The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Another catch-up of books read last fall.


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.
Visitors from the colonies launched from the city are rich and superior
in attitude.

Lina is a daughter of failed revolutionaries. She loves her city and
would do anything to save its people.

Her brother, Bador, is a monkey bot with big ambitions. He wants to
become a robot figher, in spite of his size, and earn a chance to leave
for the stars. But that would mean abandoning his family.

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.
While at first this might have seemed like it would be a fantasy
retelling of Aladdin, it's it's instead a science fiction tale. Of
course, the old adage about sufficiently-advanced science applies,
especially with cybernetic science. How much does it matter whether
your genie is magical or a powerful networked computer device?
In general, it was a fun romp. It was filled with oddball characters,
with the bad guys awfully bad and the good guys, a little bad
themselves. It did seem to drag near the end, but most of the plotlines
wrapped up satisfactorily.


Brian