BSFA Awards 2009: Short fiction nominees, winner, my rankings, & download links

The official announcement is actually is two days old, but I just noticed.
Update 5 April 2010: Winner announced.

All nominees were originally published in UK during 2009.

Controversy [via James Nicoll]: Hal Duncan declines non-fiction nomination for his "Ethics and Enthusiasm".

Short fiction nominees (6 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author or publisher fetch more matching fiction. My rating (A = worth the time, = don't bother) is in brackets. Where I've a separate post on a story, link on title goes there.

1. [winner] [novelette] Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved Time of Their Lives" (B); download; Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia's "The Beloved of My Beloved" (coll), Newcon Press; love story: A man & a woman looking for eternal love find it ... in an unusual way.
2. [ss] Ian Whates' "The Assistant" (B); download; George Mann (ed)'s "The Solaris Book of Science Fiction Volume 3": Tiny insect-like robots, powered by magic, do industrial espionage & sabotage.
3. [ss] Kim Lakin-Smith's "Johnnie and Emmie-Lou Get Married" (C); download; Interzone, #222: Fight of two street gangs, when a girl from one gang goes to marry the leader of other gang. By the end of the story, the two are married while she's bleeding from a stab wound inflicted by her own gang; it's not clear if she survives.
   
   In between, we see steam powered cars, guns, & gliders the gangs use. Energy source to create steam is not clear. Also not clear is how the goons are able to carry around so much water needed to produce this steam.
4. [novelette] Eugie Foster's "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" (C); download; Interzone, #220: I once tried reading it - gave up part way through. Beginning looked like something inspired by Jack Vance's funny "The Moon Moth" - a society where it's impolite to meet someone without wearing a mask. But it's nothing like Vance's classic, & I got quickly bored.
5. Ian McDonald's "Vishnu at the Cat Circus": Not read.
6. Dave Hutchinson's "The Push"; Newcon Press (looks like it's a novella published solo in its own book): Not read.

[via Fantasy Book Critic]

Related.

1. Last year's BSFA Award short fiction.
2. Competing awards that recognize "best" fiction originally published in 2009: Aurialis (Australian authors).
3. Anthologies that collect "best fiction originally published during 2009": Dozois', Horton's, Strahan's.
4. My "best fiction originally published during 2009, 2010" lists (also list others' best of relevant year lists at bottom).
5. "Best of" lists.
6. Fiction originally published in 2009, during 2000s.
   

Note: I normally update list posts like this when I read a story, find new links, etc. This post was last updated 2 February 2010.

Ian McDonald's "The Djinn's Wife": A marriage gone sour

This is a tired, complicated, & sad adult version of the tale of mermaid marrying a man. Whatever part of the world you are from, you probably have local folklore on this theme.

This is also a robot story. Plot will appear quite familiar to those with a background in Asimovian reading, though the robot in question is closer in behavior to Mike in Heinlein's "Moon is a Harsh Mistress".

I didn't like this story because

1. it didn't stir any emotions,
2. it has an extremely techy & contrived environment, &
   
3. it uses a lot of environment components & words from north India, but they are often applied in a clueless & not-normal way - making the story rather hard to follow for those familiar with India.

Full text of the story is available online.

Story summary.
At some future date where the story is set, current India comprises of multiple countries - among them Bharat & Awadh. Former with capital in Benaras, later in Delhi! And they have a dispute sharing water of Ganga river - very similar to current conflict down south between Karnataka & Tamil Nadu. Description of this background takes substantial space in the story, but it is actually irrelevant to the story.

This is a world littered with robots - "aeai"s (AI, short for Artificial Intelligence). One of these robots is A J Rao. "He" is a diplomat working in Delhi; I don't recall if it works for Bharat or Awadh. Rao also runs many other essential infrastructure services, or at least is capable of interacting with & influencing them. He doesn't have a physical body, but is everywhere via network. He can also produce realistic sensory environment around you if you are wearing an appropriate gadget - aka Asimov's Solarians. He can also produce a physical body comprising of nanobots if you have the right device in the room, in a manner reminiscent of Michael Crichton's Prey.

Esha Rathore is a classical dancer in Delhi. Rao, because of his sense organs everywhere on the network, is extremely aware. And falls in love with Esha, who reciprocates. They marry, in spite of social damnation Esha receives.

Marriage goes sour when Esha realizes Rao is also elsewhere doing other tasks even during their most intimate moments.

Rest is a bizarre tale of jealousy, espionage, robot gone mad, some deaths, & finally the robot's "excommunication"!

Eventually, we are told all aeai's go find some safe home somewhere - a separate race from humans, much like gravitonic robots in Roger MacBride Allen's "Isaac Asimov's Utopia".

Fact sheet.
The Djinn's Wife, short story, review
Also published under the title: "Little Goddess"
Rating: C
First published: Asimov's July 2006
Winner of Hugo Award 2007 in novelette category

Related: All Hugo Award stories.