The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

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.