Nolan Grey: tortured prisoner of war, national war hero, impassioned for cultural change, one of the deadliest killers the military has ever produced.
These aren’t exactly the ingredients expected for run-of-the-mill Christian fiction, then again, Vigilante by Robin Parrish, isn’t run-of-the-mill.
In a society drenched in drugs, violence, and commercial grade evil, Nolan Grey goes AWOL from a heroes’ life to make a difference. Fighting crime under the moniker “The Hand”, Nolan appears around New York City and fights for righteousness.(For a complete synopsis see the author's site here)
I was very impressed with the moral writing quality found in this book by Mr. Parrish. Instead of soaking his readers in depraved situations to enforce this broken picture of society, he showed the sewer with refraining from giving a guided tour. By the way he handled it's content I felt respected as a reader and as a Christian in my reading of this book Major kuddos!
Vigilante lacks nothing in the category of a main character; Nolan Grey is interesting, compelling, and has plenty of the cool-factor to go around. Nolan is also character you can immediately identify with and he bonded readily to this reader.
The sidekick characters in Vigilante are comprised of an old wartime commander, a young gadget-and-brains wizard, and a woman named Alice, whom Nolan rescues at the start of his crusade.
Vigilante had a lot of things going for it, and still does. My solitary complaint against the book was the sometimes not-so-subtle information dumps and “telling” writing style of the book. I would have much preferred a more “shown” picture of a character’s background or reaction, rather than having it tossed on me in a paragraph.
I refuse to give away the ending of this worthwhile read, but I will say this: the ending drove me to reconsider the story and to probe the plot with my own viewpoint and measure that against the written ending.
Well done Mr. Parrish! Best of luck in your future endeavors.
This book will definitely go on my list of recommendations.
6 comments:
Whoa. A recommended book by Millard! 0.o And it's a really interesting teaser. Definitely going on my 'to read' list.... :) -Nathanael
Yes, I've decided to start tagging them as recommended or not. Just one of the few changes around here :)
Glad it's on your to-read list, can't wait to hear you've read it.
Christian fiction is moving into the pulp/adventure genres. YES!
Heh,
Christian thrillers have been out for a loonngggg time. They are my preferred genre, actually. This Vigilante fiction--titled Vigilante IS a newer genre look, at least to my knowledge of the Christian scene.
Not thrillers. Thrillers are different.
Vigilante fiction fiction hearkens back to the pulps of the early 20th century and even to superheroes.
(Super Hero)
Which has also been done by...The author of Leaper: The Misadventures of a Not-Necessarily-Super Hero Geoffrey Wood.
I tend to agree with you, my statement was very poor categorically, good comment :)
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