# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Harry Harrison.

- [Neel Sidorak](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/neel_sidorak.md): Neel Sidorak has spent his life inside a carefully engineered academic bubble in the Dolomites, groomed to study humanity from a safe, clinical distance. When Abravanel assigns him a project alongside Adao Costa — a UN o
- [Brent Dalgreen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/brent_dalgreen.md): Brent Dalgreen moves through the art world with the ease of a recognized name, charming curators and talking shop while privately pursuing suspicions he admits are unsupported by a shred of real evidence. He keeps his tr
- [Jon Venex](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/jon_venex.md): Jon Venex is one of only twenty-two Venus Experimental models, waterproof and pressure-resistant, designed for undersea work that never materialized. Now free but broke, he navigates an employment exchange alongside his 
- [Adao Costa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/adao_costa.md): Adao Costa arrives at the university with real-world experience Neel Sidorak conspicuously lacks, officially there to observe for the UN and assist with the project. Neel's accusation that Costa still works for Interpol 
- [Gino Lombardi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/gino_lombardi.md): Major Gino Lombardi flies alongside Dan Coye, whose dead friend Eddie Glazer haunts the mission's quieter moments. When they swing back around the moon and find Canaveral silent and the entire North American continent bl
- [Ned](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/ned.md): Ned arrives at the precinct and is put to work sweeping floors and filing paperwork, so unremarkable that the officers forget he's there. When a robbery call comes in and no one else is available, he recites the entire r
- [Hengly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/hengly.md): Hengly never steps onstage, yet his name does the work of a handshake: it flusters receptionists, unlocks appointments, and gives Brent a plausible reason to be wherever he shouldn't. That borrowed authority is the point
- [Arthur Di Costa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/arthur_di_costa.md): Di Costa is the city's newest artistic darling, installed behind a windowless greenstone facade, a robot butler, and a private elevator that opens onto a book-lined room. Tall, thin, with a handshake that is long and str
- [Dan Coye](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/dan_coye.md): Dan Coye moves through a city where robots have legal equality but little else, trading stories with friends like Jon Venex and the rust-coated Dik Dryer about sold contracts, fractured knee bearings, and the old days of
- [Mr. Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/mr_coleman.md): Mr. Coleman belongs to the layer of the world where contracts are signed, contracts are broken, and the consequences are handed down to workers and robots who have no seat at the table. He is felt more than seen, a press
- [Professor Einstein](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/professor_einstein.md): Historical figure referenced as a character in a story.
- [Abravanel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/abravanel.md): Named character with limited but notable presence.
- [Alec Diger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/alec_diger.md): Character appearing in a specific story segment.
- [Marie Di Costa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/marie_di_costa.md): Female character connected to the Di Costa family.
- [China Joe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/china_joe.md): Character with a distinctive nickname, appears in a story.
- [Little Willy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/little_willy.md): Young character appearing in a specific narrative.
- [Glazer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/glazer.md): Character with a surname, appears in a story.
- [Chief Craig](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/chief_craig.md): Police chief in a story.
- [The UN](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_60_se/characters/the_un.md): International organization referenced in a story.

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