We all know the story of Aladdin. Well, the Disney version, anyway.
But while author Samit Basu knows that version, too, his love of Aladdin goes back further than Disney’s 1992 animated movie. Which is partially why he wrote The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport, a humorous science fiction space opera / science fantasy / adventure story inspired by the original Middle-Eastern folk tale character from One Thousand And One Nights.
With The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport now available in paperback — a year after originally being released in hardcover and for Kindle — I spoke to Basu via email to discuss what else inspired and influenced this sci-fi story, his plans for possible sequels, and why he made one of the central characters a monkey-bot.
Photo Credit: Sanghamitra Chakraborty
To begin, what is The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport about, and when and where does it take place?
The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport is an Aladdin-inspired story that’s set in Shantiport, a decaying megapolis in a spacefaring world.
Lina is a child of failed revolutionaries, now a tourist guide who’s secretly trying to find a way to save her family, her city, and her world. Bador, her brother, is a monkey-bot, who just wants to get off this dying planet and be a space hero / celebrity robot fighter. When the city’s wiliest oligarch enlists Lina to help him find a piece of alien tech that may have reality-altering powers, a chain of events ensues that will change the world.
Where did you get the idea for The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport?
Shantiport is inspired by Kolkata, the city [in India] I grew up in, and one of the great cities of the world during the colonial era. Aladdin’s a story I’ve always loved, and I wanted to set it in a place and time where Aladdin was concerned with more than his own rise to power. Aladdin ultimately became two people: a revolutionary who wanted to change the social order and save the city she loved, and a hustling, swashbuckling adventurer.
As you just said, Lina‘s brother Bador is a monkey–bot. First, is there a reason Bador is a robot and not a person, or am I misinterpreting what you mean by “bot“?
Bador does share some DNA with Lina and has some fleshy bits along with flashy tech, and is technically a cyborg I suppose, but he was built by her parents and raised as her brother for reasons neither of them knows when the story begins.
Second, why is Bador a monkey–bot as opposed to a cat–bot or a dog–bot or, uh, an gator–bot? Or just a non-animal robot, for that matter?
It’s explained in the story, but he was always a monkey when the idea began. Part of it is that I tried to make a Faustian pact with my local monkeys in Delhi — they leave me alone, I put them in books — and part of it is I’ve always loved Abu from Disney’s Aladdin movie and wanted to do justice to that really mistreated animal sidekick by making him a main character.
The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport is clearly a science fiction story, but it sounds like there might be other genres at work in it as well. How do you describe it, genre-wise?
I’m very bad at genre placement because I’ve never really felt I’ve understood genre partitions. It’s science fiction; it’s set nearly entirely in a single city, but the world is a space opera world. So, space opera. Some of the tech is advanced to pretty much magical levels, but it’s always described in tech terms so I don’t know if it’s science fantasy? Maybe science fantasy. I’d just say science fiction/ space opera / adventure. It’s whatever an episode of Star Trek set on a single world is.
It also sounds like it might be somewhat humorous. Author R.R. Virdi [Grave Measures] compared it to MarthaWells‘ Murderbot stories. Is it? And if so, is the humor situational, like in the Murderbot books, or is it more jokey, like in Douglas Adams‘ The Hitchhiker‘s Guide To The Galaxy?
It definitely has a sense of humor, but I hate it when authors describe their own books as funny. Humor is so time and culture specific. I’ve been lucky enough to find people on the other side of the world who share my sense of humor, but I wanted to be sure that the story would work even if my sense of humor didn’t align culturally or politically with the reader’s. So yes, definitely more Murderbot than Hitchhiker’s, which is so clearly ’80s British humor in the sense that the story in Shantiport works whether the humor works for you or not.
So, who do you see as being the big influence on the humor in The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport?
It’s hard to isolate sources nowadays, we all live in this big online cultural gloop. But for Bador, specifically, I’d say Futurama‘s Bender, or anyone in What We Do In The Shadows. The story is serious, the characters all take themselves seriously, so the humor probably lies in two of the main characters, bots, and how they see the world and process human behavior.
The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport is not your first novel. Not by a long shot. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Shantiport but not on anything else you’ve written?
A lot of the space opera I’ve loved. Authors like Martha Wells, Ann Leckie, maybe shows like the first season of The Mandalorian and Andor. All of which had these complicated characters trying to cope with a vast and swiftly-changing universe.
I watch and read so much stuff I find it very hard to really list. I’ve been working for two decades across several media and countries and I think everything I see, hear and live through is a lasting influence.
Now, science fiction novels are sometimes stand-alone stories, and sometimes they‘re part of larger sagas. What is The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport?
It’s stand-alone, but also series-convertible. I know what the next two books would be, also stand-alone but continuing the journey. Maybe one day, if my publisher wants these books! I’m working on other stuff now, though.
Now, the reason we‘re doing this interview is that The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport is being released in paperback; it came out in hardcover last year. Aside from fixing a typo or two, and thus making it less effective as a weapon, is there anything else that‘s different about this version of Shantiport?
I have added nothing to it, but I am now going to spend a fair bit of time wondering whether a hardback is an effective weapon. A paperback definitely isn’t, so I’m not disagreeing, but I don’t think Shantiport specifically is tome-y enough to really cause damage.
I think the director of John Wick 3 might disagree…
Anyway, earlier I asked if The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Shantiport could work as a movie, TV show, or game?
Too much story for a movie, but definitely a show. And definitely a game, adventure role-playing game. As for what would work best, as a many-industries survivor the only correct answer is it depends entirely on the people making it.
And if someone wanted to make a TV show based on The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport, who would you want them to cast asLina, the voice of Bador, and the other main characters?
Oh, with casting I always wait for actual casting and say they were my dream cast. Writers never have any control over these things — well, maybe ten writers in the world — and there is so much talent out there.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport?
It contains giant mechas, garbage kaiju, lots of food, and a ton of multi-continental pop culture easter eggs.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport, what sci-fi novel or novella of someone else‘s would you suggest they check out?
Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Also science fiction, also space opera, starts off being about a stranger entering a cooking reality show / contest in an empire-capital planet, and ends up being a lot more. If you liked Moku from Shantiport, you’ll love Kili from this novel. Strongly recommended.
