We Were Kings

Blotta, R. (2014). We Were Kings. Self-published.

Adult / Novella / Realistic Fiction

I gave this book 5 of 5 stars!

“Only when you’re a little lost can you start to find direction.” 

In Rafael Blotta's We Were Kings, Robert Bartholomew doesn’t know he’s lost; he is living his own life as a writer in Guatemala, far from his South Philly upbringing and the family and neighborhood ties he found a little too binding.  Robert has nothing in common with those people, especially his brother who has become a guitar god on the rock scene. Good riddance, Robert tells himself.  He has happily moved beyond his days as Robbie from Gloucester City and has no plans to look back -- that is until the arrival of the invitation to come home for his father's fiftieth birthday party.  Robert begrudgingly finds himself on an airplane back home, then facing his past which, alarmingly, is his present. Robbie soon realizes that families are bonded by things that distance can't break: love, acceptance, and understanding, and perhaps those aren't such bad ties after all. Rafael Blotta tells a poignant story about family and friendship and the perspective on them that comes only with maturity.

Blotta has a real gift for depicting reality, and his writing flows in a natural, not showy way. His characters are fully fleshed-out and easily imagined as people readers have known or met. I appreciated the adjusted phonetic spellings to help the readers "hear" the strange, exclusive Gloucester City accent described as, "the only accent of its kind in the entire world, a strange mix of South Jersey Irish-American descendents [sic] combined with a South Philly Italian intonation, all wrapped together with the slur and mindset of the dockworkers that had first made their homes here over a hundred years ago.” Blotta uses beautiful, descriptive language and also some colorful figurative language that perfectly illustrate his characters. For example, in describing his great-grandmother, he says, “She had a penchant for sprinkling the truth with flavorful bullshit.” This short description speaks volumes of the character, and really illustrates the overall impression of We Were Kings: Rafael Blotta’s story speaks volumes in just a few pages.

Fortunately, the only improvements needed are easily made with another pass by the editor. There are a dozen or so errors, which is too many for a story of this length. They are not game stoppers, but corrections would take the story to the next level of professionalism.

This book was reviewed for Readers' Favorite, who provided me a free eBook in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give.

The Solace Pill

Werbeloff, J. (2014). The Solace Pill: Giving You the Time You'll Never Have. . . Self-published on Smashwords.

Adult / Dystopian

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars

Giving you the time you'll never have. . . 

**shiver**  In Jason Werbeloff’s The Solace Pill Omnibus Edition, which collectsThe Solace Pill trilogy into one single volume,  readers are taken into a dystopian world where 3D printing has advanced to having the capability of scanning and reprinting humans with whatever modifications they desire. Want to understand quantum physics or have memories of a Caribbean vacation? Reprint yourself. Want to be young and perfectly sculpted? Reprint yourself. Want to be fueled and fully rested without wasting time to eat or sleep? Yep, reprint yourself.  With so much time freed-up and no limits on life expectancy, the world is overpopulated and overworked, and the solutions provided by 3D imprints are beginning to show their imperfections.   Fortunately, there’s a pill for that. The Solace Pill allows users to escape reality for fifteen minutes, but their perception is five hours of relaxation and rejuvenation without the stress of the real world.  But, as is often the case with seemingly perfect worlds, there is a dark side where some people and issues are erased with a push of a button, and other people aren’t who they seem and have hidden motives.  Civilization collapses when tainted pills have disastrous effects of death, destruction, and mayhem. The few who survive without Solace in their system must find a cure for those stuck in the Solace induced worlds, but time and options are running out. 

The premise of The Solace Pill is both fantastic and frighteningly possible.  While many of us can barely wrap our minds about the reality of 3D printing in our world today, certainly there are scientists who are already considering how to take 3D printing to organic levels. Much like today, in the future, people are fascinated by that which they have lost – authentic, real, unadulterated items which they call “tiques.”   I found it very interesting to read and see how the future society, as is typical today, took something good and perverted it: the loopholes were found, the immoral was done to turn a buck, and the humanity was taken out of the human.  And of course, there was economic bias created so that not everyone had equal access to imprinting or the Solace Pills. In this respect, the character of Anders was particularly intriguing as one of the few who worked his way up from nothing, to seemingly having it all, yet craving the old ways. I was disappointed that we didn’t get to know him better, to better understand him and the turning-point of the book.   

Jason Werbeloff didn’t hold back any punches in showing the self-serving, ugliness of people when they are encouraged to be egocentric and the sense of community is lost.  The loathsome Jordan was probably the best written character because he represented the evil of so-called progress, and he was consistently wicked in all three sections.  The character of Sahasra was promising but then got weird and confusing in book two with the introduction without explanation of the elders – I really had no idea what was going on there. For me, there was also confusion with chapters jumping forward and backwards in time and some full scenes being identically repeated – this could be due to the Omnibus edition consolidating three stories, but it was confusing nonetheless.  

Overall, The Solace Pill is a disturbing snapshot of a feasible future, and it was worth the time to read it. Readers be warned, though: it will leave more than a few questions unanswered and situations unexplained, leaving readers feeling foggy. The book includes sexual situations, violence, and profanity.

This book was reviewed for Readers' Favorite, who provided me a free eBook in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give.