May 05th, 2024

I am the author of “The Village: The sleep of reason produces monsters.” It is a dystopia about religion.
I paid 3 editorial review shops to evaluate my book.
I had very good and bad editorial reviews… what to make of it?
I start with the bad one. I am not sure this is smart, but that’s life.

 
Clarion (Forward Reviews)
I think the reviewer was a hard-core believer. He/she had some nice words about the story but blasted it with out-of-context remarks, giving me 2 stars. How can a reviewer blame an author for describing what is in one of the character’s mind?
I complained, and the agent told me she forwarded my email to the editor-in-chief. I offered to forward them links to other editorial reviews about my book, where I received a 4-star rating and very nice words. They ignored all this, and I had never heard about their chief editor’s reaction. They also turned off the opportunity to complain on their site. I do not mind if they are fighting to protect Christian values, but at least it should be a warning on their site that if you are on the wrong side of the fence, you’ll pay for it.
 
Clarion Review SCIENCE FICTION
The Village
Eliade Moldovan
Amazon KDP
(267pp)
978-1-73832-420-0
A parable about the perils of blind trust, The Village follows two teenagers through their difficulties toward possible
love.
In Eliade Moldovan’s speculative novel The Village, religious power dynamics reveal the dangers of blind faith.
Seventeen-year-old Mike experiences upheaval and turmoil when a new family arrives in Orinsland, his secluded
hometown. Murders are committed, and a hurricane threatens the entire village. His point of view is interspersed with those of other villagers, with the book lingering on Anna, a teenager from the city who takes up residence in the village with her father, its newest resident technician. And Father Quinn, the town’s priest, presides over a flock of ordinary, God-fearing individuals, among whom are farmers using equipment that is at least a century out of date. Further, there are hints of a romance between Mike and Anna, even as they work to avert a potential tragedy.
The village and its people are described in enthusiastic but limiting terms: “The landscape was breathtaking, like a
real-life painting,” Anna observes, and a scene near sunset is set in terms of the “few red-brownish clouds seen over the western mountains [that] outlined the valley’s beauty where Orinsland sat.” Anna, who’s comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, notes that her new classmates “behaved differently; they were too docile.” Here and elsewhere, people’s feelings and village sights are prioritized, but at the expense of depth; tensions are “palpable,” hearts stop to indicate surprise or danger, and stale motifs and metaphors (as with references to the full moon) appear too often. The view of Orinsland that develops is a simple one—a mere distraction from the book’s otherwise fascinating premise.
The book’s characterizations are also flat. People’s motivations seem singular, and they often act in ways that
controvert expectations—including in the midst of dire situations, where their reactions strain credulity. The effect is jarring. And there’s a limited sense of people’s lives outside of the central narrative, which is vague when it comes to backstories and personal histories. Those whose backgrounds are revealed through flashbacks are more complex; still, they too are quite single-minded. Further, while the story includes several substantial plot turns, they are foreshadowed with a heavy hand, robbing the book of surprise. And even in the book’s striking ending, the fates of many are left unresolved, preventing a final sense of satisfaction.
In the allegorical novel The Village, corruption is shown to be innate among the powerful.
CAITLIN CACCIATORE (April 4, 2024)
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to
have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a
positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
 
Below is the review from Reedsy Discovery.
 
Loved it! 😍
Villagers blind faith in a puritanical religious leader and distrust of the outside world lead to violence and a potential catastrophe
SYNOPSIS
A small, isolated community with limited access to technology and the outside world had a heavenly life, at least on the surface. This environment could be a fertile ground for a manipulative and puritanical religious figure. Is Father Quinn taking advantage of the community’s vulnerability? Or will his intentions, sooner or later, conflict with elements of progress? Or will his determination to keep the community from dangerous temptation bring happiness?

The arrival of a rebellious teenage girl, Anna, could trigger a fight between secular and religious concepts. Freedom in its recalcitrant form and the desire for redemption will clash, and the result might have no winner since no one will abide by the other side’s perception of right and wrong or how this life should be lived.

What could change a struggle between reasoning versus faith, liberty versus accepting the well-known thousands of years old solid teaching of Christian scriptures?

A danger looming over the community could bring them together or split them further apart.
Teenager Mike lives with his family in Orinsland, a small, farming community with limited access to technology and the outside world. It seems a peaceful and happy place but Mike dreams of more than the simple life, and is devoted to the television, the only window on the outside world he knows. An old teacher, Mr Trent, has always ensured that the technology works but now he is old and tired and Father Quinn, a manipulative and puritanical religious figure, believes that it is a temptation to the villagers and will undermine his authority. When rebellious teenager Anna, to whom Mike is attracted, and her family move into Orinsland it brings things to a head and it becomes a fight between blind faith and the elements of progress. Quinn’s determination to keep the village from temptation becomes dangerous when a natural disaster threatens and he encourages his follower Colt to cut off the community’s link to the outside world. The fight is then no longer hypothetical but real as it brings the village is to the brink of disaster.
  
The plot is simple and character driven, based on the war between secular and religious concepts, Anna, her family and Mr Trent on the side of progress and Quinn and those who follow him blindly on the other. Many of the characters seem to be mere ciphers for one side of the argument or the other but the main characters stand out well. Mike is conflicted, as he is in love with Anna but wants to stay true to his family’s beliefs. Trent is admirable but old and tired and no match for Quinn who by the end is totally delusional, although he, also, has his doubts and has suffered in the past. I was not convinced that simple god-fearing folk like Colt, Quinn’s acolyte, would be prepared to go to the lengths they do - such as trashing the television station and worse - although sadly the power exerted by leaders of some religious cults has indeed proved deadly.  The book’s climax is all it should be with the believers hoping for divine deliverance from the storm but not taking the action required.
 
Although the various characters fall too easily into one camp or the other this nevertheless provides a thought-provoking and intriguing read, as well as providing much excitement along the way.
REVIEWED BY
Jennifer Hill
 
Note: Congratulations! Your book The Village has been reviewed by Jennifer Hill! It will go live on May 30, 2024 and will be available from https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/the-village-eliade-moldovan.
 
 
I also paid Blueink for a review. They offer some discount if you pay both Blueink and Clarion. I think the reviewer was slightly uncomfortable with the standing in the book, but he/she tried her best to look at the story with a reviewer’s eye.
 

 
 The Village
Eliade Moldovan
Eliade Moldovan, 267 pages, 978-1-7383242-0-0
(Reviewed: March 2024)
The Village is a modern-day drama focusing on a geographically isolated agrarian religious community called Orinsland, where a morally questionable priest has assumed the role of town leader.
The story centers on Father Quinn’s relationship with his Christian congregation, some of whom support his dogmatic approach to faith and some who are unconvinced by his unbending religious values.
At the novel’s commencement, newcomers the Mulroneys arrive in Orinsland so that Peter Mulroney can work as a technician maintaining the village’s TV reception station. Peter’s 16-year-old daughter, Anna, struggles to adapt to the community. Having difficulty cultivating relationships due to her non-conformist attitude, Anna is befriended by smitten teenager Mike, delinquent youth Valery, and former town-leader-turned-teacher, Professor Trent, whose liberalism clashes with prevailing Orinsland outlooks.
Following a tragedy in the community resulting from the growing rift between Father Quinn’s acolytes and more open-minded parishioners, Anna starts to question Quinn’s autocratic teachings. Tensions quickly escalate between the two groups, culminating in a murderous vendetta and an apocalyptic final act.
Author Eliade Moldovan has crafted a philosophically challenging meditation on the perils of fundamentalism, presenting a cautionary tale of a society governed by religious intolerance, where compassion and inclusivity have been subdued by fearmongering. To ensure that the different psycho-social circumstances of community members—such as humourless zealot Colt, and vengeful father, Liam—are thoughtfully explored, Moldovan employs a balanced structure, focusing each chapter on a specific character. This avoids the potential for bias inherent in a single-character perspective.
That said, the story predominantly belongs to relatable fish-out-of-water Anna; Mike, whose romantic interest in Anna leads him into conflict with his own religious values, and Father Quinn.
Although some readers might wish for more periodic relief from the novel’s bleak tone and oppressive subject, overall, The Village is a brave novel that successfully presents its case for a more liberal society.
 
https://www.blueinkreview.com/book-reviews/the-village/