Pale Dawns and Heavy Hearts (Martian book)

Pale Dawns and Heavy Hearts is an epic Martian novel, published in 2208 by the author Hugo Bastion. Released via the Solarnet, the novel is acclaimed for its dealings with unrequited love, platonic relationships, stoicism, morality, and the romantic ideals of contemporary Mars.

The plot revolves around a boy named Jon Storm, who travels across the planet in order to find peace with his love. However, along his journey, he encounters multiple persons who cause him emotional stress and create romantic dilemmas for him. Eventually, the struggle becomes too much, and Storm decides that he wishes to die alone on the top of Mount Olympus.

The novel was critically acclaimed for its themes of romantic struggles, crime, morality, and true happiness, and it is largely seen as a guide to the Martian culture of stoicism and the meaning of both happiness and life.

Summary
WARNING: If you wish to follow the story as it will develop on the page without spoilers, DO NOT READ THIS FOLLOWING SECTION.

The plot is generally focused around a 17 year old boy named Jon Storm, who runs away from his home in a small town in Minnepega to pursue a romantic relationship with a straight man 19 years in age named Wilton McBain who has agreed to a periodic platonic relationship. After their leave, the highly publicized disappearance of Storm creates a media firestorm, forcing the couple to flee the region in pursuit of a peaceful and quiet place. After arriving in Cadillac, McBain disappears after the couple is chased by the police, forcing Storm into a state of deep depression, and driving him to attempt suicide. After meeting another young vagrant in a romantic one night encounter, Storm is drugged and sold into sexual slavery by the mysterious Martian Mafia. Storm eventually ends up in Roseport, where he finds a chance to escape and flees to the region of Hartsdale by stowing away on a train. In Hartsdale, he is secretly taken in by a similarly aged son of a farmer named Benjamin Stone. After several days of recovery at the farm, Stone's father finds Storm, causing a brief fight and the climactic death of the father, which causes Stone to feel immediately guilty and slip into depression. Two days after the indecent, McBain arrives in the town, having tracked down Storm. Storm and Stone both decide to take whatever money they can, and buy a cross-planet train ticket to Neubremen. The couple encounter McBain, who also went to the city after a previous conversation he had with Storm in which it was learned that Storm had always fantasized about a life of happy insignificance. Storm becomes emotionally conflicted, as McBain is only interested in a purely platonic relationship though he is otherwise considered perfect by Storm, and Stone is heavily depressed but still romantically feels for Storm. An intense romantic encounter with both of them occurs on the same night, driving Storm to complete lunacy, and eventually causing him to suffer from a heart attack caused by extreme stress. After being cared for by an attractive young doctor of American ancestry named Jackson Hill, Storm decides to renounce his emotions, and turns himself into the police so that he can return to his privileged life in his home town. McBain also returns with Storm, and Stone joins them because there is no place for him in his original home town in Hartdale. Upon returning home, Storm learns that his parents have both died, and that he is the heir to their property. With complete access to his parent's wealth, Storm sells his family home, and runs away in the dead of night to the remote region of Zaracia. There, he meets another man of interest who has devoted his life to simplicity named Stephen Albany, and the two enjoy three whole weeks of intense sexual encounters purely for pleasure. Storm comes to the realization that his life is insignificant to society, and decides that he will not choose between the number of suitors that he has already amassed, but rather, that he will die alone on the highest mountain on the planet in order to find peace for his soul. After suffering from altitude sickness during his ascent, Storm has illusions of all the men he has encountered, all without resolving their relationships between one another. This causes a second heart attack from stress, and coupled with the altitude that Storm is at, a blackout on the mountain. Storm awakens an unspecified amount of time later, and the novel ends with the words "Nothing good has come of it."