A few other people have weighed in on Marieke Hardy’s m-novel thingo, revealing even more shortcomings of the particular model of publication chosen by those involved.
I’ve already pointed out (as have others) that it’s more of an online thing than a mobile thing, but the rapier-witted Gullybogan has drawn some parallels between “Vigilante Virgin” and other mobile phone subscription business models.
Hackpacker is doing a review in progress, focussing for the moment on the delivery mechanism, and he’s promised to get into the actual story in a later post. Duncan Felton has pointed out that the technological limitations of the scheme make it pretty simple to subvert the subscription model and get the whole thing for the price of a single instalment.
And now, as a result of the Age’s decision to publish the first five instalments of the story in print, their website now has those first five instalments available for free. I’ve had a read, and while it’s not entirely terrible, there’s a preponderance of cleverclever phraseology
“Judy Bowler wasn’t what you’d call pleasant looking, not even if you were the Dalai Lama and you’d been caught off-guard during a particularly beatific moment and asked to provide a positive physical character reference.”
and overwrought metaphors
“Already, she felt the icy fabric of the chair seeping through her tracksuit and spreading, like a wholly unpleasant rash, around her fleshy kidneys.”
which, combined with the fairly slow-moving plot, doesn’t do anything to make me regret my decision to spend my $11.25 buying action figures on ebay instead of on this ground-breaking literary experiment.
The Other Adam Ford 
Hey Adam! Thanks for the linkage and all. Found out about you via the interview on LiteraryMinded and I’ve been popping in every now and then to have a read.
Just a correction: my last name’s Felton, not Feldman. Don’t worry, creative variations on my last name happen all the time.
Hey Duncan! Welcome! And thanks back for your link! Apologies for my slackarse research skills re: your surname. It’s not an excuse to mention that I was blogging from the kitchen table while preventing my two kids from eviscerating each other, but I’m going to throw it out there anyway.
Haha, sounds like a good enough excuse to me. Cheers!
Thanks for the mention. Was tempted to post a link to the actual story, but Fairfax might come after for it.
yeah i think that’s a forwarded-text/email-only situation, no? i have to admit I’M tempted to contact the age and tell them how they can do it right (with me as the author this time of course ha ha)
I’m not so disappointed by the writing, but the implementation was a dog’s breakfast. Story would have worked okay in another medium, but on the mobile it didn’t work. They need you not as the author, but as a content producer. Posted a more final review this week.