The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport

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.)