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library_hungry's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of the book, I would have given it two stars, because I had a lot of problems with the writing style. I felt like there were a lot of cliches and the third person omniscient point of view kept pulling me out of the story. But by the last half, I was hanging on the edge of my seat, staying up late to find out what happened, so I think I'd give that book four stars. It averages out to three--looking back I enjoyed it, but while I was reading it, I spent a lot of time annoyed.
Also, the female characters are all very one-dimensional. There are, I think four female characters who speak: one is sweet and sexy but not bright, one is beautiful and cold but innocent, one is rich and snotty, and one is a murderess. You now know, literally, everything I know about every woman in this book. I think that's the factor that ensures that I don't even give it the "wish I could put 3.5" nod.
Also, the female characters are all very one-dimensional. There are, I think four female characters who speak: one is sweet and sexy but not bright, one is beautiful and cold but innocent, one is rich and snotty, and one is a murderess. You now know, literally, everything I know about every woman in this book. I think that's the factor that ensures that I don't even give it the "wish I could put 3.5" nod.
beckylej's review against another edition
4.0
When Cale witnesses a Redeemer committing an unspeakable act, a series of choices and events that will change everything is set in motion.
Alternate history/fantasy and the first in a trilogy. Hoffman's characters come to life!
Alternate history/fantasy and the first in a trilogy. Hoffman's characters come to life!
conprimo's review against another edition
4.0
This book was very good in that I found it easy to pick up. I read two chapters in the first sitting, on my lunchbreak. They weren't short chapters which I suppose shows how easy it was to fall into this world. At that point I thought I was going to give this book 5 stars, however there were a couple of things about it that stopped that.
Firstly there's the random throwing in of made up words which don't actually seem to make sense.
Secondly there's Idriss Pukke who I couldn't understand the point of.
Despite the factors of this book which I wasn't so keen onI would definitely recommend picking it up. I've certainly picked up the second book in the trilogy and am really looking forward to seeing where it leads.
Firstly there's the random throwing in of made up words which don't actually seem to make sense.
Secondly there's Idriss Pukke who I couldn't understand the point of.
Spoiler
Finally there was the ending. I was so disappointed with the ending, although it was always built up to go the way it did the battle was not won by the army I was rooting for. I was hoping that the Materazzi would win and Cale would have redeemed himself for the good of everyone, I suppose that sets the second book up in a less satisfying way.Despite the factors of this book which I wasn't so keen onI would definitely recommend picking it up. I've certainly picked up the second book in the trilogy and am really looking forward to seeing where it leads.
squigglycrunch's review against another edition
Got 147 pages in and could not finish it. Disappointed and bored unfortunately!
cupiscent's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a bit of a literary hot-potato; it does not sit comfortably in any hand I try to grasp it with to hold it up and talk about it.
Let me come at it circuitously by means of reference: I feel like this sits somewhere halfway between Lies of Locke Lamora and Five Wounds. It has the big-fantasy leanings and bantering, cynical characters of the former, paired with the simplicity, omniscient-narrator and brutality of the latter. And yet, while both of those books were outstanding, jaw-dropping articles of elevated art, this is not quite so sublime. Let me be clear: it's very good. But it's just not magnificent, and it was aiming, I think, for that.
Throughout the book, I felt like the book was walking a tightrope of writing style. It did tricks, and they were consistently delightful tricks. Again and again, the prose was clever, entertaining, wry and engaging. And that's not even counting the fact that it pulled off an impeccable omniscent narrator, something that I am generally against and of which I am always keenly on the lookout for fuck-ups. However, the style never (for me) rose to the level of true literary grace. It never sparkled. It lacked that Lamora-esque lustre.
Here's another thing: the world sent me constantly slightly on edge. It's compiled - in geography and sociology and history - of a piled-up melange of just-left-of-centre real-world references (Memphis is near the Scablands, so initially I thought this was a sort of post-apocalyptic America [awesome!] but then it became obvious that Memphis was extremely Venetian [...still awesome?] and then they mentioned Norwegians and Arnhemland [er?] and then York was just to the north [...okaaay] and there were completely traditional medieval Jews [I give up]). Because of that, I kept trying to make sense of it and place it in real-world context. I don't think it fits, I'm not sure it's supposed to fit. I think perhaps the real-world references are supposed to make it feel "less fantastical" and therefore more comfortable (possibly to a teenage audience, but another way that this hot-potatoes is in the fact that it should be YA, except for how dark and gritty it is in places), but it had precisely the opposite effect on me: never knowing where I stood, I could never get comfortable.
The characters are strong and, even when they do stupid things, they do them for reasons that are very strongly sensible for who they are and what has previously shaped them. On the other hand, they're also allegedly fourteen, and then there's all that sex. It's not that I'm prudish, it's just that I'd like the hero to be at least sixteen before he has the destiny-shaping love of his life. You're a teenager. You'll get over it. Jeez.
Despite all that, it's an engaging, page-turning read (except, for me, the part where he clinically recounts a battlefield probably recognisable as Agincourt even if I hadn't cheated and read his endnotes) with excellent writing style and intriguing characters. I'm not sure it was as exciting as the blurb suggested it could be. And while I see the resemblance to all the authors it's been compared to (as well as the two I used, I've seen Umberto Eco and KJ Parker) I don't think it shines as brightly as any of them, possibly because it's trying to be everything at once.
Let me come at it circuitously by means of reference: I feel like this sits somewhere halfway between Lies of Locke Lamora and Five Wounds. It has the big-fantasy leanings and bantering, cynical characters of the former, paired with the simplicity, omniscient-narrator and brutality of the latter. And yet, while both of those books were outstanding, jaw-dropping articles of elevated art, this is not quite so sublime. Let me be clear: it's very good. But it's just not magnificent, and it was aiming, I think, for that.
Throughout the book, I felt like the book was walking a tightrope of writing style. It did tricks, and they were consistently delightful tricks. Again and again, the prose was clever, entertaining, wry and engaging. And that's not even counting the fact that it pulled off an impeccable omniscent narrator, something that I am generally against and of which I am always keenly on the lookout for fuck-ups. However, the style never (for me) rose to the level of true literary grace. It never sparkled. It lacked that Lamora-esque lustre.
Here's another thing: the world sent me constantly slightly on edge. It's compiled - in geography and sociology and history - of a piled-up melange of just-left-of-centre real-world references (Memphis is near the Scablands, so initially I thought this was a sort of post-apocalyptic America [awesome!] but then it became obvious that Memphis was extremely Venetian [...still awesome?] and then they mentioned Norwegians and Arnhemland [er?] and then York was just to the north [...okaaay] and there were completely traditional medieval Jews [I give up]). Because of that, I kept trying to make sense of it and place it in real-world context. I don't think it fits, I'm not sure it's supposed to fit. I think perhaps the real-world references are supposed to make it feel "less fantastical" and therefore more comfortable (possibly to a teenage audience, but another way that this hot-potatoes is in the fact that it should be YA, except for how dark and gritty it is in places), but it had precisely the opposite effect on me: never knowing where I stood, I could never get comfortable.
The characters are strong and, even when they do stupid things, they do them for reasons that are very strongly sensible for who they are and what has previously shaped them. On the other hand, they're also allegedly fourteen, and then there's all that sex. It's not that I'm prudish, it's just that I'd like the hero to be at least sixteen before he has the destiny-shaping love of his life. You're a teenager. You'll get over it. Jeez.
Despite all that, it's an engaging, page-turning read (except, for me, the part where he clinically recounts a battlefield probably recognisable as Agincourt even if I hadn't cheated and read his endnotes) with excellent writing style and intriguing characters. I'm not sure it was as exciting as the blurb suggested it could be. And while I see the resemblance to all the authors it's been compared to (as well as the two I used, I've seen Umberto Eco and KJ Parker) I don't think it shines as brightly as any of them, possibly because it's trying to be everything at once.
adunten's review against another edition
3.0
I pondered while reading this whether it was really designed to be a Young Adult book or not. It has certain characteristic qualities of YA writing: all the protagonists are teenagers struggling to survive in a world in which they have little or no control over their own fates, and the plot and fictional world have the streamlined simplicity of most YA fare. However, the world Hoffman creates is so grim, ugly, and violent it makes other dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Golden Compass, and A Series of Unfortunate Events look like strolls on pleasant days. The main character, Thomas Cale, is a cold killer and military tactician, trained from the age of 5 by the most brutal methods imaginable, under which hundreds of other boys die regularly. It begins and ends badly, and violent, graphic death abounds throughout.
Listening to this book in audio, narrated by Steve West, is probably the best way to enjoy it. West reads in a low, laconic mutter (but always with beautiful diction) that heightens the sense of gloom and dread shrouding the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, while also making the most of the dry humor that infuses Kleist, Vague Henri, and Idris Pukke. West's narration takes quirks of Hoffman's writing that might otherwise irritate, such as his occasional direct references to you, the reader, and turns them into dirty little secrets you can share with him, made the more delicious because the characters remain woefully ignorant.
I feel obliged to address some of the criticisms I've seen in other reviews. First, the idea that Cale is an annoyingly superhuman character who can do anything. That's simply not true. Yes, he has a set of skills honed to a razor's edge, but at the cost of having anything remotely resembling a normal childhood. Hoffman takes great care to make clear that in every other way, he is an ordinary 15-year-old boy. Many of the things he does are done for one of the most ordinary and universal of reasons-- to impress a girl he likes. These weaknesses balance his cold cynicism and save him from being completely unlikeable. The reason he can easily thrash five of the Matarazzi scions at once is quite simple-- they play at soldiering, while his life has depended on it daily for 10 years. However, I'll agree Hoffman went too far in also giving him an old head wound that grants him an uncanny ability to see his enemy's moves coming.
It's a common tactic in fantasy novels to use familiar geography, history, and culture, but set off-kilter to create a clearly alternate world. It has perhaps been used best in Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars series and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, and to some extent in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Hoffman doesn't use it well here, merely throwing in an occasional odd reference that confuses without truly painting a picture of a world that resembles our own but plainly is not.
There is a decided lack of meaningful female characters in the book, and the girls that are are part of the story only exist to play the role of (a) damsel in distress and (b) love interest. It would have been far more fascinating if Cale had to deal with a capable girl who could do something other than look pretty, and who was NOT hopelessly in love with him.
Finally, I have to agree the plot is a bit thin, in that slightly-too-neat way that so many YA books have. It's all a little too pat, the way the first two people Cale encounters in the scablands after escaping the Sanctuary just HAPPEN to be two Very Important Persons to the rest of the story, the girl Cale falls in love with just HAPPENS to be the target of the Redeemers, that one guy just HAPPENS to be the half-brother of that other guy, and so on. Even when things turn out badly-- and they do turn out very badly-- the pieces all fall together (or apart) a little too perfectly.
Still, the minimum I ask of a story is that it keep my interest, and The Left Hand of God mostly passed that test. Story flaws aside, it's well-written and engaging, a feat more impressive because none of the characters are really that likeable.
Listening to this book in audio, narrated by Steve West, is probably the best way to enjoy it. West reads in a low, laconic mutter (but always with beautiful diction) that heightens the sense of gloom and dread shrouding the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, while also making the most of the dry humor that infuses Kleist, Vague Henri, and Idris Pukke. West's narration takes quirks of Hoffman's writing that might otherwise irritate, such as his occasional direct references to you, the reader, and turns them into dirty little secrets you can share with him, made the more delicious because the characters remain woefully ignorant.
I feel obliged to address some of the criticisms I've seen in other reviews. First, the idea that Cale is an annoyingly superhuman character who can do anything. That's simply not true. Yes, he has a set of skills honed to a razor's edge, but at the cost of having anything remotely resembling a normal childhood. Hoffman takes great care to make clear that in every other way, he is an ordinary 15-year-old boy. Many of the things he does are done for one of the most ordinary and universal of reasons-- to impress a girl he likes. These weaknesses balance his cold cynicism and save him from being completely unlikeable. The reason he can easily thrash five of the Matarazzi scions at once is quite simple-- they play at soldiering, while his life has depended on it daily for 10 years. However, I'll agree Hoffman went too far in also giving him an old head wound that grants him an uncanny ability to see his enemy's moves coming.
It's a common tactic in fantasy novels to use familiar geography, history, and culture, but set off-kilter to create a clearly alternate world. It has perhaps been used best in Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars series and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, and to some extent in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Hoffman doesn't use it well here, merely throwing in an occasional odd reference that confuses without truly painting a picture of a world that resembles our own but plainly is not.
There is a decided lack of meaningful female characters in the book, and the girls that are are part of the story only exist to play the role of (a) damsel in distress and (b) love interest. It would have been far more fascinating if Cale had to deal with a capable girl who could do something other than look pretty, and who was NOT hopelessly in love with him.
Finally, I have to agree the plot is a bit thin, in that slightly-too-neat way that so many YA books have. It's all a little too pat, the way the first two people Cale encounters in the scablands after escaping the Sanctuary just HAPPEN to be two Very Important Persons to the rest of the story, the girl Cale falls in love with just HAPPENS to be the target of the Redeemers, that one guy just HAPPENS to be the half-brother of that other guy, and so on. Even when things turn out badly-- and they do turn out very badly-- the pieces all fall together (or apart) a little too perfectly.
Still, the minimum I ask of a story is that it keep my interest, and The Left Hand of God mostly passed that test. Story flaws aside, it's well-written and engaging, a feat more impressive because none of the characters are really that likeable.
zozo9's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
roshio's review against another edition
3.0
Great start and such promise but just out of reach of being amazing. As an aside, I greatly enjoyed the author talking to us directly!