Book Title: The Left Hand of God
Author: Paul Hoffman
Series: The Left Hand of God #1
Series: The Left Hand of God #1
Date Started: December 14th 2013
Date Completed: December 21st 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Rating: Two stars
Review:
There isn't a whole lot to say about this book. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to it, thinking it was going to be another really good fantasy that I wasn't going to be able to put down. Instead, I got a story that didn't make sense; characters that weren't very nice people; and writing that was lacking in details to make me interested in the world and people, and instead overflowing with details about the thoughts of the characters I really didn't care about. Some people might like it, but I'm afraid it just isn't' for me.
Cale has lived in a fortress since before he can remember. But he's been planning since before he can remember too. But the world outside of his prison is more dangerous than he first thought, and holds more dangers than just the horde of evil priests on his tail and the price on his head if everyone else finds out about his abilities
I'm trying not to be too harsh in this review, since the writing isn't technically that bad and I can understand why other people might like to read this book. But, at the same time, I do need to be honest. I skimmed the majority of this book in the end, because I just couldn't bring myself to read the overly long paragraphs about pointless monologues and backstories. I don't think they were necessary and really took away from what the story might have been. This also irritated me, since I felt the book was lacking in description of any kind and the quality dialogue that could have made me enjoy it a little bit more.
Furthermore, the book has a very strange way of telling the story; told from the 3rd person, the narrative switches between points of view, but without warning. This can sometimes make it hard to know whose story you're following and quickly shift from what each character is aware of. This could have been easily solved by just putting a bit of personality differentiation in the text to link to each character.
The main issue, however, was the actually structure of the writing. It was told as if this novel was a sequel; details were just mentioned like the reader should already know what they are, and then elaborated on in a way you just can't understand if you don't click with the basic principle first of all. In addition, the flow of the text was jarring, as I could have sworn there were parts missing. Suddenly a character would appear in a scene or speak spontaneously. It was very confusing, and is probably the main reason I lost patience rather quickly.
I will start with the positives: I liked the darkness and the world-concept. I'm afraid to say, that's about it. I'm always a fan of darkness, and I think the brutality was handled quite well in this book. Furthermore, the idea of the world and it's politics etc was good, although I don't think it was developed enough (huge paragraphs explaining something that I still don't understand unfortunately don't count as world-building).
Right, now the biggest problem I had with this book (and there were more than a couple) was the point of it all. I don't understand what the ultimate objective of the story was. I'm aware that some books don't need an objective to play out and still make a story, however there needs to be something to give reason to the characters being followed through a story. In this novel, I couldn't see one. There were long parts of the book where the characters went somewhere, did nothing then moved on. It was all incredibly pointless. The book could have easily started 250 pages in.
I don't understand why such long time periods were used throughout the story. The whole book must be around three years if you add together all the 'three weeks' here and 'one month' there. It wasn't necessary and then made it harder to understand the relationships of the characters when they saw each other again. Perhaps, if a little more had gone into why it had taken so long, or what the characters had been doing in that time, it would have made sense. Presently, it was, again, pointless.
The characters in this book aren't very nice people. Generally, I like flawed characters, as they are more human and relatable. However, these people seemed to me to be just unpleasant. Furthermore, I couldn't find myself understanding any of the characters and their actions. I felt extremely detached from all of them, so actually, by the time it mattered, I didn't even notice if someone got hurt or in trouble or anything.
Cale, I think, had the potential to be a very good protagonist. Unfortunately, it just didn't turn out that way for me. I expected him to grow as a character and understand ways of life other than his, and for that to somehow impact on his way of life and the way he looked at the world and treated people. It didn't. And I don't quite understand why everyone thinks of him as so amazing and valuable; I didn't see any good demonstration of this.
Kliest and Henri were two of the few characters I actually liked. They were heavily involved at the beginning, and I felt they would have made the story better if their involvement had continued into the later parts of the book they would have made the story more interesting. However, they faded out a little and were early mentioned later on. I thought they were going to be main characters, but then they weren't. Again, it all felt a bit pointless.
I will try and keep this as short as possible, but my rants about Hoffman's portrayals of ALL the female characters could go on for hours. Arbell Materazzi, first of all, is stuck up, useless and rude. And then, later, when she had gone through 'character development,' she was brainless, impractical and devoted only to Cale for no particular reason. Girls have more thoughts than that, thank you. They make their own actions and decisions based on themselves and their responsibilities and intelligence - not purely on how obsessed they are with a self-centred 'hero.'
Idrispukke was a pointless character and I don't know why you would call a character that.
I can't really complain about there being long periods of nothing happening before climaxes, because I didn't really feel like there were climaxes either. I felt most of the book didn't really have a point, so pace doesn't really come into it.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend The Left Hand of God to anyone. It really disappointed me and I found myself more irritated by it for the most part. However, I do understand that some other people might enjoy reading it. The writing isn't too bad, but after having a look at reviews, the second book is supposed to be better. I'm not going to be reading anymore, but if you want to get through this instalment for some possibly better stories, please do.
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9e0f7a4a15dfdb7f297a7ebba276f89a/tumblr_mucoj6a5ab1srzpv9o1_500.jpg
There isn't a whole lot to say about this book. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to it, thinking it was going to be another really good fantasy that I wasn't going to be able to put down. Instead, I got a story that didn't make sense; characters that weren't very nice people; and writing that was lacking in details to make me interested in the world and people, and instead overflowing with details about the thoughts of the characters I really didn't care about. Some people might like it, but I'm afraid it just isn't' for me.
Cale has lived in a fortress since before he can remember. But he's been planning since before he can remember too. But the world outside of his prison is more dangerous than he first thought, and holds more dangers than just the horde of evil priests on his tail and the price on his head if everyone else finds out about his abilities
I'm trying not to be too harsh in this review, since the writing isn't technically that bad and I can understand why other people might like to read this book. But, at the same time, I do need to be honest. I skimmed the majority of this book in the end, because I just couldn't bring myself to read the overly long paragraphs about pointless monologues and backstories. I don't think they were necessary and really took away from what the story might have been. This also irritated me, since I felt the book was lacking in description of any kind and the quality dialogue that could have made me enjoy it a little bit more.
Furthermore, the book has a very strange way of telling the story; told from the 3rd person, the narrative switches between points of view, but without warning. This can sometimes make it hard to know whose story you're following and quickly shift from what each character is aware of. This could have been easily solved by just putting a bit of personality differentiation in the text to link to each character.
The main issue, however, was the actually structure of the writing. It was told as if this novel was a sequel; details were just mentioned like the reader should already know what they are, and then elaborated on in a way you just can't understand if you don't click with the basic principle first of all. In addition, the flow of the text was jarring, as I could have sworn there were parts missing. Suddenly a character would appear in a scene or speak spontaneously. It was very confusing, and is probably the main reason I lost patience rather quickly.
I will start with the positives: I liked the darkness and the world-concept. I'm afraid to say, that's about it. I'm always a fan of darkness, and I think the brutality was handled quite well in this book. Furthermore, the idea of the world and it's politics etc was good, although I don't think it was developed enough (huge paragraphs explaining something that I still don't understand unfortunately don't count as world-building).
Right, now the biggest problem I had with this book (and there were more than a couple) was the point of it all. I don't understand what the ultimate objective of the story was. I'm aware that some books don't need an objective to play out and still make a story, however there needs to be something to give reason to the characters being followed through a story. In this novel, I couldn't see one. There were long parts of the book where the characters went somewhere, did nothing then moved on. It was all incredibly pointless. The book could have easily started 250 pages in.
I don't understand why such long time periods were used throughout the story. The whole book must be around three years if you add together all the 'three weeks' here and 'one month' there. It wasn't necessary and then made it harder to understand the relationships of the characters when they saw each other again. Perhaps, if a little more had gone into why it had taken so long, or what the characters had been doing in that time, it would have made sense. Presently, it was, again, pointless.
The characters in this book aren't very nice people. Generally, I like flawed characters, as they are more human and relatable. However, these people seemed to me to be just unpleasant. Furthermore, I couldn't find myself understanding any of the characters and their actions. I felt extremely detached from all of them, so actually, by the time it mattered, I didn't even notice if someone got hurt or in trouble or anything.
Cale, I think, had the potential to be a very good protagonist. Unfortunately, it just didn't turn out that way for me. I expected him to grow as a character and understand ways of life other than his, and for that to somehow impact on his way of life and the way he looked at the world and treated people. It didn't. And I don't quite understand why everyone thinks of him as so amazing and valuable; I didn't see any good demonstration of this.
Kliest and Henri were two of the few characters I actually liked. They were heavily involved at the beginning, and I felt they would have made the story better if their involvement had continued into the later parts of the book they would have made the story more interesting. However, they faded out a little and were early mentioned later on. I thought they were going to be main characters, but then they weren't. Again, it all felt a bit pointless.
I will try and keep this as short as possible, but my rants about Hoffman's portrayals of ALL the female characters could go on for hours. Arbell Materazzi, first of all, is stuck up, useless and rude. And then, later, when she had gone through 'character development,' she was brainless, impractical and devoted only to Cale for no particular reason. Girls have more thoughts than that, thank you. They make their own actions and decisions based on themselves and their responsibilities and intelligence - not purely on how obsessed they are with a self-centred 'hero.'
Idrispukke was a pointless character and I don't know why you would call a character that.
I can't really complain about there being long periods of nothing happening before climaxes, because I didn't really feel like there were climaxes either. I felt most of the book didn't really have a point, so pace doesn't really come into it.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend The Left Hand of God to anyone. It really disappointed me and I found myself more irritated by it for the most part. However, I do understand that some other people might enjoy reading it. The writing isn't too bad, but after having a look at reviews, the second book is supposed to be better. I'm not going to be reading anymore, but if you want to get through this instalment for some possibly better stories, please do.
Image Source: http://31.media.tumblr.com/
9e0f7a4a15dfdb7f297a7ebba276f89a/tumblr_mucoj6a5ab1srzpv9o1_500.jpg
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