The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

by Samit Basu

Overview

A "Best Of" pick in BookBub | Lit Hub | Book Riot | The Mary Sue

Highly anticipated in Library Journal | Goodreads | io9 | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books | Tor.com | We Are Bookish | The Portalist

“So much fun!”–Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author

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.

Also by Samit Basu
The City Inside

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250827517
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	86,072
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Samit Basu is an Indian novelist. His previous novel, The City Inside, was named one of the best sci-fi/fantasy novels of 2022 by The Washington Post and Book Riot and was short-listed for the JCB Prize. He’s published several novels in a range of speculative genres, all critically acclaimed and bestselling in India, beginning with The Simoqin Prophecies (2003). He also works as a director-screenwriter, a comics writer, and a columnist. He lives in Delhi, Kolkata, and on the internet.

Website: samitbasu.com
Twitter: @samitbasu
Instagram: @samitbasu

Editorial Reviews

08/14/2023

Bollywood meets a cyberpunk take on The Nutcracker in this action-packed frolic from Basu (The City Inside). Now “a planetwide symbol of decay, disrepair and decline,” the once sumptuous capital city Shantiport is ruled by the ineffectual Tiger Clan, which employs a menagerie of drones to conduct surveillance on its inhabitants, including Lina, a tour bus driver, and her brother, Bador, a martial artist monkey-bot yearning to become a space adventurer. Lina uses her talent for espionage to conduct mysterious and mostly dead-end missions connected to her long-missing father’s shady past as a dissident and smuggler of “alien tech.” Meanwhile, Bador gets into a fight with some crocodile-cyborgs over an empty box that once contained an ancient ring, leaving Lina determined to find the ring and learn its powers. To do so, she turns to Shantiport’s most unsavory personalities, including oligarch Shakun Antim, who claims to be her father’s old comrade. As the phantasmagorical plot comes to a head, Lina and Bador face a tragicomic climax involving a royal engagement, an Aladdin-era lamp, and a jinn-bot who grants wishes. Though both Lina and Bador could be better developed, Basu’s sharp social commentary and sense of pageantry enhance this wild romp. Readers will have no choice but to get caught in the whirlwind. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2023

In the far-future, on a planet that might be dying, is the sinking city of Shantiport, currently ruled by Tiger Clan and full of surveillance drones, bots, and plenty of corruption. There, human Lina and her robot-monkey brother Bador scavenge for treasure, hoping to find a ring that could change their future. Bador's recent scavenging efforts have produced a story-bot named Moku, who documents his users' lives but also has impressive abilities to deactivate surveillance bots, which the siblings quickly put to use. Their family is under more surveillance than usual because their father, before his disappearance, was suspected of joining the resistance and smuggling alien tech. Soon, their lives become even more challenging when oligarch Shakun Antim believes that Lina is the key to unlocking her father's hiding place for a great alien treasure—the jinn-bot, which will grant its user three wishes. VERDICT Between Moku's endearing charm and Bador's expressive eyemojis and heroic ambitions, including winning a bot martial arts tournament, the bots steal the show in Basu's (The City Inside) fantastic, futuristic take on the "Aladdin" story.—Melissa DeWild

Library Journal

A "Best Of" pick in BookBub | Lit Hub | Book Riot | The Mary Sue

Highly anticipated in Library Journal | Goodreads | io9 | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books | Tor.com | We Are Bookish | The Portalist

Praise for The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

“Somehow manages to be both a weighty study of the responsible use of power and a sidesplitting farce about robot fighters, gangsters, oligarchs and the titular jinn-bot.”–The Washington Post

“A fun, spectacle-filled adventure story with good quips from the wisecracking monkey-bot and occasional zingers from Moku.”–The Wall Street Journal

“So much fun!”–Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards

“Ridiculously entertaining.”—Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author

“‘Aladdin’ like you've never seen it before. Samit Basu deftly weaves a tale that sparkles with the wondrous and wild possibilities of ‘Aladdin’ in space. This is a wild, funny, and exhilarating adventure with a huge heart.”—Tasha Suri, award-winning author of The Jasmine Throne

“Wonderfully entertaining—a heady and creative mix of excellent stories. The best of ‘Aladdin’ and Murderbot meet in Samit's top-tier storyteller's craft. Inventive, with witty dialogue, and utterly fun! All the heart of myths and the explorative commentary of sci-fi are masterfully shaped together in The Jinn-bot of Shantiport.”—R.R. Virdi, USA Today bestselling author

“A wildly exuberant mash-up of top-class storytelling, gleeful mockery, and engaging characters we care desperately about. Basu is playing with tropes and messing about with narrative, while at the same time telling a heartfelt story with high stakes and enthralling action. The most fun I have had with SF in ages.”—KJ Charles, author of The Magpie Lord

“An extravagant, expansive, inventive epic of a book, shifting modes deftly to set heroes of lore on a collision course with video game tropes—and I enjoyed every word of the resulting fireworks. Brainy, deeply felt, and entirely brilliant.”—Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes

“Samit Basu is one of the smartest, most entertaining writers working in SF today — this was an utter delight from first to last, fizzing with ideas and originality.”—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

“A finalist for this fall’s unofficial Best Book Title contest, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is the latest from Indian SFF specialist Samit Basu, who treats standard sci-fi tropes as dubious advice, best ignored. Mixing futurism and fantasy, his new book features streetwise protagonists, corrupt oligarchs, wry satire, and wish-granting tech. Oh, and monkeybots.”—Goodreads

“‘Aladdin in space’ is already an excellent elevator pitch for Samit Basu’s standalone novel, but he looks to be exploring every angle of the familiar story in this adventure set on a collapsing spaceport.”—Lit Hub

“‘Aladdin’ meets Murderbot is all we needed to hear to add Samit Basu’s science fiction novel—about a girl and her monkey bot brother asked to procure a reality-bending artifact—to our TBRs!”—We Are Bookish: Presented by NetGalley

“Just f***ing delightful from start to finish.”—Tor.com

“[An] action-packed frolic . . . Basu's sharp social commentary and sense of pageantry enhance this wild romp. Readers will have no choice but to get caught in the whirlwind.”—Publishers Weekly

“Samit Basu mixes elements of the story of Aladdin with the political machinations on a corrupt spaceport.”—Library Journal

“[A] fantastic, futuristic take on the “Aladdin” story”—Booklist

“From cinematic mecha fights to an aching romance set in the background of a city falling apart and all spiced with a healthy dose of humor, reading The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport was an incredibly fun experience.”—Bookish Brews

Selected praise for Samit Basu and The City Inside

“Basu's chief strengths as a novelist are character development, lively dialogue and a pleasingly off-kilter sense of humour.”—Vogue India

“An instant classic”—Indra Das, author of The Devourers

From the Publisher