Ratings8
Average rating3.2
From international bestseller Samit Basu, an exuberant new sci-fi adventure with heart that reads like a mash-up of Aladdin and Murderbot—with gloriously chaotic results Shantiport was supposed to be a gateway to the stars. But the city is sinking, and its colonist rulers aren’t helping anyone but themselves. Lina, a daughter of failed revolutionaries, has no desire to escape Shantiport. She loves her city and would do anything to save its people. This is, in fact, the plan for her life, made before she was even born. Her brother, Bador, is a small monkey bot with a big attitude and bigger ambitions. He wants a chance to leave this dead-end planet and explore the universe on his own terms. But that would mean abandoning the family he loves—even if they do take him for granted. When Shantiport's resident tech billionaire coerces Lina into retrieving a powerful artifact rumored to be able to reshape reality, forces from before their time begin coalescing around the siblings. And when you throw in a piece of sentient, off-world tech with the ability to grant three wishes into the mix... None of the city's powers will know what hit them.
Reviews with the most likes.
4,5 rounded up. I enjoyed this book so much! The characters, the twists, all the funny and not so funny moments. I liked Moku's POV a lot. He did his best to be just a recorder of events and failed spectacularly.
The very end felt a bit off (hence 4,5 stars). I can't even put my finger on what exactly was wrong for me. Maybe it's the way Lina treated Moku not as a family member, but as something dispensable - I doubt she would ever ask Bador to go offworld and spread the story if the ring was still in him, maybe the fact that she stayed with this dummy Juiful, maybe it's the fact of how easily Bador agreed to leave everything he loved behind...
Anyway, still it was a great read and I had ton of great time with this book. If I ranked the books I read, this would have definitely made the top 5 this year.