Human Nature

By Vaughan Stanger

Human Nature collects three science fiction stories written by Vaughan Stanger, which were originally published in the "Futures" column of the prestigious science research journals Nature and Nature Physics during 2008-2010.

"Dark They Were, and Strange Inside" was rated as one of the best "Futures" of 2010 by the The Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation web-site's review team.

These short stories will appeal to lovers of imaginative, ideas-based, character-driven science fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vaughan Stanger
• Release date: Jul 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476354330

Vaughan Stanger

Until recently, Vaughan Stanger worked as a research manager at a British engineering company. From 1997 to 2011, he wrote science fiction and fantasy stories in his spare time, effectively setting himself homework. The results of this head-scratching were published in Nature Futures, Interzone, Postscripts, Daily Science Fiction and Music for Another World, to name but a few. Translations of his stories have appeared in nine languages.In January 2012 Vaughan became a full-time writer. Currently he's busy writing an SF novel. The head-scratching has got worse if anything. There are also some new stories in the works, plus further e-book compilations of his previously published stories to come.

Book preview

Introduction

During the last several years Dr Henry Gee, Senior Editor (Biology Sciences) at Nature, has cornered the market in science fiction stories of a certain length, specifically 850 to 950 words. These single-page shots of the hard stuff are published weekly under the 'Futures' banner in Nature and formerly in Nature Physics. Almost unimaginably varied, and written by authors ranging from the biggest names in Science Fiction to university students, each story offers a sometimes wry, sometimes bleak, but never less than entertaining glimpse of what the future might hold for us.

This book compiles the three 'Futures' written by me that Henry has published to date.

What I wanted to achieve with these particular stories was to do more than simply tell a one-idea vignette. To satisfy me, let alone my esteemed editor, they would have to function as proper stories, featuring two or more characters immersed in a believable world, faced with choices the resolution of which would deliver a non-trivial plot. The key to writing successful 'Futures' stories, I decided, was to miniaturise everything while eliminating nothing. Concision is