Ian Whates' "The Assistant" (short story, robots, free)

In a high tech future, small insect-sized robots are used for corporate espionage & sabotage. This is the story of the adventures with these nuisances the nightly cleaning crew of an office building has been recently facing.

Ending is unnecessarily anti-Physics: these robots are powered by the friction with surroundings of their own movements in parallel universes! Don't ask me where the power to move came from in those alternate realities.

Except for last few paras, it's generally an ok read.

Fact sheet.

First published: George Mann (ed)'s "The Solaris Book of Science Fiction, Volume 3" (2009).
Download full text from author's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2009 in short fiction category.
Related: Stories of Ian Whates.

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 Whates' "The Gift of Joy" (short story, science fiction)

A human shape shifter, but he transforms himself to other's bodies by technology rather than magic! Technology itself is a variation on Cory Doctorow's "0wnz0red". He has spent a lifetime living other people's lives - sometimes after killing the original, other times by playing the dead so the world doesn't know original is gone. He used to do this work for a security agency of local government.

Sick with living someone else's life, he escaped & has been living the life of a supposedly nameless male prostitute in some town. Only, his services involve sex after he transforms himself to a celebrity of the client's fantasy - from among a menu of celebrities whose profiles he has in his database!

Now his old boss has caught up with him, & wants him to live the life of country's President. President has recently died, & the security racketeers want to keep him alive!

Fact sheet.

First published: TQR.
Rating: B
Download full text.
Was among finalists in BSFA Awards 2007 in short fiction category.

Note: Why is this post so short?