Dans Mon Catalogue

416 pages

English language

Published Oct. 3, 2023 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom, Tordotcom.

ISBN:: 9781250827517
ASIN:: 1250827515
Goodreads:: 65211707

(2 reviews)

From international bestseller Samit Basu, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is an exuberant new sci-fi adventure with heart that reads like a mash-up of Aladdin and Murderbot—with gloriously chaotic results

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 …

From international bestseller Samit Basu, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is an exuberant new sci-fi adventure with heart that reads like a mash-up of Aladdin and Murderbot—with gloriously chaotic results

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.

1 edition

Kelson Reads reviewed Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Much more than a Cyberpunk Aladdin!

5 stars

To call The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport a cyberpunk version of Aladdin would be a disservice. It takes that as a starting point and gleefully launches into a tale of political upheaval, prize-fighting robots, kaiju and mechs, unwanted legacies, family secrets, betrayal, loyalty, a Not-Prince, oppression, opulence, AI rights, pervasive surveillance, masking who you are, and of course sufficiently advanced technology that can grant wishes (only three for the trial period, but unlimited wishes can be unlocked for...well, you get the idea), all set in a crumbling spaceport slowly sinking into the mud on a backwater planet where everyone's sure the world is ending soon, but no one's sure how or why, and it hardly matters because no one can afford to leave anyway.

It's a glorious mishmash of all this and more, wrapped around the human Lina and her monkey-bot brother Bador, filtered through a storytelling bot who has just …

To call The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport a cyberpunk version of Aladdin would be a disservice. It takes that as a starting point and gleefully launches into a tale of political upheaval, prize-fighting robots, kaiju and mechs, unwanted legacies, family secrets, betrayal, loyalty, a Not-Prince, oppression, opulence, AI rights, pervasive surveillance, masking who you are, and of course sufficiently advanced technology that can grant wishes (only three for the trial period, but unlimited wishes can be unlocked for...well, you get the idea), all set in a crumbling spaceport slowly sinking into the mud on a backwater planet where everyone's sure the world is ending soon, but no one's sure how or why, and it hardly matters because no one can afford to leave anyway.

It's a glorious mishmash of all this and more, wrapped around the human Lina and her monkey-bot brother Bador, filtered through a storytelling bot who has just woken up from being factory-reset and is trying to make sense of the totally illogical humans and bots, not to mention the city itself.

Great fun, highly recommended.

(Cross-posted from my website)

joachim@lire.boitam.eu reviewed Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

A solid, fun, imaginative and enjoyable book

5 stars

Samit Basu doesn’t lack humour and imagination, which make this story very enjoyable. His previous books have mixed cultural and political elements of Indian life with fantasy and science fiction, enriching old westerner tropes and bringing new life to genres that have for too long been only explored by white dudes.

The heart of the story is the question: if you were living in a world menaced by sea rise and dominated by ultra rich factions, and if you found a magic lamp with a genie, what would you ask them? Of course you’d have first to find said magic lamp, and fight your way to keep it when the whole power structure wants it too. Luckily in this scenario you’d be a mischievous monkey robot with delusions of grandeur…

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