asterreadstoomuch's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
calmedmind's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
a_little_off_center's review
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book has more twists, turns, crosses, double crosses, and just generally fun chaos than a maze full of child spies who have eaten a bucket of candy! One of the least predictable books I’ve read in a long while! A sci-fi fairytale retelling mash up of Arabian Nights and Aladdin, but with a much more South East Asian flair! Told mainly from the POV of a “storybot” named Moku, who is designed to follow his user and record their life and actions. Moku ends up accepting as his user both Lina and Bador, who are a human and monkey bot pair of siblings, and the children of revolutions who were fighting social injustice and inequity.
Though the siblings love and care for each other they have of grown apart over issues of trust and secrecy in their family. Moku splits his time between them, as they each try to save the city of Shantiport and also work on their own goals. To save the city, the trio has to thwart a villainous oligarch to find a magical piece of alien tech in the form of a lamp with a jinn-bot who grants users wishes. The “be careful what you wish for” saying never has more truth than when dealing with a jinn in a lamp!
There is mass corruption of government, murderous bot fighters, crime lords, an alien adventure hero with self cleaning clothes, tragic loss of a parent, and a quest to save the the people and bots of the city from destruction and misery. The story does tend to be a lot of “tell” and less “show,” with a fairly omniscient narrator, and varies wildly between fast action packed scenes of our characters fighting for their lives and slower more philosophical discussions on bot rights, and how to improve the lives of the common people of Shantiport without causing more problems than they solve.
A super fun read for anyone that enjoys a good sci-fi retelling of old classics, with a lot of mayhem and just the right dash of humor!
Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the e-arc.
Though the siblings love and care for each other they have of grown apart over issues of trust and secrecy in their family. Moku splits his time between them, as they each try to save the city of Shantiport and also work on their own goals. To save the city, the trio has to thwart a villainous oligarch to find a magical piece of alien tech in the form of a lamp with a jinn-bot who grants users wishes. The “be careful what you wish for” saying never has more truth than when dealing with a jinn in a lamp!
There is mass corruption of government, murderous bot fighters, crime lords, an alien adventure hero with self cleaning clothes, tragic loss of a parent, and a quest to save the the people and bots of the city from destruction and misery. The story does tend to be a lot of “tell” and less “show,” with a fairly omniscient narrator, and varies wildly between fast action packed scenes of our characters fighting for their lives and slower more philosophical discussions on bot rights, and how to improve the lives of the common people of Shantiport without causing more problems than they solve.
A super fun read for anyone that enjoys a good sci-fi retelling of old classics, with a lot of mayhem and just the right dash of humor!
Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the e-arc.
krich's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The themes of this book have me mentally pairing it with R.F. Kuang's "Babel."
meshell's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
4.0
I loved this book, and I'd also love to read more in the world of Shantiport and Moku if I could.
There is a touch of the absurd in this book, or perhaps a lot of absurd. It's silly, and funny, and tense, and mysterious. I enjoyed the journey and the main characters, flaws and all. When books bill themselves as murderbot-ish I usually find that they fall flat (Murderbot from Martha Well's fantastic series is a gem), but there was genuinely something murderbot-esque about this, in a very good, and unique way - beyond the idea of bam here is a sarcastic death robot, or here is a human robot clone doing things - it had meaningful connections with people and other individuals, it was funny, it had villains, mysterious people, and sometimes robots that just don't know what's going on.
But it also had a richly described external world, a Jinn(bot) which was its own fun romp - especially if you have any familiarity with Jinn in Arabian mythology. And full of family drama, love, betrayal and more.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the e-galley and letting me read this one early.
There is a touch of the absurd in this book, or perhaps a lot of absurd. It's silly, and funny, and tense, and mysterious. I enjoyed the journey and the main characters, flaws and all. When books bill themselves as murderbot-ish I usually find that they fall flat (Murderbot from Martha Well's fantastic series is a gem), but there was genuinely something murderbot-esque about this, in a very good, and unique way - beyond the idea of bam here is a sarcastic death robot, or here is a human robot clone doing things - it had meaningful connections with people and other individuals, it was funny, it had villains, mysterious people, and sometimes robots that just don't know what's going on.
But it also had a richly described external world, a Jinn(bot) which was its own fun romp - especially if you have any familiarity with Jinn in Arabian mythology. And full of family drama, love, betrayal and more.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the e-galley and letting me read this one early.
abbythebookreviewer's review
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to Tor Publishing for an Arc in exchange for my honest review.
I have mixed feelings on this story, on one hand I thought the world building was intriguing. But on the other hand the plot & writing style conflicted my emotions.
This story is told through a small bot (Moku) who we have no real background details on. The bot gives the story an omniscient feel which left me feeling detached from the story as a whole. As the bot had no relation to the characters it was hard to understand the motivations or purpose of the characters for the first 100 pages. I would have loved to have read the story through Lina, the female main character or at least had a shift in pov every other chapter.
The writing is good but I struggled with the lengthy dialogue dumps every other chapter. There was a lot of telling with very little showing. Again, I believe this was because of the narrative voice that was utilized.
It promised Aladdin mixed with Murderbot. It delivered on the Aladdin portion, I thought that part of the plot was fun! But unfortunately the Murderbot comparison is a bit of a reach in my opinion. I felt like at times the author was stretching to have Moku or Bador be like Murderbot but it fell short for me. Though the characters on their own (without the comparison) were super cool.
Overall, it was fun but not without flaws.
I have mixed feelings on this story, on one hand I thought the world building was intriguing. But on the other hand the plot & writing style conflicted my emotions.
This story is told through a small bot (Moku) who we have no real background details on. The bot gives the story an omniscient feel which left me feeling detached from the story as a whole. As the bot had no relation to the characters it was hard to understand the motivations or purpose of the characters for the first 100 pages. I would have loved to have read the story through Lina, the female main character or at least had a shift in pov every other chapter.
The writing is good but I struggled with the lengthy dialogue dumps every other chapter. There was a lot of telling with very little showing. Again, I believe this was because of the narrative voice that was utilized.
It promised Aladdin mixed with Murderbot. It delivered on the Aladdin portion, I thought that part of the plot was fun! But unfortunately the Murderbot comparison is a bit of a reach in my opinion. I felt like at times the author was stretching to have Moku or Bador be like Murderbot but it fell short for me. Though the characters on their own (without the comparison) were super cool.
Overall, it was fun but not without flaws.
clemist's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mjdadian's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
seanorrhea's review
3.0
This book was a lot fun, I can't go into too many details because of spoilers, but class system, injustice, among other themes relevant to our world
The characters were well realized, as was the world building
The prose was a bit lacking, but not bad. More middle of the road.
Overall, a fun read. 3.5/5
The characters were well realized, as was the world building
The prose was a bit lacking, but not bad. More middle of the road.
Overall, a fun read. 3.5/5
fictionalcass's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book presents a fresh and unique perspective of the story of Aladin, and the first few chapters had me absolutely hooked. As I progressed through the story, my interest waned a bit, and by the end I felt like the vibes and the idea of the book were better than the book itself. The potential of what it could be outshined what it was, but that’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable.
The main three characters we get to know are pretty interesting, and Moku is definitely the star as the narrator. There were so many funny moments of Moku’s reactions to Lina and Bador, and those lighter moments really made the story shine. I also really liked that we got to see both Lina and Bador’s character development through Moku’s view and how Moku also develops over the story and begins to fight against programming.
The challenges with this book come with the politics of the story. There were massive info dumps, and I never quite understood what anyone’s motives or goals were. The investment was never quite there, and I wanted things to go further, rather than lingering at the surface. The other major struggle I had with this book was that most of this information and key plot points are conveyed through massive paragraphs of dialogue. There would be pages straight of one character monologuing, and it began to feel a bit like a lecture instead of an immersive experience.
Overall, I was invested and did really enjoy the main characters, but the plot itself did not hold my interest. 3.5⭐️