After Dinner Conversation - Nature of Reality

Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Fiction

By: Alexis Dubon, David F. Shultz, A.M. Entracte, Harrison V. Perry, Michael Klein, Sarah Johnson, P.G. Streeter, Vinícius de O. Gadini, Lee Dawkins, Jann Everard

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Ranked Top 10 "Best Lit Mags of 2023" by Chill Subs

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics exploring the nature of reality and perceptions. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions.

• Home For The Holidays: A son comes home for the holidays to find his parents have shrunk to two feet tall.
• Abrama’s End Game: Abrama learns the gods created her dimension as their play-space to visit, and is forced to fight across realities when she discovers their plan to shut it down.
• Rose-tinted Glasses: Two children race to get glasses that allow adults to see the magical world around them to the Fairytale Fellowship before it's too late.
• The Big, Immovable I: Daphne is institutionalized while trying to answer the question, "Why am I, I?"
• Sort of Polarity: A new disease hits the earth that causes very selective blindness in humanity.
• The Angel In The Juniper: Holly meets an angel who tells her to kill her revolutionary professor.
• Seconds Last: A man enjoys an infinite number of perfect days in the park with his friend.
• Acceptance: A man sinking in mud refuses help.
• Glad All Over: An elderly man helps his fellow season-ticket holder with his existential crisis with philosophy lessons.
• I Do So, Like Durian: A sheltered teen on a quest through Chinatown finds a new world to explore.

Reviews ★★★★★
“With Science fiction we can explore other galaxies and alien conflicts, but with philosophical fiction we can explore other minds and ethical conflicts. Let this book take you on a Phi-Fi adventure.”
— William Irwin, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, King's College

“After Dinner Conversation has taken up the initiative to write themed collections of short stories that fit focused ethics courses – say, a course on bioethics, AI ethics, Tech ethics etc. These collections can offer a spine for such courses or individual stories could be added to a course as illustrative material to stimulate discussion. The stories are lively and engaging and followed by a set of questions to start classroom discussion. Also, outside of educational contexts, the stories will work nicely to stimulate conversation in families, elder hostels, youth clubs, or book groups.”
— Luc Bovens, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill