Meritorium
(Meritropolis Book 2)
by Joel Ohman
Paperback
262 pages
Published: September 28th 2015
Publisher: CreateSpace
BLURB:
Charley has escaped from Meritropolis…
but in his quest to take down the System
that has taken his brother from him, he must go through Meritorium, a city
where gladiatorial games of life or death combat are waged between High Scores
and Low Scores, man and beast.
Charley and Sandy must face man-eating
plants, religious zealots, slave traders, and the ever present mutant animal
combinations that roam a dystopian Coliseum presided over by Emperor Titus, the
one man standing between Charley and the answers he seeks. Man is not an
animal, but if they are to make it through Meritorium, will they even be able
to tell the difference?
The lines between man and beast, friend and
foe, will blur in Meritorium, the riveting sequel to the bestselling
Meritropolis.
MY REVIEW:
I received a free copy of the book from the
author for my honest opinion.
Charley, Sandy and Sven along with all
their friends, some with high scores and some with low scores have finally
escaped Meritropolis. After the fall of Meritropolis they all take off for the
one person that is responsible for the scoring system. Charley wants revenge
for the murder of his little brother Alec who was put outside the walls of
Meritropolis to face all the different animal combinations. Alec had a low
score so therefore he was put outside the walls.
Charley and his friends are all headed for
the city of Meritorium where they were told that they could find the person who
is created the scoring system. Charley thinks that killing this person is the
only way to stop testing people and giving them scores. Charley thinks that
everyone is the same and must be treated as such.
Charley and his friends have a long hard & miserable journey trying to reach the city of Meritorium.
Charley and his friends are hunters and have hunted some strange animal combos
but on their journey they get to see animal combos that they have never seen
before not only do they run into more animals they run into some really strange
plant life when they decide to take a short cut. There have always been
questions to whether or not plants are actually a live but there is no question
none what so ever about the plants they come in contact with.
When they are almost upon the city of
Meritorium they run into a group of people that take them hostage and sell them
to the highest bidder as slaves to the people of Meritorium to fight to the
death in what they consider as games in the arena. The high and low scores fight
more animal combos than they have ever seen.
I really liked all or at the least most of
the characters in Meritorium, the characters were great people with great big
ole’ hearts. They wanted to help each other and they wanted to stop all of the
evil in the world. They had big holes in their hearts and they were trying to
fill the holes by stopping the one person who put the holes there. But what
they haven’t figured out yet is that the person who put them there can’t fix
all their hurt that they are the only ones who can fix their hearts and make
the hurt go away.
Meritorium is filled with so many twists
and turns I didn’t want to put it down or for it to end. I wanted to keep
reading to see what was waiting around the next corner. And what kind of animal
combo I was going to be introduced to next. I thought they were all amazing.
I would have liked to have seen Charley and
Sandy come clean and just admit to each other how they felt about the other. If
they would just be honest with each other they would probably feel a whole lot
better and would understand each other more. They are both so brave but yet
they are cowards in some ways. They want to save so many people but they can’t
even save their own selves. Until they can deal with what is going on in their
own hearts and heads then they will never be able to help others.
If you like reading books that is filled
with lots of blood, gore and violence which I do then you are going to love
Meritorium but I would like to suggest that you read book one Meritropolis
first though so that you will know who and what kind of people Charley, Sandy
and all of their friends are and how they got to where they are in their lives
and what made them the way they are.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW:
Are your characters inspired by people you know in real life, or
are they purely works of fiction?
Purely works of fiction. At least that is
what I tell everyone… :)
Can you tells us about your characters and who/what inspired
them?
I am a big believer in John Truby’s
approach to building a “character web”, because this deepens the relationships
between characters and helps to make each of the characters more complex.
Absent building a good character web, it can be all too easy to fall into the
not-very-true-to-real-life good-person/bad-person false dichotomy where your
protagonist devolves into this I-can-do-no-wrong character and your antagonist
is just pure evil. I was very much aiming to show the imperfections and
brokenness in each of the characters. My thinking as a Christian influences
this to some degree, given that the Bible teaches that we are all essentially
the same; we are all sinners—only God is perfect.
What was the easiest part about writing Meritorium? The hardest?
This was my second book, so I would say
that the entire process was much easier than it was for the first book. I have
great editors who were able to offer constructive criticism, point me in the
right direction, and really speed things up.
What all have you written so far?
Meritorium is my second book so the only
other book out is book #1, Meritropolis!
What is the most surprising thing you learned while writing?
One of the most important things I learned
is maybe not all that surprising, but definitely important—the value of an
editor. I worked with 3 different editors while writing the Meritropolis
series. Each of them provided extremely valuable feedback and advice that was
instrumental at various stages of the book writing process. The book that is
available for purchase now is a much better book than it would have been
without the expertise of my editorial team.
Are you working on anything new?
My next project is book #3 in the
Meritropolis series.
Do you have a preference for how you get your writing done
(typewriter, longhand, computer, dictation, etc.)?
I love my MacBook Pro with Retina display!!
That’s the only thing I write on (often with my feet kicked up)…
Any strange habits for when you write?
Nothing too strange. I always sit in a
chair with my feet up, one pillow on each side of me to rest each elbow on, and
one pillow on my lap to rest my laptop.
What are your thoughts on getting bad reviews?
Everyone has different tastes in what they
like to read, so I don't let bad reviews bother me too much. No matter what
your favorite book is, you can almost be guaranteed that it will have many bad
reviews on Amazon from people who just didn't get out of it what you did—that's
fine. I do try to stay objective and see if
there might be something I can learn from the criticism to become a better
writer, if not, then I just move on and don't worry about it.
Why do you write? Is it for fun, or because you have something you
need to say in your writing?
Some writers are loath to say their writing
has a message, because maybe they think doing so diminishes their art (not
true, in my opinion), but I think that everyone has a message in their writing,
even if they aren't as consciously focused on it—and that's a good thing. My
message is in the epigraph of Meritropolis: "Because everyone matters -
Psalm 139"
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joel Ohman is the author of Meritropolis--"The
Hunger Games meets The Village with a young Jack Reacher as a
protagonist". He lives in Tampa, FL with his wife Angela and their three
kids. His writing companion is Caesar, a slightly overweight Bull Mastiff who
loves to eat the tops off of strawberries.
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