Brian Kindall's Blog - Posts Tagged "delivering-virtue-review"
"Write When You Find Work!"
Tomorrow's the Day - the day when we release Delivering Virtue and its cast of characters into the world to live a long and rewarding life. Hopefully, to give readers many moments of entertainment as they play their roles in this adventure over and over to the world's delight. It feels a little like saying so-long to your kids. "Bye! Be good! Uplift and captivate others, and write when you find work!" And for us, it's on to the the next book. We sincerely hope you enjoy Delivering Virtue. And we sincerely plead with you to go to your favorite retailer and write a review, good or bad - diversity is a good thing in the world of reviews, honesty is key.
We've had some favorable responses so far! Here are the first reviews of Delivering Virtue.
Awesome Indies, a site dedicated to "taking the risk out of buying indie", gave it their Seal of Excellence:
From Awesome Indies Review Blog 10/22/15:
"Delivering Virtue by Brian Kindall is a different kind of western story. Didier Rain, a dissolute poet is hired by an offshoot Mormon sect to deliver a bride to their Prophet Nehi in his isolated compound in northern Utah. Rain is shocked to find that the ‘bride’ is an infant named Virtue, but the prospect of a $30,000 payday causes him to accept the challenge.
From Rain’s departure the story takes many quite unexpected turns, with aspects of mysticism, fantasy, and strange glimpses of the future thrown into a hard-boiled western story of a not-so-good man’s journey of self-discovery. The author skillfully weaves the mystical elements into the story, with flashbacks into Rain’s past making them even credible.
The narrator has a notably extensive vocabulary and elegance of prose suitable for the poetic aspirations of the character, and it even includes made-up words, such as ‘spelunkulatory’. Some readers may find phrases such as “discussing business in a private glossolalia,” a little off-putting, but personally, I enjoyed the depth of vocabulary and the writing style. Luckily ereaders have inbuilt dictionary to help ascertain a word’s meaning, because it is not always clear from the context of the passages.
All up, it’s a great story, and it has a strange, but somehow satisfying ending that I won’t spoil by revealing. 5 stars"
San Fransisco Book Review says:
"In 1854, Didier Rain is hired to escort Virtue to the City of Rocks in the western United States, where she will become a bride to the Prophet Nehi, who runs the Church of the Restructured Truth. From the very start, I knew this would be an unusual novel, but I wasn't prepared for just how unusual. Not only does Rain have to cross a large part of the country on horseback, but the bride he must protect is only a baby. However, Virtue is no ordinary child, and Rain proves to be no ordinary man, even though at first he appears to be the most typical man imaginable.
When I say Rain is typical, I don't mean this as an insult. In fact, it's part of the reason I found the book so enjoyable. Kindall manages to create in Rain a flawed character, who is nevertheless compelling, in large part because of those flaws. Rain is poetic yet dense, irresolute yet willing to stick to his principles, and affectionate yet distasteful. (At least, I would find him distasteful were I to meet him in person; as a fictional character, I find him delightful). He is easily the most developed character in the book, and it is that development and those paradoxes which make the book so worth reading.
The story of Rain's journey with Virtue is well-paced, moving quickly without feeling rushed. The narration is beautiful, which is rare for such an irreverent book, but that only made it more wonderful to read. There were a few times here and there where the rich descriptions felt jarring, and I did wish occasionally that the other characters had a touch more development, but overall, Delivering Virtue is a very enjoyable book. If you find yourself grinning even half as often as I did, you'll agree that it's a remarkable piece of fiction."
We've had some favorable responses so far! Here are the first reviews of Delivering Virtue.
Awesome Indies, a site dedicated to "taking the risk out of buying indie", gave it their Seal of Excellence:
From Awesome Indies Review Blog 10/22/15:
"Delivering Virtue by Brian Kindall is a different kind of western story. Didier Rain, a dissolute poet is hired by an offshoot Mormon sect to deliver a bride to their Prophet Nehi in his isolated compound in northern Utah. Rain is shocked to find that the ‘bride’ is an infant named Virtue, but the prospect of a $30,000 payday causes him to accept the challenge.
From Rain’s departure the story takes many quite unexpected turns, with aspects of mysticism, fantasy, and strange glimpses of the future thrown into a hard-boiled western story of a not-so-good man’s journey of self-discovery. The author skillfully weaves the mystical elements into the story, with flashbacks into Rain’s past making them even credible.
The narrator has a notably extensive vocabulary and elegance of prose suitable for the poetic aspirations of the character, and it even includes made-up words, such as ‘spelunkulatory’. Some readers may find phrases such as “discussing business in a private glossolalia,” a little off-putting, but personally, I enjoyed the depth of vocabulary and the writing style. Luckily ereaders have inbuilt dictionary to help ascertain a word’s meaning, because it is not always clear from the context of the passages.
All up, it’s a great story, and it has a strange, but somehow satisfying ending that I won’t spoil by revealing. 5 stars"
San Fransisco Book Review says:
"In 1854, Didier Rain is hired to escort Virtue to the City of Rocks in the western United States, where she will become a bride to the Prophet Nehi, who runs the Church of the Restructured Truth. From the very start, I knew this would be an unusual novel, but I wasn't prepared for just how unusual. Not only does Rain have to cross a large part of the country on horseback, but the bride he must protect is only a baby. However, Virtue is no ordinary child, and Rain proves to be no ordinary man, even though at first he appears to be the most typical man imaginable.
When I say Rain is typical, I don't mean this as an insult. In fact, it's part of the reason I found the book so enjoyable. Kindall manages to create in Rain a flawed character, who is nevertheless compelling, in large part because of those flaws. Rain is poetic yet dense, irresolute yet willing to stick to his principles, and affectionate yet distasteful. (At least, I would find him distasteful were I to meet him in person; as a fictional character, I find him delightful). He is easily the most developed character in the book, and it is that development and those paradoxes which make the book so worth reading.
The story of Rain's journey with Virtue is well-paced, moving quickly without feeling rushed. The narration is beautiful, which is rare for such an irreverent book, but that only made it more wonderful to read. There were a few times here and there where the rich descriptions felt jarring, and I did wish occasionally that the other characters had a touch more development, but overall, Delivering Virtue is a very enjoyable book. If you find yourself grinning even half as often as I did, you'll agree that it's a remarkable piece of fiction."
