Second paragraph of third chapter:

Bador and Lina are practiced loiterers: no one would suspect them of any untoward thoughts as they gaze innocently at Tiger Palace, with its immaculate white- brick walls and ever- sparkling rotating dome, at the historical hologram displays of Tiger Central heroes lighting up one by one on Jomidar’s Square, at the government tower complexes on the square’s east side with their sculpted vertical gardens, and the ever- shifting array of Tiger drones doing combat maneuvers in the sky.

One of the remaining books from the 2024 Hugo packet. There’s a nice innovation in that the viewpoint character is a drone-bot, but otherwise I’m afraid I didn’t have the patience for yet another secondary world and dropped it after fifty pages. You can get The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport here.

This was my top unread book by a writer of colour. Next on that pile is The Proposal, by Bae Myung-hoon.