Viaticum by Patrick Morgan

“Paradise has a price.

It isn’t just a job, it’s his dream job. This is everything he’s worked for and everything he deserves. One job offer, and Ethan Birch’s life changes forever.

Given immense creative control, power, and perks, Ethan falls deeply under the company’s spell. His Beverly Hills office is a modern mecca, complete with every imaginable convenience and delight. Employees walk around barefoot on floors of summer grass while flowering cornucopias bloom from the ceiling; a utopian fantasyland the likes of which he’s never imagined.

But beneath this paradise, a dark conspiracy breathes. Ethan soon begins to realize that to have everything he’s ever wanted, he’ll have to sacrifice everything he’s ever loved.”

Patrick Morgan’s latest novel Viaticum is a poignant tale of the consequences of maintaining a lavish lifestyle and choosing your own reality.

How do you define success? Is it accomplishing goals or building wealth? Somehow both?

Is there a threshold as you move up the chain where building wealth and status becomes the goal?

Is work success worth your home life falling apart?

What if it was going to fall apart anyway?

Viaticum is also an intriguing character study:

First is Ethan – a man who seems to have difficulty taking full responsibility for his actions, instead choosing to blame everyong and anyone else.

Second is Dr. Charon – one half of the husband and wife team that owns Olympus – who seems to revel in playing god to those around him, pushing them to the brink until he’s the last thing they can rely on.

From Ethan’s point of view at his new work place, Olympus: “Platinum-blue Los Angeles skies stretch out in every direction, and beneath them, a full nine stories down, I can gaze out over the urban sprawl of civilization in much the same way that God must look down upon us.”

There is tension between Ethan and his wife, Allie, and the more you learn about their history, you begin to see how certain actions have come to be.

Having read other reviews, I’m feeling alone in that I have little sympathy for Ethan’s predicaments. I don’t know if the author meant this to be ambiguous but I got the impression that Ethan was chosen by his new company precisely because things were going to implode for him anyway – if Olympus hadn’t been involved, how would his life have been different in the end?

Viaticum would be an interesting book club selection because there’s plenty to dissect.

Patrick Morgan excels at presenting the what-ifs.

What if you risked the consequences of doing whatever you wanted because the world was ending anyway? (Apparent Horizon)

What if your soul got lost in the ether and entered another person’s body while you were unconscious? (Realms)

And now, with his latest novel Viaticum, what if there’s a chance for you to have everything you wanted? What price would you pay to get it?

Patrick Morgan’s latest release Viaticum is available via e-book and in print and releases TOMORROW, 6 July 2021. Preorder your copy today from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about Patrick Morgan and his other works at his website.