Robin Parrish’s latest, titled Vigilante and published by Bethany House, is one of the featured novels in the CFBA Tour for this week. This is my third read from Robin Parrish who writes always interesting types of speculative fiction, just not my favorite types of reading. Until Vigilante. I really liked this novel, clearly my favorite of the three I’ve read. And may I add just a side note here? I loved that he only included one “blurb”, from Ted Dekker no less and on the cover, but just one. Kind of refreshing.
Writing a story which conjures up comparisons to a more fleet-footed Robocop while situated in a pre-apocalyptic New York City, Robin opens with a bang (forgive the pun) and keeps the tension and conflicts going right up to the satisfying end of the story. Shortly after a celebrated Special Forces soldier Lt. Nolan Gray, a well-known war hero and personal friend to the current president, is dead and buried with honors, mysterious billboards lead to a figure who starts rescuing different people from crimes against them, claiming to want to show them a “better way” to live. He doesn’t speak. Instead he performs amazing acts of offensive maneuvers to disable those who seek to wreak havoc on the patrons of NYC. The press labels him “The Hand” due to the design of the billboards and a white hand insignia on the strange combat suit he wears which seems to make him indestructible.
Vigilante is filled with techno-gadgetry that will satisfy the geekiness in anyone and fill the reader with images of comic book superheroes. Although the high-tech magic of the hero’s equipment proves to be all it’s supposed to be, the actually alive Nolan Gray isn’t infallible and soon comes under scrutiny by those he’s trying to bring to justice.
With the heart of a warrior and a love for Jesus, “The Hand” becomes the target for a hefty Russian mobster and a prying newspaper reporter working hard to reveal his identity.
There are multiple themes in this unique novel, presenting a hero filled with a sense of justice and a desire to inspire people not to succumb to the evil threatening to destroy their everyday lives. Somehow along the way when tragedy and heartbreak attack his soul, he loses part of who he is in this fight but refuses to quit until one specific monster is vanquished. Tackling moral ambiguity, the element of unintentional self-righteousness and reliance, the meting out of justice, hopelessness and helplessness, and the constructs of evil, Vigilante packs a punch in more ways than the obvious.
The cast of Nolan’s cohorts consist of an older fellow soldier, a master geek who abstains from weaponry, and a motherly woman who Nolan rescues from abuse. A few places in certain situations the dialogue sounds stiff, but it’s not pronounced throughout the novel. Parrish keeps Nolan consistent as he slides more desperately into perform-at-all-costs/soldier-mode and caps the story with a positive ending.
Vigilante is a moving tribute to many things. It appeals to my sense of justice. It paints the actions of a war hero with grace and humanity. It allows the reader to make conclusions and injects faith issues into complex situations. This is a great story, and Robin handles it all very well. His best book to date in my opinion.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206087
Father, please continue to instruct Robin and bless his writing. Provide those important themes for his work and allow him the opportunities he needs to produce them. Watch over him. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.