A GR friend whose taste I trust rated this highly and talked about it in her year in review, so I looked around and found it on the Clarkesworld podcast. The host, Kate Baker, reads a story from the magazine each episode, and she read “The Secret Life of Bots” for the September 27, 2017 podcast. So great!
I’ve been loving robot stories the past few years, and this one was a delight. I laughed, I cheered, and I smiled my head off while listening. I definitely need to check out more of Suzanne Palmer’s work. ( )

This novelette was short-listed for Hugo Awards in 2018.
This story is reminiscent of both Wall-E and Minions from the respective cartoons. It follows the adventures of a small but brave bot, who is ordered to eradicate ‘space rat’ infestation of the space ship while the ship is performing a mission, vital for survival of the mankind.
While the story is easy to read and has its bright moments, the people behave a bit strange (bots are o.k.) and there are some troubles with physics and vacuum. This lowered my final ranking to 3*
( )

2018 Hugo Awards Best Novelette Nominee ( )

[The Secret Life of Bots](http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palmer_09_17/) is an utterly charming novella by *Suzanne Palmer*. I can't really say much without spoiling parts of it, but the protagonist is lovely without being humanised, the personal dynamics are sweet and witty, and the time reading it was very well spent. ( )

I liked the clever POV on this story, and the intertwined micro and macro narratives. ( )