Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2010
384 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
They call him Cale.
He is destined to save the world...
...or destroy it.
In the Redeemer Sanctuary, the stronghold of a secretive sect of warrior monks, torture and death await the unsuccessful or disobedient. Raised by the Redeemers from early childhood like hundreds of other young captives, Thomas Cale has known only deprivation, punishment, and grueling training. He doesn't know that another world exists outside the fortress walls or even that secrets he can't imagine lurk behind the Sanctuary's many forbidden doorways. He doesn't know that his master Lord Bosco and the Sanctuary's Redeemers have been preparing for a holy war for centuries - a holy war that is now imminent. And Cale doesn't know that he's been noticed and quietly cultivated.
Then, Cale decides to open a door.
It's a door that leads to one of the Redeemers' darkest secrets and a choice that is really no choice at all: certain death or daring escape. Adrift in the wider world for the first time in his young life, Cale soon finds himself in Memphis, the capitol of culture - and the den of Sin. It's there that Cale discovers his prodigious gift: violence. And he discovers that after years of abuse at the hands of the Redeemers his embittered heart is still capable of loving - and breaking.
But the Redeemers won't accept the defection of their special subject without a fight. As the clash of civilizations that has been looming for thousands of years draws near, a world where the faithful are as brutal as the sinful looks to young Cale to decide its fate.
"Clever phrasing and innate humor shine through Hoffman's brutish story, but over-the-top villains and rushed, unlikely twists lead to a frustrating, cliff-hanger ending." - Library Journal
"[D]espite...gaping flaws, the plight of poor, tormented, invincible Cale beguiles, and the book's true power is its utter unpredictability. Judging by the hype, what the publisher hoped for was Lord of Harry Potter's Dark Materials; what it actually secured is, in its own immodest way, engrossing enough." - Kirkus Reviews
"Brooding and magnificent. Hoffman has created a terrifying world and filled it with strange and complex characters." - Eoin Colfer, New York Times Bestselling author of Artemis Fowl
"Writers like Hoffman are too rare. This wonderful book gripped me from the first chapter and then dropped me days later, dazed and grinning to myself."
- Conn Iggulden, New York Times Bestselling author of The Dangerous Book for Boys
"Starred Review. This compelling read will be popular with fans of fantasy, action, and military fiction, who will eagerly await the next installment." - School Library Journal
This information about The Left Hand of God was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Paul Hoffman studied English at New College, Oxford before becoming a senior film censor at the British Board of Film Classification. He lives in the United Kingdom. The Left Hand of God is the first in trilogy following Cale.
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