In a few decades, medical progress will make it possible to extend human life significantly, even to infinity. How would this change people's minds, actions and coexistence? These are the questions the four stories deal with. DURATION, as the new process is called by the author, plays a decisive role in all of them. Their styles are rather different, including realistic storytelling, science fiction, crime thriller and a philosophically inspired grotesque. A LITTLE MORE TIME: Irmgard Rominski receives an offer to be the first one with a significantly prolonged lifespan. GAMMA FLASH: The spaceship Golden promise is en route to the Alpha Centauri star system. BOMB DEPOSIT: Sirlana's self-driving car is hacked and hijacked. ZEUS IS TELLING A JOKE: The immortal gods are wasting away because no one believes in them.

Peter Werner Richter, born in 1946, grew up in Freiburg/Germany. He studied economics and regional planning. After the fall of the Berlin Wall he moved to Eastern Germany, where he worked as a town planner. This job, which often bears the traits of a real-life satire, certainly inspired him to realize his secretly harboured literary ambitions. His professional experiences are probably responsible for the fact that his primary interests lie in forseeable developments of the near future. Today, P.W. Richter lives in a small village in the state of Brandenburg/Germany and devotes himself entirely to writing.