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 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.

• 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.

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