OVERALL RATING: THREE STARS
The Church of the Hanged Redeemer bought Thomas Cale when he was just a boy. They treated him cruelly, punished him and moulded his young mind for the brutality of war. He was little more than a slave and they turned him into a weapon, into one of the greatest soldiers alive. Thomas is as lethal with his hands as he is with blades and crossbows. His mind plans tactics and strategies that even the most experienced generals cannot see. He has been trained to perfection and will lead the Hanged Redeemers in their jihad to purify the world.
Yet for all their planning and training, the Hanged Redeemers failed to understand that Thomas also has plans for the course of his life. Setting out with Vague Henry and Kleist, his most trusted friends, Thomas flees the Sanctuary and sets his eyes on a life of freedom, away from the Redeemers brutal religion. His adventures take him to Memphis, where he quickly finds himself in political crossfire. The Redeemers are eager to reclaim the 'incarnation of God's Wrath' and hunt him zealously. Thomas is literally caught between a cross and a hard place and turns to the only thing he truly knows to save him: his great prowess in violence.
Book 1: The Left Hand of God
Book 2: The Last Four Things
Book 3: The Beating Of His Wings
The Good
The Left Hand of God is a remarkable series and Paul Hoffman has really let his imagination run lose, developing a sinister religion (which is essentially a very dark form of Christianity), a complex host of characters and a world with its own society and problems.
The series is written in a strange, slightly quirky style and I haven't read another Dystopia quite like it. It's certainly unique, and is full of danger and battles that will keep you captivated throughout its three instalments. Hoffman address the problems with religion well and how it can be used to justify terrible acts of evil, epically wrapping up Thomas Cale's terrible story at the series end.
The Bad
I really enjoyed The Left Hand of God (series), but it did have a few problems that were never resolved and ruined my enjoyment of the books slightly. The main one of these was the fact that Hoffman doesn't include a map of this world and never bothers to establish its geography. The fact that he uses real place names, such as Memphis and Cyprus, only makes this worse and it's difficult to get a feel for the story's setting. For example, Hoffman may be talking about an army that's approaching one city from another, but it didn't mean much to me because the cities could be 50 miles apart or 500. This made it hard for Hoffman to build tension in places and I think it's a real shame because he could have rectified it so easily!
My Thoughts
Despite a few little things that make it hard to follow, The Left Hand of God series is an excellent read. It's a strange mix of fantasy and Dystopia, being dark and brutal in a way that few books are. Hoffman's world is developed and complex, and his characters are fun to read about. It's one of the most unique fantasies I've read in a long time and I highly recommend it for your reading list!
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