A month before a big book release is always a key point on the excitement/anxiety graph, and I realised I hadn’t sent out a newsletter issue in a Long time - yes, I know, again - so thought I’d get back into it with a brief recap on where we are with the book! If you’re following me on any of the many fragmented socials or the Jinn-Bot book page you’ve probably already seen these.
I still haven’t got to see my ARCs, which are somewhere in a courier void, one set sent to Delhi, another to Kolkata. I wonder if I’ll ever see them, and now staring bug-eyed at the sky waiting for the hardbacks to show up and feasting my eyes on images like this from Tordotcom, easily my favourite publisher promo image in the last two decades:
Or this one, the cover at the Tor booth at the San Diego Comic-con in some very good company, sent by my kind friend, Bitter Medicine author Mia Tsai:
Jinn-bot was on most-anticipated SFF of/2nd-half-of 2023 lists at: Tor.com, Goodreads, Library Journal, Book Riot, Bookbub, Coode Street Podcast, The Fantasy Review,
We’re mostly ready to roll! I got incredibly lucky with the blurbs for Jinn-Bot, which feature several of my favourite authors. Like with The City Inside, both the cover and the blurbs have been absolutely overwhelming. Have a look, you’ll see what I mean.
Jinn-bot blurbs
“Ridiculously entertaining.”―Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author
“‘Aladdin’ like you’ve never seen it before. Samit Basu deftly weaves a tale that sparkles with the wondrous and wild possibilities of ‘Aladdin’ in space. This is a wild, funny, and exhilarating adventure with a huge heart.”―Tasha Suri, award-winning author of The Jasmine Throne
“So much fun!”–Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author
“A wildly exuberant mash-up of top-class storytelling, gleeful mockery, and engaging characters we care desperately about. Basu is playing with tropes and messing about with narrative, while at the same time telling a heartfelt story with high stakes and enthralling action. The most fun I have had with SF in ages.”―KJ Charles, author of The Magpie Lord
“An extravagant, expansive, inventive epic of a book, shifting modes deftly to set heroes of lore on a collision course with video game tropes―and I enjoyed every word of the resulting fireworks. Brainy, deeply felt, and entirely brilliant.”―Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes
“Samit Basu is one of the smartest, most entertaining writers working in SF today ― this was an utter delight from first to last, fizzing with ideas and originality.”―Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister
“Wonderfully entertaining―a heady and creative mix of excellent stories. The best of ‘Aladdin’ and Murderbot meet in Samit’s top-tier storyteller’s craft. Inventive, with witty dialogue, and utterly fun! All the heart of myths and the explorative commentary of sci-fi are masterfully shaped together in The Jinn-bot of Shantiport.”―USA Today Bestselling Author, R.R. Virdi
Right? Again, super grateful for these! Also there was the story of how we arrived at Ann Leckie’s blurb…
Some more JB responses I was thrilled by:
“A finalist for this fall’s unofficial Best Book Title contest, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport is the latest from Indian SFF specialist Samit Basu, who treats standard sci-fi tropes as dubious advice, best ignored. Mixing futurism and fantasy, his new book features streetwise protagonists, corrupt oligarchs, wry satire, and wish-granting tech. Oh, and monkeybots.”―Goodreads
“Just f***ing delightful from start to finish.”―Tor.com
“From cinematic mecha fights to an aching romance set in the background of a city falling apart and all spiced with a healthy dose of humor, reading The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport was an incredibly fun experience.”―Bookish Brews
Reviews will mostly be after the book, but so far
“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.” – Publisher’s Weekly
Likewise interviews, podcasts etc, but I did get to chat a bit about JB at the Clarion West website.
In non-Jinn-Bot updates, I was one of the instructors for this years six-week Clarion West workshop, and had an absolutely fantastic time with the very talented students and the amazing workshop organisers, who I’m sure will be familiar names on your shelves very soon:
I had such a great time that I suspect I’m going to be teaching a lot more - I did an offline workshop shortly after Clarion, in the hills with students from the Kodaikanal International School and American College Madurai, where once again I found myself enjoying human company far more than I had expected or planned to, and I suspect it was the fault of the specific humans in each case.
Agh, all these young bright people. Terrible. I miss them!
Indian readers who’ve been asking about Jinn-Bot: I’m sorry, I don’t know when it’s out in India, and this is more frustrating for me than it is for you, not just because of emotions and principles, but because I know people are just going to pirate it in India. One of the unexpected twists for both The City Inside and Jinn-Bot has been that SFF publishing is about two decades behind litfic publishing, and is just about beginning to discover that the Indian subcontinent isn’t still a part of the UK. Titan Books, which published Turbulence and Resistance a decade ago (a decade ago, good grief) was thankfully aware of this, but when the deals are coming west-first I have to wait to sell UK rights before India rights can be sold, and they’ve been super slow in the UK (I blame Rishi Sunak, somehow) which is why there’s no UK edition of The City Inside yet and no news on Jinn-Bot so far. I will, of course, be shouting about it as soon as I know.
Here is a recent picture of Tingmo, also waiting, much more handsomely than I ever could
On that happy note, be well! I’ll be back in approximately a month, I suspect
If you’re in the US or Canada and are considering preordering The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, links are here:
Jinn-Bot
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