Hello, I have recently come across your website with lists of SF short stories related to nanotechnology. My name is Molly Brown and I'm an author living in Britain. I have had a number of SF short stories published in magazines and anthologies in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. The particular story I would like to draw your attention to is called, "Doing Things Differently".
Doing Thing Differently was published in the British SF magazine, Interzone, in September 1996 (Interzone issue number 111). The story is about a nanotechnician hired by a religious group to terraform a distant (and supposedly uninhabited) planet for colonization. The job is supposed to be a simple one of spreading a variety of nanomachines over the planet's surface, then going into suspended animation to wait while the machines go about transforming the landscape. Unfortunately, his long sleep is rudely awakened when it turns out that the planet is not uninhabited after all, and the changes wreaked upon the land by the nanomachines bring the natives out in force to mount a massive suicidal protest which could result in the destruction of their race.
Based on the description of your rating system, I would think the story would be a 3. Nanotech is a major component of the story, but it takes second place to the personal problems of the nanotechnician stranded alone on an alien planet and his attempts to relate to the natives.
Thanks for your time.
Best wishes,
Molly Brown
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Molly Brown email: molly@okima.com
URL: http://www.okima.com/