“Best Of 2023” Anthology

"Short Stories For Long Discussions…"

Get ready to dive into the most thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating discussions of the year with "After Dinner Conversation - Best Of 2023." This must-have collection features the most compelling philosophy, ethics and social issues as short story fiction from one of the year's top-rated monthly literary magazines. With a diverse range of genres, from science-fiction to historical fiction, and with contributions from both established and up-and-coming authors, this book is guaranteed to challenge your beliefs and spark meaningful conversations!

Perfect for philosophy students, fiction enthusiasts, or anyone looking to expand their mind; this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to take their conversations to the next level. Be the one to introduce your friends and family to the fascinating world of ethical and moral dilemmas. Each story comes with five suggested discussion questions that will keep you talking for hours.

Technology Ethics

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

• 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.

• The Formula: A group of boys get into a car crash and an AI algorithm is forced to decide who lives and dies.

• Give The Robot The Impossible Job!: An AI tutor faces deactivation if she cannot prove her worth by saving a teenage pupil with an "unsolvable" problem - she's a budding serial killer.

• Sow: A pilot is tasked with "seeding" a distant planet with the codes to give rise to future humans, at the expense of the planet's natural evolutionary process.

• Cicada: Dr. Zhang invents teleportation but refuses to share it with the world.

• The Things We Give: Martha sells years off the end of her life to help her mother and make ends meet.

• Two-Percenters: A new treatment may allow 98% of the people to be genetically enhanced, but at the expense of the 2% who already are.

• The Empathery: Various family members try out new bodies to learn empathy and teambuilding.

• Cost Of Human Life: AI software designed to more efficiently run the railroad system runs into a programming issue.

Crimes & Punishments

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics of crimes and their punishments. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions. Edition Editor - Kolby Granville

• Idle Horns: A horned demon of hell born to eternally torture the damned walks off the job.

• Community Of Peers: A foreigner wanders into a remote village just before a convicted criminal is about to be punished and is asked to throw the first stone.

• Form Seven Alpha: A city resident is caught breaking the law and is given the choice between one of five punishment options.

• Conscience Cleaners: A genuinely repentant criminal appeals to the court to have his memory erased of the crime he committed.

• Blackorwhite: A lactose intolerant inmate tells his story to, and befriends, the doctor assigned to look after him.

• Conveyor: Arthur Montague is on trial for genocide and war crimes...again, and again, for eternity.

• Soon The Sentence Sign: A bar fight turns into a brush with the colonial AI driven judicial system.

• Bunny Racing: Two bunnies race, but one of them has been eating a special carrot from the forbidden forest to help him run faster.

• The Only Punishment: A street-hardened criminal is forced to live his crimes from the perspective of his victims.

• Human Contact: A college student heads to a party, gets high and drunk, and ends up having a night that will forever change lives.

Bioethics

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

• Sacrificing Mercy: A devout Christian refuses a heart transplant based on her religious convictions.

• The Human Experience: A married couple negotiates the genetic future of their unborn child.

• Euthanasia: In a dystopian future, Hank works on a farm for the euthanizing of sick, unwanted, or abandoned animals.

• In Defense Of The Harvest: The first recipient does his best to explain the situation that created the law for harvesting prisoner organs.

• Two-Percenters: A new treatment may allow 98% of the people to be genetically enhanced, but at the expense of the 2% who already are.

• The Decay: Benjamin's pharmacy suggests he consider enrolling in a government program to end his life.

• Visions of Midwives: A midwife in training learns the midwife secret, that at the moment of birth each midwife is able to see the future of the newly born child.

• On Good Authority: A doctor with a new vaccine for the "zombie virus" takes it to the next town and discovers two startling revelations.

• Step Back: A husband and wife decide to have a natural childbirth and find it's more than they bargained.

• All Harriet's Pieces: A young girl faces the death of her mother and the loss of her closest companion.

Nature of Reality

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. Edition Editor - Christi Mancha

• 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.

Equality Ethics

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

• A Wolf On The Bus: A wolf rides the bus, and is subject to discrimination by riders and police.

• Teddy And Roosevelt: Two misfit boys strike up an unlikely friendship in the shadow of President Roosevelt.

• The Hanging Man: Patrons ignore a dead homeless man hanging in the corner of a posh art gallery opening.

• Never Enough (Until You Earn It): Two African refugees make their way to Europe and are provided "basic income."

• Drag Brunch: Hannah's gay friend is excluded from her bachelorette party.

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Reincarnation: A gay couple, and a trans couple, get together for drinks and try to figure out what it means to be a man/woman.

• The Draft: Society forces all babies to be born, but creates a lottery system requiring all men to care for the offspring.

• The Human Experience: A married couple negotiates the genetic future of their unborn child.

• The Crate: Two women escape from a country that forces equal treatment to one that encourages differences, and find both have their issues.

• As You Wish: An elderly woman finds a trunk of tattered stuffed animals and makes a promise to fix them all.

Research Ethics

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

• The Mind Reader: An outspoken bar patron runs an experiment to see if the world can be divided into the "weak" and the "strong" in attempt to prove he's not an authoritarian fascist.

• Mahabbah: A scientist invents a virus that causes people to be compassionate and empathetic.

• Mayonnaise: The inventor of million dollar "zero fat, zero calorie" food additive discovers her invention is killing her son.

• Bugs In The Valley: A pharmaceutical company turns a rare flower into an equally rare medicine that cures cancer and stops aging.

• Sow: A pilot is tasked with "seeding" a distant planet with the codes to give rise to future humans, at the expense of the planet's natural evolutionary process.

• Two-Percenters: A new treatment may allow 98% of the people to be genetically enhanced, but at the expense of the 2% who already are.

• We Don't Do Faux: A mother steals a cure from her medical employer to save her sick daughter.

• Pandora's Dreams: A new technology allows the recording, playback, and sale of dreams.

• Words Of The Ancients:  An archeology team finds a perfectly preserved crypt with a surprisingly intelligent farm animal.

• Cicada: Dr. Zhang invents teleportation but refuses to share it with the world.

Government Ethics

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics of government law and regulation. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions. Edition Editor - Kolby Granville

• The Book Of Approved Words: A government approved "author" is tempted to show the world the words they are missing.

• The Draft: Society forces all babies to born, but creates a lottery system requiring all men to care for the offspring.

• For Your Safety: Zoe is visited by the government for having sexual relations without first filing an "Intimate Partnership Agreement."

• Understanding Ice Cream: Professor Gault meets a mysterious stranger that causes him to question the underlying causes of political polarization.

• Prohibition: A wealthy addict heads to a seedy part of town for his fix and gets more than he bargained for.

• The Decay: Benjamin's pharmacy suggests he consider enrolling in a government program to end his life.

• The Kill Registry: In a world where everyone in society gets "one free kill," the narrator finds out his attractive coworker got a promotion.

• The Crate: Two women escape from a country that forces equal treatment to one that encourages differences, and find both have their issues.

• Form Seven Alpha: A city resident is caught breaking the law and is given the choice between one of five punishment options.

• Euthanasia: In a dystopian future, Hank works on a farm for the euthanizing of sick, unwanted, or abandoned animals.

Business Ethics

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

• The Pool: A good-willed apartment complex owner deals with ever-complaining tenants as she attempts community improvements.

• First Gold: A graphic designer is called out when he wins a design prize for an advertisement he plagiarized.

• Pandora's Dreams: A new technology allows the recording, playback, and sale of dreams.

• Cicada: Dr. Zhang invents teleportation but refuses to share it with the world.

• Claim: The local diocese requests insurance coverage against future child sexual abuse lawsuits.

• Thorn: A local builder comes across an upstart carpenter in a neighboring village that he believes threatens his business.

• Guilt-Edge Security: A traveling salesman at the bar is cleverly pitched a new product by an emerging planet on the rim, Life.

• The Money Box: A mysterious black box gives its users "unearned" money, but at what price?

• Lev's Pawn Shop: A dying pawn shop own looks to return all the items in his shop to settle his account with God.

• Bugs In The Valley: A pharmaceutical company turns a rare flower into an equally rare medicine that cures cancer and stops aging.

Examining the Past

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics as we revisit and examine our past as individuals. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions. Edition Editor - Earl Smith

• The Man Who Killed The Dog: A man slowly goes crazy because he is unable to come to terms with his past.

• The Free Will of Professor Sturmhauser: A depressed philosophy professor is a deep believer in the lack of free will.

• Taps: A draft dodging trumpet player seeks redemption by playing at veteran funerals.

• They Got Their Show: A taxi driver is assigned to pick up the newly exonerated murderer of his 16-year-old daughter.

• Christmas In Ushuaia: A sorrowful man heads to the ends of the earth to dispose of his most painful memories.

• All My Tomorrows: A down on his luck man in his twilight comes into a "memory storage facility" to trade his remaining days for the chance to re-experience his "last good day."

• Momentary Paradise: The narrator watches a late-night movie that makes her question what moment in her life would be her personal framework for heaven.

• The Causes of the First World War: A gay romance causes a downward spiral for one partner, and questions of ethics and responsibility for the other.

• The Stone Piles: A young boy seeks the approval of his father through hunting, but finds he doesn't have the stomach for it.

• The Only Punishment: A street-hardened criminal is forced to live his crimes from the perspective of his victims.