Alethea's Dreams
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With the full weight and gravity of the world pressing down upon her Alethea rests in an uneasy slumber...
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Dance your way across Alethea’s vast dreamscapes as you place yourself in the shoes of a diverse cast of characters in this unique genre-bending and thought-provoking collection of short stories.
- Go from being bloody and whipped in the shambles of the slave pits, to nibbling on crumbs in the slave master’s home, before taking your seat at the King’s table where excess is ordinary in Domino
- Carefully place one foot in front of the other in search of the philosopher’s stone along the rigid mountain peaks of the Road to Nowhere
- Find temporary respite from the churning gears of your own mind in a greasy diner full of an odd collection of strangers in Drive
- Witness Claudia’s brief flash of fame as the once-celebrated author comes face to face with a slow and painful downfall, meeting her untimely fate in The Blank Pages
- Experience the bloody rise of drug cartels in the hillsides of post-civil war El Salvador through the eyes of Pedro and his daughters Lupe and Cynthia in Las Hijas de Mañana
- Travel alongside Young Dr. Faddy as his journey leads him away from his childhood home in Egypt to Cambridge and Haiti, before eventually winding up in war-torn Syria as differing ideologies of service collide in The Doctor in Aleppo
Review Excerpts
"With laser precision the author unfolds the deep inner workings of the human psyche through the compelling format of short stories".
- Sheena Monnin
Author
"The way Martin writes about philosophical ideologies is like poetry."
- Bridget Womelduff
MS Educational Counseling
"Alethea’s Dreams shepherded me into the deepest channels and chambers of my heart."
- Elizabeth Augustine
MS Counseling and Psychology
"Poetic, philosophical and psychological, it becomes an exploration of the psyche, the journey inwards and then out again."
- Imara Obdam
MS Counseling and Psychology
"I enjoyed exploring the different dreams of Alethea, the Goddess of Truth, where a different story was told carrying messages about freedom, pain, love, value, truth, respect, and honesty. "
- Lea Aluie
Bookstagramer and Book Reviewer
"My wish for humanity is for more people to see the world as author Daniel Martin does. That being said, Alethea’s Dreams is it’s own world: full of pain, love, curiosity, lessons and life. A collection of short stories that keep you thinking and on the edge of your chair, so to speak."
- Anela Lani
Author
"Reading this book took me through a journey in my mind that felt both familiar yet mystical at the same time. Diving into each dream and subject led me down a path of imagination and exploration of my own mind and thoughts."
- Lisa Daley
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"In a brilliant demonstration of philosophical fiction, Martin allows you to escape the modernized idea's of how to behave and function, and allows you to further escape the normalized order and predictability set by today's society. This is a must read for all those willing to open their mind to different perspectives and personalities."
- Alex Emmerson
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"This thought-provoking collection takes a look a philosophical look at various aspects of life; considerations of a consumer sale, the terror of coming under the influence of a drug cartel, and the healing of childhood trauma to learn to love among others. You will want to set aside some time to read and consider what is written from the various characters' perspectives. I assure you, you will be glad you did."
- Lyndi Allison
Author
Book Tour
First Story of
Alethea’s Dreams
Domino
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Domino takes place within an ambiguous antiquity in a lost and imaginary civilization; which could very well be any civilization at any time for many different reasons.
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The lives of Domino, Jeromeo, Stephanius, Aleksy and King Dion collide in this commentary on the innate nature of slavery in human societies.
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Full of complex personal motivations, danger and violence, this story comments on the nature and dynamics of power structures and the existential anguish which different rungs of those power structures experience.
Second Story of Alethea’s Dreams
Road to Nowhere
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Long winding paths, twinkling stars above, peace in the still air of nature, dusty old libraries and empty white temples—these are the many places that Wilber puts his feet, one in front of the other on his search for the philosopher's stone.
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High up in the mountains, as he faces yet another set of mysterious jagged peaks off in the distance, Wilber continues his life journey, his quest and search for meaning within a world which intrinsically has no such meaning. Or does it?
Third Story of
Alethea’s Dreams
Drive
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This story dives deep into the human condition. It explores the positively mundane transcendence of being, entering into awareness of being and beyond; unto the shores of The Other and the rocky coast of finitude.
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Follow Andrew turn after turn, step after step as the gravel shifts and crunches underneath his feet.
"Each crunch sounded saltier than the last."
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The classic existential question is re-imposed in this story: What to do about life once you are aware that it exists and become aware that it is one finite piece of infinity?
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Can he reach beyond himself, beyond his containment and connect with others?
The Fourth Story of Alethea’s Dreams
Blank Pages
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In Blank Pages we meet a homeless woman named Claudia who is drinking wine under a bridge in Boston during a blizzard. She, to put it lightly, is in a disposition. She was not always like this, but the slow shifts and changes in her life, which she authored, have led her to be here.
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This story places a fictional backdrop behind any random homeless individual that we might pass, or not even notice that we pass, on the street. Each is a human being with a life, a story, thoughts and feelings that are just as human as are anyone else's.
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The fullness of the Blank Pages bring us into Claudia's life-world. We examine the painful combination of life experiences and decisions which brought her to where she sits today. Her tale is a sad story, but it is intense and meaningful nonetheless.
The Fifth Story of
Alethea’s Dreams
Deal
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Deal is about attitudes as facades of self. It is about covering up deep seeded feelings of discontent and unhappiness which our consumer interests attempt to plaster over and patch up. Though it also asks whether or not quick fixes such as 'retail therapy' and the like will ever be enough to mend our human values into something which can begin to foster lasting satisfaction and happiness, or whether we are always spun back around the wheel of the discontentment of longing, wanting and needing another fix to take us to a new high from which we will inevitably fall once more.
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This conceptualization adds some texture to the Sysiphusian dilemma, to the idea that we are always chasing a future for ourselves as we try to hide and blanket our recognition from the loose structural foundations of the field of human ashes from which we, and our concepts of humanity, arise. Perhaps, such discontent and the futile reconstruction of our idealistic structures are built into the nature of our conscious species, or perhaps, there are some avenues of temporary escape which can give us a break from the ensuing madness of modern civilization.
The Sixth Story of
Alethea’s Dreams
Las Hijas de Mañana
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Culture, politics and personal lives all collide within the tragic story of Las Hijas De Mañana. This is a story about changing worlds, about internal and external influences vying for the driver's seat of life. It is about love, sacrifice, belonging and untimely and unfortunate exile.
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My inspiration for this story comes from experiences I have had in the USA. I wanted to humanize the oft dehumanized faces that pass us on the street, the people who slave away behind the scenes to produce the modern quality of life enjoyed by most 'Americans'.
The only way to bring things full circle was to bring in the black market drug trade and the way that narcotics prices make violence a daily component of life in Central America. This requires drawing on the destructive forces of supply and demand economics which make violence appealing, and which tear apart countries, cultures and families, causing many people to flee in search of a better life.
The Seventh Story of
Alethea’s Dreams
The Doctor in Aleppo
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What begins as an innocent day passed by two young lovers playing on a sandy shore quickly escalates into terror and calamity in The Doctor in Aleppo.
"These memories float back into my mind from time to time. Yet now, their instances are not quite as numerous as are the constant flashes whose shrieking remnants I hear. Echoes. Explosions. The sound of bombarding mortars and bullets ricocheting-off-hard-surfaces. There is a static noise around me. It is the sound of the chaos of war.
The questions that this story approaches are questions of value: of the value of individual human lives and of the value of service.
What happens when ideology fights against ideology? Is each not fighting for justice from their point of view? This story causes us to re-examine the mechanisms that set about the types of chains of events which place individuals like Dr. Faddy, his coworkers, and patients in harms way.
The Final Story of Alethea’s Dreams
Art of Love
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Art of Love takes place in a sci-fi-esque prison cell, in which two co-ed human prisoners are being held for their crimes against humanity.
This story explores innate childhood vulnerabilities and the stains which they leave upon adult humans. Their memories have been wiped clean, but their unseen benevolent caretaker steps them through their process of rediscovering themselves and their emotional needs through their forced participation in hypnotic therapy.
Cynthia and Mark must learn to trust themselves, and each other, as they move through the process of opening and healing old wounds so that they may come back to their better selves. Will their adventures within their own hearts and minds be enough to remediate the damage caused by their crimes? Will they be able to find liberation and walk back out into the world hand in hand?
