junB Kyu Shimin (P+D)

[Machine Translation] Idea man, a profession where one can obtain a respectable position and a high salary just by offering one's own ideas. However, ( I ) have a poor reputation and am on the verge of unemployment. He must successfully complete what may be his last job, an assignment on Mercury. Then, a work robot goes missing. When he goes to the site to investigate the cause, he discovers something terrible. The book contains 20 works written in the author's early years, including "Low-grade Idea Man," which won an honorable mention in the 1st Imaginary Science Fiction Contest (now Hayakawa SF Contest), and the title story "Semi-B Class Citizen," which describes the tragedy of a "robot" created with artificial synthetic protein to solve a population shortage. This is the author's first collection of short stories and short shorts.

自分のアイデアを提供するだけで立派な地位と高い報酬を得ることができる職業・アイデアマン。しかし〈ぼく〉は評価が悪く、失業すれすれのところにいた。最後となるかもしれない仕事、水星での駐在をうまくこなさなければならない。そんなところに、作業ロボットの失踪事件が発生。その原因を探るべく現地に赴いた〈ぼく〉は、恐るべきものを発見する―。第1回空想科学小説コンテスト(現ハヤカワ・SFコンテスト)で佳作に輝いた「下級アイデアマン」のほか、人口不足解消のために人工合成蛋白質でつくられた“ロボット”の悲劇を描いた表題作「準B級市民」など、初期に書かれた20作品を収録した著者初の短篇・ショートショート集。