Human Shares is a short story collection written by Jill Thrussell, the paperback will consist of fifteen short stories as follows:
- A Shared Life
- Romantic Shares
- Human Assets
- Human Shares
- My Friend, Your Friend
- My Match, Your Match
- Value Added Friends
- Value Added Lovers
- I.Q.
- The Trust Scanner
- Memory Hack
- Data Exchange
- Artificial Reality
- Brain Power
- The Moral Scorecard
A Futuristic Short Story Collection
Human Shares is a short story collection, the paperback which will consist of fifteen short stories.
A Futuristic Short Story Collection
The paperback book comprises of fifteen futuristic dives into the possibilities of shared human connections.
A Shared Life:
A man sells his body to a corporation that gives deceased people a chance to live again through a body that they possess for a price but when one callous mind and spirit inhabits his body and starts to embark on a killing spree that he is powerless to stop, suddenly he then has to find a way to inhabit another vacant body to track his human self down. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Romantic Shares:
In the near future romantic relationships and marital partnerships are now decided by corporate investors who pick, choose and match couples in order to maximize their investment in each human relationship but when a couple fall in love that are not due to be romantically synchronized, their love and lives are put on the line. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Human Assets:
In the not to distant future it has become common place for people to sell themselves, their friendships, connections and even hire out part of their brains to companies for periods of time but when one man sells shares in his family to a man that wants his wife, chaotic competitions, dramatic antics and jealous rivalries rapidly ensue as the emotional pulses of desire and heartbeats of passion are fully explored and unleashed. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Human Shares:
A man decides to float his wife, kids and friends in an attempt to capitalize on his own net value and prove his net worth but when his stock falls below that of his own wife and kids, he starts to develop an inferiority complex which he is more than eager to change. Written by Jill Thrussell.
My Friend, Your Friend:
A unique new friends app allows users to trade, purchase, rent out or sell their friendships as a tradeable product or utilize their friendships as a currency of exchange, or even just rent them out, but as three friends who utilize the app rapidly discover, things start to become very messy when the commodity of friendship is tested. When the three friends are invited to a special sale event inside the Bargain Basement of Rejected Friends which has a discount promotion on friends that are deemed unsellable, worthless and undesirable, they are shocked to discover that one of the three is actually packaged up in a Friends Box and placed neatly on top of one of the shelves at a heavily discounted rate. An improvement exercise rapidly begins as the other two friends try to make their friend appear to be more valuable but everyone has different ideas on what makes a friend more valuable, including the stubborn friend that has been placed on the shelf in the Bargain Basement. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Some special features of the My Friends, Your Friends App include: Daily Greetings, Regular Conversations, Accompaniment to an Event, Relationship Advice, Friendship Advice, Family Advice, Prestige of Association, Public Displays of Friendly Affection, Sharing of Extended Connections and emotional provisions such as A Shoulder to Cry On. Written by Jill Thrussell.
My Match, Your Match: (Love Upgraded)
A unique new friends app allows users to trade, purchase, sell or rent out their romantic or unromantic relationships as a tradeable product or utilize their relationships as a currency of exchange but as three friends who utilize the app rapidly discover, things start to become very messy when romance is capitalized and put to the test. When the three friends find out that one of them is deemed to be a Useless Lover that is considered unsellable, worthless and undesirable, they then start to seek out alternative forms of assistance to help the rejected lover in their midst to increase their romantic net worth. Unfortunately however, the three soon realize just how unromantic the red tape of romance can be and exactly how difficult it is to quantify what is valued, desired and considered desirable in a romantic partner. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Some special features of the My Match, Your Match include: Date for a Day, Regular Cuddles, Accompaniment to an Event, One Night Stands Hire, Long Term Swaps, Public Displays of Affection and special services such as an In-Laws Family Hire. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Value Added Friends:
A group of people enrol in a ground-breaking course run by a pioneering company called Life Services Inc. that teaches them how to be 'Value Added Friends' to those they are hired to befriend, or simply to existing friends that are in their current lives and social circles. Whilst the attendees attempt to discover if what they have learnt can truly make their friendships worth their weight in gold however, they start to truly realise what a messy minefield friendship can actually be and how easily they can actually be made redundant in their own lives and friendships as the program brings out the best and the worst in some of its participants. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Value Added Lovers:
A group of participants enrol in a ground-breaking course run by a pioneering company called Life Services Inc. that teaches them to be 'Value Added Lovers' to those they are hired to date, those they wish to date, or simply to their existing romantic partners in their current lives. Whilst the attendees attempt to discover if what they have learnt can truly make their relationships a golden romance however, they start to question whether or not the value of a relationship can actually be measured in financial and economic terms and whether or not their new approach to love will result in them being sacked or replaced by their respective and potential lovers. Due to the participants eagerness, two of the single attendees decide to take their lessons a step further and even decide to embark upon a romantic adventure whilst in attendance and as they do so, they attempt to gather some practical experience of their own, together. Written by Jill Thrussell.
I.Q.
The government of a nation allows criminals on death row a possible reprieve and some form of life extension through the donation of their bodies to dying individuals for Mind Implantation in order to keep the most productive, intelligent people on the face of the Earth alive for as long as possible in exchange for a sum of money which is then gifted to their loved ones. When a dangerous group of criminals are processed however and their mind implantation goes wrong, their minds are partially and fully retained inside their bodies and they are unintentionally freed once more back into society. Written by Jill Thrussell.
The Trust Scanner
In the near future people have been given chip implants at birth which accumulate data on whether they can be trusted or not as business associates, lovers and even just as friends. This screening and rating process allows other people to scan people's trustworthiness files which then allows them to make decisions and commitments to a person as they wish to but when a woman meets a man that swears that his trust file has been hacked and then proves that the data it contains is definitely fake, a larger conspiracy rapidly starts to unravel. Written by Jill Thrussell
Memory Hack
A technology consultant discovers a way to hack into human brains and starts to hack into people's minds in order to sell the information that their memories contain on the black data market but one day he hacks into a scientist's brain and much to his horror, he rapidly uncovers some data about a manufactured deadly virus that is just about to be unleashed upon the world. The profiteering and unethical practices that he has profited from are then suddenly challenged but as he continues to make a living selling the past, he puts the lives of the present living in danger and as the past starts to rapidly catch up with him, the present threatens not only to destroy the world that surrounds him but also the future of humanity itself. Written By Jill Thrussell.
Data Exchange
A scientist creates a means to transfer data from one human brain to the next, allowing people to either implant, extract and exchange information (ideas, memories knowledge and secrets) from other human beings which are traded on an illegal black market called EXCHANGE. When one woman attempts to trade some of her memories for a more meaningful yesterday and performs a memory exchange however, she accepts a memory exchange from a hacker that is part of a secret rebel movement from which she uncovers a plot to destroy the world by an organization called Armageddon. Due to the agenda of Armageddon, who Relina learns intend to induce Armageddon and invoke the apocalypse, she is compelled to take action but in her quest to stop the destruction of the world's future as she attempts to track down the person that gave her the memory exchange, she rapidly discovers that the illusive hacker is virtually impossible to find and just as difficult to locate as the secret organization that intends to destroy the world. Written by Jill Thrussell
Artificial Reality
Under a secret corporate program, individuals are identified as human brains to enable progress to be optimized for the benefit of human society and so a woman is identified and then kidnapped for three decades and her mind interrogated to make billions of dollars under the Progress project. Things suddenly change however when a hacker hacks into the simulated world she exists inside and discovers her predicament. The various simulated worlds and predators inside them however, must then be conquered before she can escape, not only inside the simulated realities but also back inside the real world which the kidnap victim is unsure is actually real, due to her warped experiences. Unfortunately, the two rapidly discover that the real world is also very tricky place to navigate and extremely complex as they start to see that everything that surrounds them is being indirectly manipulated by a greater, much more powerful hidden force and their challenge then becomes finding a way to live beyond the reach of that force and without a trail as they start to be hunted down by an unknown powerful enemy in reality. Written by Jill Thrussell.
Brain Power
A new method of governance is introduced into the world where a human brain is voted for by each nation and then connected to by all citizens in order to make human beings lives more productive, morally superior and individuals more responsible, wiser and mature. When one of the brains that feeds a nation starts to rebel and want its freedom from the communist method of life that it's been forced into however, suddenly all hell breaks loose. Written by Jill Thrussell
The Moral Scorecard
Written by Jill Thrussell and based on pieces of work written in 2001/02 and 2006/07 Human Shares Anthology Collection will be released in Jun 2023.