Reviews

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

akbrownie's review

4.0

It was good. This is the one with Thomas Cale where they are in the sactuary of the redeemers and they are strongly abused until the make a daring escape. First book felt like a lead up to read the second? It was good, but I'm not 100% sure about it

millie_belle's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

chontadurolector's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

precious_reads's review

3.0

Alot of nothing happened Thomas Cale

fishface's review

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I can give this a lot of credit for how pacy and readable it is. Basically everything else about the story is a bit shit though lol. The characters are weak, especially the women, who exist exclusively to tempt and decieve the 14 (!) year old main charcter. Ew. The worldbuilding also frustrates me. The author has chosen to almost exclusively borrow names for countries, peoples and cities from real life ones, without paying any heed as far as I can tell to geography. It surely isn't trying to be an alternate timeline Earth... as all the locations wouldn't make sense... so why didn't the author just make up place-names? In addition the main religion is evidently a recreation of Christianity, complete with crusaders (the redeemers) so why not just commit and call it that when everything else has been given an Earth name. 

However, I must (slightly shamefully) admit it was still a good time and fun read :))

nejtack's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Provocatively sloppy and generally a waste of time. At least Paul seems aware of his own lazy writing, as he is constantly prompting the reader to "consider x" or "imagine y", even if he does nothing to remedy it. Horrific world-building is accompanied by a general lack of structured plot and engaging, or even believable, characters. We are kept at a firm distance from our protagonist while the weird, omniscient narrator does all the heavy lifting for him; in fact, Thomas Cale is consistently referred to by his bloody surname, as if the author is afraid of us getting to know the character and connecting with him. The clunky prose ensures that the reader isn't given a moment of peace in the 400 pages of blind stumbling around the paper-thin, confusing story that even Hoffman himself doesn't seem able to explain.
If I had been religious in any capacity, I would have come away from this book an atheist. How this became a trilogy is utterly beyond me. Honestly. Is this really a finished work, fit for audiences to read? Is it suddenly a crime to edit and revise novels properly? Are there simply no standards for what is considered suitable for publication anymore?

auroramw's review against another edition

3.0

I am a little uncertain of what I feel about this book. I want to say that I love it, but I can't, and that is simply because I don't. I found the plot and characters interesting, but I think that Paul's writing style is simply not for me. Therefore, I probably won't continue with this series.

zieglera's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

sillypunk's review

This is a terrible fucking book and you shouldn't read it ever: http://blogendorff.ghost.io/book-review-the-left-hand-of-god/

its_tara's review against another edition

4.0

Set in a very dark, very frightening world, this book follows Thomas Cale (normally known as Cale) and his story. It begins in The Sanctuary, home of The Redeemers, a group of religious fanatics, who take young boys (acolytes) and teach them of their religion - and to fight to kill.

One of the main strengths of this book is the sense of injustice it portays, and just how grim a world it manages to make. There are also twists and turns to the plot, which once I'd gotten into the book, kept me turning pages. Another is that, like the characters in the book, you find yourself liking Cale, but never quite understanding him, and always a little scared of him and what he will do.

In terms of weaknesses, I found this book fairly difficult to get into at first, though maybe that's because it's not me normal kind of book. Likewise, the ending was sort of anticlimatic, though this is because the book is to be a part of a series, and this leads you (I assume) right into the next book.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and looked forward to my work lunch breaks in order to have time to read it. However, I think the claims on the cover seem to overhype it a bit, and that those with little patience for a somewhat jumpy (at times, anyway) storyline may have a few issues with it.