Meritropolis
Author
Joel Ohman
Author Bio
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.
Description
The year is AE3, 3 years after the Event. Within the walls of Meritropolis, 50,000 inhabitants live in fear, ruled by the brutal System that assigns each citizen a merit score that dictates whether they live or die. Those with the highest scores thrive, while those with the lowest are subject to the most unforgiving punishment–to be thrust outside the city gates, thrown to the terrifying hybrid creatures that exist beyond.
But for one High Score, conforming to the System just isn’t an option. Seventeen-year-old Charley has a brother to avenge. And nothing–not even a totalitarian military or dangerous science–is going to stop him.
Where humankind has pushed nature and morals to the extreme, Charley is amongst the chosen few tasked with exploring the boundaries, forcing him to look deep into his very being to discern right from wrong. But as he and his friends learn more about the frightening forces that threaten destruction both without and within the gates, Meritropolis reveals complexities they couldn’t possibly have bargained for…
Book excerpt
In the year AE 3, everyone in Meritropolis was assigned a numerical “merit” score to decide their worth to society—and whether they would live or die. The mandate of the merit scoring system was simple: the needs of the many always outweighed the desires of the individual. That three years after the Event the small city had scrabbled together a group of 50,000 souls was testament to their resolve.
Brutal adherence to the System in the years that followed protected the hardiest of the city’s inhabitants from what lay within and without the gates. Submitting to the System provided the best chance of collective survival.
Of course, there are always those who refuse to submit.