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A review by whatsmacksaid
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman
2.0
To be honest, I'm not sure if I liked The Left hand of God, though I suppose it's a good sign that I'm still thinking about it two weeks after I finished reading it.
I did enjoy large swathes of the book. I liked the three main characters and their relationship and interactions. I thought the first part of the book, before their escape, was very strong writing and an enjoyable read. I also liked the soft Homeric imitations and thought they were very clever.
There were aspects of the books that bothered me, though. I wasn't impressed by the overt connection between the Redeemers and Catholicism. It detracted from the story because I kept wondering if Hoffman has a special dislike of Catholicism, or if it was just an easy scapegoat. I felt like I ought to adore both Cale's love interest and his witty mentor, but I didn't particularly care for either. There are a handful of characters that are very fully and well developed (the three main boys, the girl they rescue, and the head honcho's adviser), but there were just as many other characters that felt absolutely flat. Cale's rival at learning-to-be-a-hero training camp was one, his love interest was another, as was her father, and frankly the big bad guy was a fourth. He's a zealot, but that doesn't become clear until very late in the story. For most of the novel he is simply a frightening, mysterious guy and I would have preferred he took a bit more of a forefront instead of sauntering in at the end to ruin everyone's lives and set things up for book #2.
All that said, I will be reading the second novel (I will probably borrow it from the library, though), and I recommend reading The Left Hand of God if you've got some time to kill. It's a quick, enjoyable read, but if it was trying to be as awesome as the Night Angel trilogy, it sadly failed.
I did enjoy large swathes of the book. I liked the three main characters and their relationship and interactions. I thought the first part of the book, before their escape, was very strong writing and an enjoyable read. I also liked the soft Homeric imitations and thought they were very clever.
There were aspects of the books that bothered me, though. I wasn't impressed by the overt connection between the Redeemers and Catholicism. It detracted from the story because I kept wondering if Hoffman has a special dislike of Catholicism, or if it was just an easy scapegoat. I felt like I ought to adore both Cale's love interest and his witty mentor, but I didn't particularly care for either. There are a handful of characters that are very fully and well developed (the three main boys, the girl they rescue, and the head honcho's adviser), but there were just as many other characters that felt absolutely flat. Cale's rival at learning-to-be-a-hero training camp was one, his love interest was another, as was her father, and frankly the big bad guy was a fourth. He's a zealot, but that doesn't become clear until very late in the story. For most of the novel he is simply a frightening, mysterious guy and I would have preferred he took a bit more of a forefront instead of sauntering in at the end to ruin everyone's lives and set things up for book #2.
All that said, I will be reading the second novel (I will probably borrow it from the library, though), and I recommend reading The Left Hand of God if you've got some time to kill. It's a quick, enjoyable read, but if it was trying to be as awesome as the Night Angel trilogy, it sadly failed.