Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 3, 2023 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
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.
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