Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Left Hand of God
    Unavailable
    The Left Hand of God
    Unavailable
    The Left Hand of God
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Left Hand of God

    Written by Paul Hoffman

    Narrated by Steve West

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Paul Hoffman's novel of astonishing scope and imagination, featuring a darkly gifted teenage boy at the center of a brutal holy war, grabs the reader from its incredible opening lines and refuses to let go. The Left Hand of God is the first novel in an epic, ambitious trilogy that will prove irresistible to the readers who have turned the Inheritance Cycle, Twilight, and the His Dark Materials series into publishing phenomena.

    The Left Hand of God is the story of sixteen-year-old Thomas Cale, who has grown up imprisoned at the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, a fortress run by a secretive sect of warrior monks in a distant, dystopian past. He is one of thousands of boys who train all day in hand-to-hand combat, in preparation for a holy war that only the High Priests know is now imminent. He has no reason to think he's special, no idea there's another world outside the compound's walls, and no hope for a life any different from the one he already knows.

    And then, Cale opens a door.

    What follows is a daring escape, an unlikely alliance, a desperate pursuit, a journey of incredible discovery, and an adventure the likes of which Cale could never possibly have imagined, culminating in Cale's astonishing realization that he alone has the power to save his world- or to destroy it.

    Watch a Video

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 15, 2010
    ISBN9781101223123
    Unavailable
    The Left Hand of God
    Author

    Paul Hoffman

    Paul Hoffman is the publisher of ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica’. He is the host of the five-part PBS series ‘Great Minds of Science’ and a frequent correspondent on television shows such as ‘CBS This Morning’ and ‘The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.’ For ten years, Hoffman was the president and editor-in-chief of ‘Discover’ magazine. He is the author of ten books including ‘Archimedes’ Revenge.’ He lives in Chicago, Illinois and Woodstock, New York.

    Related to The Left Hand of God

    Related audiobooks

    Paranormal Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Books That Made Us

      Apr 2, 2023

      The Books That Made Us
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mother’s Day

      Apr 18, 2022

      Mother’s Day
      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Oct 6, 2022

      Growing up in 1973, Eleanor's home was strained by sorrow and the echoes of war that silenced her parents. And always her mother, Kitty's, bitterness, twisting and poisoning everything she touched. She thought she knew what made her parents this way…

      2 min read

    • Article

      Storytime

      Jun 14, 2023

      The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry, HarperCollins 1940, curly-haired, freckled Flora, five, wakes on a blanket. She’s alone in “Whisperwood” – the secret place sister Hazel, 14, taught her to trust: “ … an invisible place and if you

      1 min read

    • Article

      How Lolita Seduces Us All

      Aug 2, 2018

      How Lolita Seduces Us All
      5 min read

    • Article

      She’s No Saint

      Jul 3, 2022

      She’s No Saint
      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 17, 2023

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Editorial

      Feb 6, 2020

      Mystery is to storytelling what butter is to bread. You can enjoy one without the other, but they're much better in combination. Book shops are stuffed full of the whodunnits and crime novels we readers seem to have an insatiable appetite for; settin

      1 min read

    • Article

      Life In Wartime: Women Dominate A Quartet Of World War II Novels

      Aug 25, 2021

      The 4 best recent novels set during World War II show the ingenuity of women who put everything on the line to defeat the Nazis.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jun 3, 2020

      Book Club
      1 min read

    • Article

      No One Prayed Over Their Graves by Khaled Khalifa – a Syrian epic

      Jul 26, 2023

      During the twilight years of the Ottoman empire at the end of the 19th century, as ethnic tensions flare between the groups that inhabit its vast territories, a young boy flees a massacre and finds shelter in Aleppo with a wealthy Muslim family. Like

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Unravelling

      Sep 8, 2023

      The Unravelling
      3 min read

    • Article

      Seeking Clarity

      Sep 29, 2020

      Seeking Clarity
      5 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Oct 17, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      'A Shout In The Ruins' Probes The Lasting Infections Of War And Slavery

      May 16, 2018

      Kevin Powers' bleak, stunning new book is set in both the 1950s and the Civil War era. It's an intricately plotted look at the ways violence can shape a nation in ways that may not be recoverable.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Dear Match Book

      Mar 15, 2019

      I love trilogies: Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War, Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour, and more recently, Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy. My problem is I can’t stand quartets! The post Dear Match Book appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    Reviews for The Left Hand of God

    3.5/5

    332 ratings46 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 1/5
      I bought this book in person during a sale based on the cover and blurb. That was a mistake. Reading past its first three pages took a few tries.

      Descriptions are unnecessarily vague, and the jumps in POV are distracting. Someone here claimed that The Left Hand of God was written in an omniscient point-of-view, but the perspective feels haphazard, as if the author struggled to shift the focus.

      After slogging through the first chapter, I resorted to skimming the rest of the novel. The characters were difficult to tell apart and uninteresting at best. Nothing in the world or plot hooked me in for long. Ultimately, I gave away my copy of this novel.
    • 2/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      I'm not generally a fantasy genre sort of person (with a couple of notable exceptions) so I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed this book. The story is interesting and engaging, and it's written in a very easy-to-consume style - in fact I ploughed through this book in a weekend. Thoroughly enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      I devoured this novel, to be honest, and it was surprisingly satisfying. I'm not a fantasy reader, generally, and I was reluctant to pick this one up and actually start reading when it appeared in the mail, but I'm very glad I did. This is one of the first books I've read in a while that I've found myself practically unable to put down. The story is masterfully told, developed subtly with a surprisingly nuanced character development and foreshadowing - I found myself looking forward chapter to chapter as new questions were raised and others were finally answered. My only issue would probably be with the love interest character, who is written fairly flat with nothing to recommend her but her adoration for the protagonist - oh, and her beauty. It's a shame, that a novel with minor characters with motivations so developed (Simon and his tutor both, for example, both interesting individuals with very little "screen time"), that she'd be so underdeveloped. Despite this disappointment, though, which admittedly turned me off the last chapter of the novel, I'll be giving the following parts of this series a shot. I'm interested in seeing more of this universe and its population.
    • 3/5
      The main character is being raised as an especially skilled brutal killer amongst other brutal killers, in a kind of monastery. When he escapes, he keeps brutally killing in self defence as he finds out more about the world. I stuck with it to the end, but no other plot points stuck with me. Can't be bothered reading the rest of the series.
    • 2/5
      A fantasy story about kids escaping a violent religious group. The story is incredibly dark, especially with the characters being so young. It is not written all that well and the story is also not all that interesting. It has a basic good vs evil type vibe, but that may change as the series goes on. I don't plan on continuing reading the series though.
    • 1/5
      Would-be grimdark End of Days fantasy, but reads more like 3 Stroppy Teens are railroaded through a dodgily plotted role playing campaign. Overall, irritating, dull and unlikeable. I simply can't understand what critics and fans see in it.
    • 5/5
      I found this a wonderful story. Not often it happens to me that I cannot put a book down after even only reading half a page. The Left Hand of God is an amazing feat, however creepy and horrible the story is itself. Looking forward reading more of Hoffman's work.
    • 5/5
      I'm surprised that this book gets so many negative reviews. I read the entire book in one day which is a pretty good indicator that it is a really good book. If any criticism could be made it is that the book is to short.

      The book is mainly character driven. The main character is really strong. Not the whinny powerless hero we see in some books. He is a bit fatalistic, which I like.
    • 3/5
      It was OK. Not at all the book it was hyped to be, but still good. There are too many pages devoted to nothing happening, almost as if he is intentionally stretching it out to make a series out of it. What's wrong with a unology? Why does everything have to be a series, sheesh.
    • 4/5
      The 'left hand of God' has long been equated with the 'hand of judgment', or in the case of this book, 'of death'. And there certainly seems to be quite a bit of that in this book (but it's no different from any other type of story set in medieval-like times). This is the first book of a trilogy, and it takes the entire book to flesh out the central character. However, it is an engaging read all the way and at no time does it feel like a long, drawn-out story. The sequel to this is, 'The Last Four Things'.
    • 4/5
      I devoured this novel, to be honest, and it was surprisingly satisfying. I'm not a fantasy reader, generally, and I was reluctant to pick this one up and actually start reading when it appeared in the mail, but I'm very glad I did. This is one of the first books I've read in a while that I've found myself practically unable to put down. The story is masterfully told, developed subtly with a surprisingly nuanced character development and foreshadowing - I found myself looking forward chapter to chapter as new questions were raised and others were finally answered. My only issue would probably be with the love interest character, who is written fairly flat with nothing to recommend her but her adoration for the protagonist - oh, and her beauty. It's a shame, that a novel with minor characters with motivations so developed (Simon and his tutor both, for example, both interesting individuals with very little "screen time"), that she'd be so underdeveloped. Despite this disappointment, though, which admittedly turned me off the last chapter of the novel, I'll be giving the following parts of this series a shot. I'm interested in seeing more of this universe and its population.
    • 2/5
      The Left Hand of God was a disappointment. Even allowing for over-hyping, I expected more from a book hailed as ' "Ender's Game" meets the Inquisition.' In truth, while it does deal with harshly, highly trained children, Daniel Abraham recently covered the same ground better (A Shadow in Winter).

      Overall, Left Hand could have benefited from a more aggressive editor. There were occasional well-turned or strking phrases, but they were mixed in with a greater amount of awkward phrasing, typos, poor or even incorrect word choice, inconsistent narrators, and inappropriate context.

      Left Hand tells the story of three boys who've grown up almost entirely in an inland monastery, and a girl from a similar convent. The setting appears to be a post-apocalyptic North America, given references to Memphis, the Appalachians, and dollars. The universe here is very small - a couple of neighbouring kingdoms (essentially) - and the known world appears to extend no more than several hundred miles. Society has regressed to a standard fantasy/medieval level where siege engines are an innovation. Yet at one point, a lady blithely sends someone off to the Middle East, and there is mention of a Jerusalem campaign a couple of hundred years back. It's hard to see how such a minor empire can so easily cross the Atlantic.

      The book is full of similar inconsistencies or improbabilities. For example, while our world is still restricted to four children with very limited experience, a colour change is compared to color changes in an octopus - a creature none of the children will have heard of, and which likely no one in this entire world has heard of or observed. Similarly, while our protagonist is described as the youngest ever to enter the monastery, at about age 6, the author later describes crowds of 5 year olds chanting.

      The story itself is interesting, with some novelty, though also with some enticing threads left almost completely unexplored by the end of the book. However, the inconsistent writing prevents it from being convincing, and tired stereotypes make matters worse - for example, Jews suddenly enter late in the story, purely to describe a class of moneylenders.

      All in all, interesting, but hard to recommend, like a fantasy written by someone with only a passing familiarity with the genre. Some new things happen, but the errors more than overset the freshness.
    • 4/5
      Superb - an interesting 'hero', and a different level of fantasy from the usual fair. The the Redeemers are based on Catholics is obvious, given the cruel and bloody history of that faith, but Hoffman has given himself an imagined realm, so he is free to produce his won scenarios rather than writing historical fiction.
      The use of language is excellent, and the way the style frequently drops into little cameo scenes is refreshing. When characters suddenly speak or act out of character only goes to highlight these are well painted, and I am looking forward to the sequel. Only two criticisms really - the first is the way the denouement was orchestrated. Considering previous behaviour, Cale's ultimate makes no sense for his character, and that annoyed me, particularly as it had been laid out before him. I confess if this had been dealt with well, i would have given it 5 stars.
      The second is merely that there is no inkling this will be a series rather than a stand alone novel until you reach the last page.
    • 3/5
      While the first three quarters of the book were amazing, the sappy "romance" between Cale and "Swan-Neck" really ruined it for me. At least he saved it with the riddance of the relationship.
    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed this book and am reading and enjoying the 2nd part of the trilogy - ‘The Last Four Things’ - at the moment.ConsIt is a difficult to classify book - it could be set several hundred years in the future or past (probably the past) as it refers to many place names and characters that we are familiar with such as Memphis and Jesus. So, it is definitely our world but when? The familiar name usage sometimes feels as if the author was them in a offhand way, which is slightly confusing. In scope, it has the feel of a fantasy story but there are no fantasy elements in it.ProsWell written, it is an enjoyable read with characters who are believable and enjoyable and who have lots of interesting things happen to them.Plot (intro)We are introduced to the central character, Cale, a teenage boy who accepts his horribly cruel circumstances under the control of religious zealots, The Redeemers. This changes when Cale kills a Redeemer he discovers performing a vivisection on a young girl. He escapes with two friends and another girls who was next on the redeemers list.
    • 5/5
      The Left Hand of God is set in some unspecified place, possibly around the year 1000, perhaps in an alternative world but from a common history. In this world a fanatical religious group has established a fortress, The Sanctuary, from which it wages a war against the sinful and depraved world at large. A fortress in the sense that it a stronghold, but stronghold to keep its adherents in rather than keep invaders out, for no one would willing want to go there. Within The Sanctuary the Lord Redeemers exact a harsh and brutal control over their thousands of young male acolytes, taken under the age of ten to be trained ready for war.One of the boys held in The Sanctuary is the fourteen or fifteen year old Thomas Cale, singled out for special treatment by Lord Redeemer Bosco who recognises in Cale unique qualities; although this special treatment does not necessarily mean it works in Cale's favour. But shortly after we meet Cale circumstances force him to make an early escape from The Sanctuary, along with two other boys. We follow them as they try too make their way to freedom and Memphis, a city that is as corrupt as The Sanctuary is supposedly righteous. Of course Bosco has no intention of letting go of Cale.Cale is a fascinating character, a ruthless killing machine yet with a compassion even Cale himself does not quite understand. He is loyal, sharp and witty, he can be stubborn and yet charming, he is also not surprisingly incredibly naïve as regards the outside world. He also has the almost unfailing ability to land on his feet whatever happens.After the terrors of The Sanctuary and tense drama of the escape attempt, which takes up the first hundred or so pages, and with the arr vial on the scene of IdrisPukke (one of several delightfully named characters) the tale enters a different phase, one of a lighter humour as we discover the outside world and its perverse ways. But there is yet more horror and drama to come, and Cale's continued freedom is never assured.From the very first pages one is drawn into this fascinating, if initially horrific, world that Cale inhabits. The writing is sharp and assured and the reads with consummate ease, the image of the austere existence and torturous punishments of The Sanctuary is effectively created without resort to unnecessary graphic detail. Along with the horror there are the lighter touches and some choice imagery: "He paused for a moment, studiously unwatched by the others, then put it in his mouth and began chewing with the enthusiasm of a man eating his own t-", (well, you'll have to read it to find out).The Left Hand of God is a engrossing story, peopled with diverse and interesting characters. It neatly contrasts episodes of dark horrors with periods of sharp wit and humour, holding the reader to the very end, and then leaves one wanting more.
    • 1/5
      I tried on several occasions to read this novel I received from Library Thing's Early Reviewers group. I have to say that I have now given up on it. This is a very dark story, and while I usually like this type of book, it just did not capture my attention at all. When reading a novel becomes a chore, it’s time to move on.1 star
    • 4/5
      One of the best parts of reading any book is forming predictions and then seeing whether you were right or not. I don't mind at all having my predictions proven incorrect throughout my reading, but it is very disappointing when everything that comes to pass is more bland and boring compared to what I had predicted. This book just seemed to fall very flat for me. At parts, it was very riveting and I could not pull myself away, but, even then, I had a large, unnamable sense of boredom and a feeling of let's-get-on-with-it.As a history minor and aficionado, you CANNOT go into this book without a very strong ability to suspend your disbelief. The world IS our world, but NOT. It's like seeing Europe's history through a muddy puddle. Some things are familiar (Jesus, Norway, Kiev). Other things will make you try to figure out what the hell the author is talking about (apparently in this world, Jesus was hanged instead of crucified and somehow ice cream exists in what is apparently a pre-Crusades world).As a nit-picky side-note, the erratic lengths of the chapters royally p*ssed me off: four chapter of two pages, one of forty, then one of ten then another of two. It's really freakin' annoying. I can deal with super-short chapters (a la Daniel X with chapters of two pages each) or books with really long chapters (a version of Moll Flanders I read had no chapters). Pick a number and stay reasonably close to it for chapter length. Grrrr...I may or may not read the sequels, but then again, I think I could supply my own ending much more satisfactorily.Edit: As a side note, only two characters were even the slightest interest to me (Vague Henri and Riba) and they are barely even background characters half the time. Cale's personality is such that I had no real vested interest in whether he won, lost, or existed. He's not someone I readily feel sympathy for (as he seems to be on the cusp of having a pathological dissociative disorder and the emotions he DOES feel seem contrived and forced on the part of the writer). Nor is he someone you love to hate (like James R. Rebhorn in every movie he's ever been in). He's just a robotic ass.
    • 5/5
      Let's get one thing out of the way before I review this book. It's a confession. I was immediately attracted to The Left Hand of God because I grew up in Memphis and loved that Memphis was the place name used for the seat of debauchery. I'm not saying it's that way in real life, but it's got an interesting history so it's kind of cool to think it might have been or might still be.This book is utterly compelling in an unusual way. It's unusual because, quite honestly, there really isn't a likeable character to be found in the entire book. There are reasons to despise just about everyone. Often books about unlikeable characters are difficult to read because it's hard to connect. Not so in this case. In this case, my connection was to the storyteller (the author) in an interesting metafictional kind of way. It's hard to say whether this is intentional because it's not terribly overt. I love The French Lieutenant's Woman precisely because the metafiction is so very intentional and obvious. John Fowles spends most of the book telling you a story and talking to you about telling you a story and I find that wonderful. The Left Hand of God does this, but in a more subtle way. I fell in love with the storyteller's voice and through that the author and I was willing to follow him anywhere.Aside from an interesting story, Mr. Hoffman does wonderful things with language and tone. Both change as location and circumstance change becoming more gray or more bright and always wryly humorous. This one of the best fantasy debuts I've ever read and I was excited to read this one along with the second installment.
    • 4/5
      I felt like this book peaked at the beginning and then slowly became less interesting until very near the end. That being said, I still enjoyed it. I though Cale was a fascinating character, as was Bosco and I look forward to reading the next book.
    • 4/5
      An interesting first installment to a new series, but the ending fell flat. Cale's character was very well developed, as were some of the minor characters. I took some issue with how aware Cale was of his abilities - it did not seem that way in the first part of the book, so it was a surprise to hear him describe it later. I would read the next book in the series to see how it goes. In summary, good, but not great. 3.5/5.
    • 2/5
      Let me preface this by saying that I stopped reading this book. I started out and was interested and then the book seemed to dissolve into something that I couldn't really hang on to. I felt it was somewhat scattered. I felt there was so much there that maybe I was missing some of the points buried in description or meandering prose. Not for me at any rate. I decided to put it down and will maybe pick it up again at some point.
    • 3/5
      This is the first in a planned trilogy about a sixteen year old boy named Thomas Cale. Thomas has been raised in a remote Sanctuary of the Redeemers and trained to fight in a forthcoming holy war. He escapes after saving a girl who is being abused by one of the Redeemers. Thomas is destined for greatness but whether that will be on the side of good or evil is yet to be seen. Lots ofaction but I found the narrative to be disjointed. I don't think I will read the next installment.
    • 1/5
      Note: This book was received through the early reviewer program and this review contains a spoiler.Finishing this novel left me in a foul mood. Let me tell you why: this is not a good book. It could have been, but it isn't. It is a book that explores some interesting ideas, but in a lackluster, sloppy, bitter way. It is a book that presents some intriguing characters, but inconsistently and casually changes their nature so that they are sometimes relatable and sometimes repugnant. It is a book that has just enough power to its story that I want to know what happens next -- and that is the most frustrating part, because it is the beginning of a series and I wish it had been a stand alone, seriously -- but is so irritating and frustrating a reading experience that I have no real desire to endure such a thing again.Basically, I want to read a synopsis of the sequel to this book, not the sequel itself. In case you need more than just a rant, allow me to support my opinions for a moment. The novel begins at a place called the Sanctuary, a training center for young boys that takes all the most disturbing accusations leveled at the Catholic church throughout history and pushes them to their most violent extremes (of course, the novel doesn't use the word "Catholic" at any point, but, well, duh). The Sanctuary is run by the Redeemers, a fanatical religious sect that echoes the Catholic Jesuit order, but taken to extremes of violence and cruelty. (Really, the details of the book deliberately make the reader squirm, but not to any real, satisfying purpose -- gratuitous violence is the norm here.) Our central character is Thomas Cale, a not-very-likable young acolyte who has been trained, in the most brutal ways, to be an exceptionally efficient killer. When certain events occur toward the middle of the book (again, disturbing events) and Thomas Cale escapes from the control of the Redeemers, the action really begins. The Redeemers struggle to get him back, again using the most brutal and violent means, and Cale himself struggles (sort of -- though the people around him suffer the brunt of the struggle) with his own nature. These struggles are set within a world that is frustratingly inconsistent. Hoffman has written a book that reads somewhat like a YA fantasy novel, but uses real-world references (Jesus of Nazareth, familiar geography) interspersed with made-up locations and figures, like the Hanged Redeemer, who is the divine icon of the fanatical religious sect. At first, one looks for meaning in the way that Hoffman stitches together real historical/geographical references and invented icons and place-names, but eventually it seems more like the author simply ran out of ideas for his own names and decided to pull random places together instead of working on it a bit more. The result is a constant nagging sensation, as one reads, that one should know where the story is taking place... except one can't quite place it.Other irritations that pull you away from what story there is here include the trite phrasing -- Hoffman at one point even uses the tired out "words were no longer necessary" cliche to make it clear that his characters had started having sex -- the sloppy editing (which, to be fair, could simply be a consequence of reading an ARC) and the habit of over-hiding the characters with hoods and cloaks and anything else shadowy and secretive. Honestly, from Hoffman's descriptions, you would think that we are never supposed to know anything about anyone in this book. While secrecy is essential to the development of a suspenseful novel, there comes a point where the reader is no longer intrigued, but genuinely confused about what the hell is going on in the text. We reach that point pretty quickly in Hoffman's novel. The climactic battle is so stupid and so graphic that at times I felt an irrational urge to shout at the text. After all of this irritation, by the time the reader gets to the reveal at the end of the novel (***SPOILER ALERT -- SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW) and realizes that the whole book has been a character study of the Anti-Christ, essentially (END SPOILERIFIC SECTION***) there is nothing here left to care about. The big reveal falls flat and at least this reader was simply ready to be done with the whole messy business. In the end, I felt like Paul Hoffman was more concerned with expressing and exaggerating his not-very-well-concealed bitterness against the Catholic church than with writing a decent novel. Bottom line: The novel has just enough story to keep one reading, but the flawed character development, trite writing, and inconsistent contextualization make the reading experience itself frustrating. Not recommended.
    • 2/5
      It took me foooreverrr to finish this book. I thought I would really like this book becuase it was full of adventure. But for some reason I just couldnt get into it. I got like 50 pages in and then I started reading some other book, then I would come back to it. I forced myself to read this book because I needed to write a review. The over all story was really good but I felt like I was watching the battle from afar instead of fighting next to Cale.It also seemed like there was lots of paragraphs that were just meant to take up space. They seemed to be way off topic and I felt lost. I would stop and say "wait....what just happened" or "what the heck are they talking about"Overall this seemed like an interesting book but I didnt love it as much as I thought I would. I would give it a try though.
    • 2/5
      Great beginning, with a feeling of both Gormenghast with your worst monastic experience that you can imagine, which was excellent and broody, rapid deterioration close to the middle of the book, and the last Act was very poor, better buy classic fantasy if you want it, the mystery of the location of the world was also not that exciting....my advice, best avoid
    • 4/5
      The phrase 'rollicking adventure' strikes me as the most apt description of this book. I found it to be a page-turner. The story follows Cale, an acolyte being trained for war in a monastery run by a fanatical religious sect called the Redeemers engaged in a long running holy war. Cale has certain peculiar talents that set him apart from the norm, a fact not lost on the priest in charge of training. However a chance encounter (or perhaps not a chance encounter - its never explained) see Cale and two of his friends fleeing the monastery for their lives and getting embroiled in plots, duels, affairs, assassinations and the fate of kingdoms.There's nothing particularly new in the plot, but where the book is distinctive is firstly in the odd, chatty omniscient narrator style that the author adopts, which, judging by some of the other reviews here, seems not to work for everyone, but helped to hook me in, and secondly, in the strange almost-familiar world that the author constructs, where places like Norway, Jerusalem, Memphis and York exist, but the political set up is different to what existed in our history. At the same time, while there are throw-away references to Judaism, the Redeemer of the major religion is categorically not Christ (who is famous apparently for having lived in a whale) and he was hung in a gibbet and not a cross. Some readers did not appreciate these tantalizing hints of a parallel-world setting, but I felt it added to the atmosphere and fit well with the oft-times familiar idiom of the way people spoke.If there is one aspect of the novel I didn't like, it was the somewhat Robert Jordan-esque approach to writing about the female characters. Other than this drawback, I thought this was a grandly entertaining novel.
    • 2/5
      I like the general concept of the story, but I found myself struggling to make it through the book. I expected more plot and character development... there were too many times when I struggled to grasp what was really going on.
    • 4/5
      The Left Hand of God starts off intriguing enough: Thomas Cale is a young acolyte in "the Sanctuary" of the Redeemers, where religious zealot leaders preach love and redemption before beating the boys and feeding them rotten food. There's some adventure with Cale and a couple of his friends discovering a hidden door, among other things. And despite the despicable Redeemers (who are obviously some twisted, alternate-universe Catholics) the first quarter of the book is actually quite gripping.Then Cale and his friends make an escape attempt, and the book takes a turn for the cliche and forgettable. Cale is revealed to be a perfect, unfeeling killer, a military genius, and more knowledgeable in medicine than the finest doctors of the largest empire in the world. He clashes with aristocracy and falls in love with a princess. Ho hum. Only at the very end of the book (more or less a cliffhanger; this is only the first volume in a projected trilogy) did the story grab me again, redeeming the book for me, if you will. Until the last ten pages, I had no intention of seeking out any of the sequels; now I just might have to.Besides the been-there-done-that of the central portion of the book, the author made some bizarre and/or questionable choices in his worldbuilding. This is an obvious fantasy world that includes: God, the Holy Spirit, the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus of Nazareth, Norwegians, cities named "York" and "Memphis", and more. The religion of the Redeemers is very much a twisted version of Catholicism, where their personal Redeemer (not necessarily Jesus; he is mentioned as someone who lived in the belly of a whale) was hanged instead of crucified. The inclusion of such real-world names and ideas really distracts the reader right from the start, though by book's end one has mostly built up a tolerance to it. But perhaps the re-use of real names was preferable; some of Hoffman's made-up names are quite groan-worthy: IdrisPukke and Arbell Swan-Neck, for example. Mention should also be made of Vague Henri, which I actually thought to be a cute nickname, but which grew more than a little tedious when almost every single time he was mentioned it was by the full nickname.For a book about which I have so many complaints, it was an awfully hard book to put down. That in itself, coupled with the unexpected ending, inspires me to give The Left Hand of God 3.5 out of 5 stars.