactic in terms of discussing socio-political issues that I could have done without, though. At those points, I was almost like, "Yeah, yeah, I understand the complexities of righting an inherently corruptive and repressive system, get on with it."

Overall, though, if you love high-tech adaptations of older stories, AI and robots, politics, and strong world-building, you’ll totally love this. It's a lot of fun!

What a fun ride! It's been a while since I've read a science fiction novel so invigorating, but Samit Basu shone with the writing. Shantiport shows off the philosophy of humans and bots alike, and the humanity we can find in any being. Highly recommend to all science fiction fans!

This book, y'all. Murderbot walked so that Jinn-bot of Shantiport could fly (off the rockers, in the best way imaginable).

It's easily the most entertaining, gleeful, break-out-laughing book I have read this year, and at the same time one of the smartest and kindest -- and I'm delighted by this discovery of this combination. It's a reimagining of Aladdin in space, and it's a romp and a half with the most vividly depicted cast (I love Moku so much. And Bador. And Lina. And everyone!). It was thrilling to both recognize the beats of the legend overlayed over the characters, and to be taken by surprise by the wild plot twists that are completely organic to the zany fabric of reality in which Shantiport exists. For a price of one you are getting an unputdownable adventure, and a relentless critic of humanity's main character syndrome, but not an unkind one. There is just so much heart in this story there is enough for everyone.

I can't wait for the publication date for this one, because I'm going to rock up to the bookstore and buy, like, ten copies to give to friends. Their birthday presents are sorted :D

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Dot Com for an advance copy of The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
This was a pretty fun romp in a South Asian future city, full of surveillance and robots and politics. I enjoyed big swaths of it, but there was a LOT going on. Was this a bot battle book? A bot rights book? A screed against political surveillance? A meditation on how to have an ethical and lasting revolution? Or was it all of that? Also the ending seemed weird. But if you are up for all of those things, it is fun. I liked that the narrator was a bot. Fun perspective.

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport was an entertaining science fiction adventure with a very memorable narrator Moku. Moku is a story telling bot who is a companion to siblings Bador and Lina. As these siblings set out to change their world, Moku becomes entangled in many amusing situations.

The world - building in this novel was very detailed and the author included many philosophical conversations between the characters regarding social issues they faced. There were a lot of moments in the book that made me laugh out loud and I enjoyed how the characters learned from their mistakes. The book itself had a good balance of both character and world building which I found very refreshing. The narrator Moku is definitely one of the most memorable characters I’ve ever read. I do not want to give too much away but if you are looking for a book that is told from a unique perspective, I would definitely recommend this book.

The second half of the book did seem to drag on for me. There was a lot of dialogue that felt overwhelming at times, but the ending was worth it. There were also a lot of twist and turns in the plot that I was not expecting at all. It was hard to tell the direction the book was going in. Though the book was chaotic at times, I found myself unable to put the book down.

Thank you Netgalley and Tordotcom for providing me an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

A spectacular mess that swung for the fences and struck out.

I read an advance reader copy of The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport.

I really wanted to vibe with this book more than I did, because it's smart and interesting and makes you think--all excellent things. Also, a sci fi reimagining of Aladdin sounded super fun!

However, I felt pretty distant from the characters (in part due to the narrative device, I think--the narrator is a story bot whose primary function is to observe, which is a neat concept but does impose an additional filter). I would have liked to see more of Lina and less of Bador, a monkey bot who spends a lot of time on really poor decisions involving bot fights. (And yes, the book has me questioning whether I share the human bias against bots, which, of course, are fictional... so it's definitely thought-provoking!) I'm also surprised to see so many reviewers saying it's a thrill ride--to me the pacing of the actual plot felt pretty slow, although there are a lot of action scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this science fiction story about a dying city, corruption and the surveillance state, rebellion and a monkey bot.

As a long, long time science fiction reader there have been a lot of things that have changed over the years. One of the biggest is the rise of diversity among the writers of science fiction, with women, non-binary, and people from different backgrounds and cultures. Science fiction would treat women authors as, oh look one of the women in science fiction, or books from other countries as, oh look a book from the premiere science fiction writer of Poland, as if they were a subgenre. Oh you like space opera from women writers in Iron Curtain countries, here is your one book. There was so much gatekeeping, from editors of magazines with their weird thoughts, from writers, with their weird thoughts, publishers and sadly fans who even though science fiction is about new things, found new things an anathema. Yes there is still gatekeeping as recent award fiascos have proven, but more publishers, big publishers are taking chances, and we readers are in a new golden age of stories. Stories with plots that when I worked in Waldenbooks so many years ago putting out Baen Man Kzin wars volume whatever I never thought I would see. For example a sinking city, ruled by the elite who care little for it, keeping control with clans of enforcers using surveillance state tactics, vie against a freedom fighter, a monkey bot and a drone that records their story looking basically for a genie that grants wishes. I'm sure John Campbell did about 40 stories like this in Analog Magazine during the 1960's. I kid. This is all fresh and different, what science fiction should be. The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Indian novelist Samit Basu is an exciting mix of themes that does what good science fiction should do, show the problems of today, and give hope to a better future.

Bador is a monkey bot, who causes chaos without meaning to, it is just something that comes naturally. Bador has dreams of leaving his home of Shantiport, a space town that is slowly dying, sinking into the planet, and being throttled by both outside and inside forces. The elite care little for the city, caring only for their own comforts, and keeping control, thought surveillance and clans that keep the people down. Bador's sister Lina is a daughter of revolution and wants to fight for her city, but so far the revolution has not been going well. Bador has found in the muck a drone Moka, who can derail most of the watchers that keep an eye on them, and also has the ability to record both Bador and Lina as a sort of a story drone. Lina is tasked by a wealthy patron to find an artifact one that might not be of the planet, with the ability to alter reality, to literally make dreams come true. And Shantiport will not be the same.

A very funny romp that is both a look the modern world, the role of elites, the post colonial world, and monkey bots. There is much going on, and Basu is very good at keeping a steady hand, balancing both humor, sadness, and a little depression, with very good storytelling and ideas. There might be a little info-dumping but, the book reads well, and is a lot of fun. The characters make the story. All of them are unique in both their actions and feelings even Moku. I enjoy the idea of Shantiport and would like to know more about what is happening in the broader universe, and where things might go. This is the second book that I have read by Basu, and both are different kinds of stories, and I can't wait to read more.

Recommended for people who like different ideas in their science fiction, and want to look at the universe through another point of view. Also role players will enjoy this book as a good way of mixing magic and myth in science fiction settings. A lot of good ideas, cleverly told, and quite a lot of fun.

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is a sci-fi Aladdin retelling. It takes place on a planet called Shantiport, which is seemingly a dying planet that is full of people and bots. We follow a bot called Moku, who is discovered by a monkey bot called Bador, and who agrees to help Bador and his sister Lina with plans to save the city.

Pros:
I thought this was a super interesting twist on the Aladdin story. There are a whole bunch of characters that you think may represent a character in Aladdin (such as Aladdin, Jasmine, and Abu) but really none of them are who you think they are. There are some shocking twists in this story that kept me engaged! I also loved that it was a stand alone story. My favorite character was Moku because he was so wholesome and just full of love for Bador and Lina, even in the times that they weren't super nice to him.

Cons: Though I really enjoyed the story, a big part of it was the political system, which I was a little confused at, and therefore made the story a bit difficult to follow. There is a ruler of Shanitport, as well as an Oligarch, and a clan, which all seem to be in conjunction with each other until they are not. I had a hard time following these 3 different ruling bodies. I also felt the characters lacked development. We see everything through the bot Moku's eye, and he has a hard time reading people, so we don't really understand the character's motivations and emotions.

Overall, I think sci-fi fans will eat this world up! I especially want to recommend this to people who are interested in folklore retellings/Disney retellings tailored towards adults. I personally will rate it a 3.5/5 stars, but I think a lot of people will be rating it even higher due to its unique twists and exciting story!

Thank you so much to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review!

I loveddddd this one, to be fair tordotcom can do no wrong in my eyes. Jinnbot was right up my alley. I loved the brother and sister duo, the world, etc. it was amazing!

A post-cyberpunk fantasy that will take you on a magic (bubble-sphere) ride.

This book will have you from the first chapter and it will be hard to put down. The world building is highly innovative and easy to fall into. Samit Basu does a great job of overlapping high tech with modern underground culture.

In the end notes of the book Samit Basu mentions this started as an Aladdin re-telling and it's a joy to find the Easter eggs of those references. However, as the story progresses it has it's own distinctive voice and pacing. What starts as a potentially dystopic narrative actually ends up being suffused with optimism. Our main characters, Lina and Bador are not alienated loaners, but full members of the community they live in.

Lina is a human, her brother is a bot that looks like a monkey (who is hilarious!) and they discover a 'story-bot' (Moku) which is a hovering disc-like AI which is documenting their story. It is through Moku's eyes that we are told the story of the siblings as they navigate their world, discover hidden alien tech (the lamp) and debate how to use their wishes to improve the world around them.

Where the story falters, is the sheer number of characters in this world. The world definitely feels lived in and alive, but it was hard to keep track of who everyone is, how they are connected to each other and because of the limits of time and story length, they don't all get fully fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for this advanced reader copy.

This book is best read while spray painting 'Aladdin will Rise' on an crumbling wall, but watch out as a kaiju is battling a giant mecha the next street over and cam-drones are everywhere.