The Jinbot of Shantiport is a sci-fi retelling of Aladdin told from the point of view of a drone observer. I wanted to love it, but I couldn’t. 

 

This is a story about robots fighting robots. It is about political regime change and societal good. Is is adult sci-fi with characters that read like middle schoolers and a plot that is missing important elements. 

 

No character is likable. I have a hard time thinking of the main characters as adults because they continually acted like 12 year olds. The mother is horrible, nothing about her is likable. She manipulates her children and even does a bad job at that. And we never get a satisfying connection or any finality with any of them. 

 

It took me a bit to realize why exactly I wasn’t connecting with the story. Yes, we have the POV of a drone who often just dumps info and tells instead of bringing the reader into the scene. But it was more than that. There are spaces of sentences with no verbs. The verbs are just missing from sentences. Then other sentences are missing verbs and nouns. The writing itself is designed to exclude the reader, much to the disservice of the story. 

 

I think there are people who will love this book. Specifically, people who love the idea of robot battles for robot battle sake. But for me it let me down in too many areas.