The left hand of god trilogy - Paul Hoffman

The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is a place where children endure brutal cruelty and violence in the name of the One True Faith. Lost in the Sanctuary's huge maze of corridors is a boy. He is strange witty and charming, and violent. But when he opens the wrong door at the wrong time he witnesses an act so horrible he must flee, or die.

My thoughts:

I am confused, was this the future or an alternate history? At first I thought it was fantasy, and yes I would have liked it to stay that way. I am not really a fan of the BOOM! Ha this is our future thing. But of course I cannot be sure of that, but yeah our world. A few cities and countries are name. It sadly is about Christianity (boring), religion is evil, and still is.

This book is about Cale, a teen in a place with others teens. The food sucks. They are taught to fight. If they question things they are killed. Doors are forbidden cos they are sinners. Scary religion. It convert and die or plainly die. Nothing in between. I did like the darkness shown then zealots take over everything. 

Oh, the guys they are fighting, who on earth are those?

What I did not really like was his age, he is 14. Ok so that would have been fine, but then he sees a woman for he first time. Srsly, you are 14, what do you know about love? It just made me roll my eyes. And the end, eye roll. Make him at least 18 and I can start to believe.

So yeah, I wish he had not made this our world. It would have worked excellent without that. You can still have your creepy religion and stuff, you can even have your pope. And yes Cale could have aged a bit.

But it was good, and I did pick up the next one at once.

Paperback, 500 pages
Published August 19th 2010 by Penguin Books (first published January 7th 2010)
The Left Hand of God #1
Fantasy
LIbrary

To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain. 

Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved but still marked by a child's innocence, possessed of a remarkable aptitude for violence but capable of extreme tenderness, Cale will lead the Redeemers into a battle for nothing less than the fate of the human race. And though his broken heart foretells the bloody trail he will leave in pursuit of a personal peace he can never achieve, a glimmer of hope remains. The question even Cale can't answer: When it comes time to decide the fate of the world, to ensure the extermination of humankind or spare it, what will he choose? To express God's will on the edge of his sword, or to forgive his fellow man-and himself? 

My thoughts:

Sure I read it fast, but would I have read on if this had been book 1...? No. I have to rate it ok then.

The thing is that nothing happened, and if something happened it was rather fast and dull. What is Cole now? 15? Srsly he should be older, I cannot take him for serious. He goes from lamenting over Arbell (how old was she anyway? euww.) to butchering people. All while I am all, just put a arrow through his neck. That kid needs a talking to. I liked him in book 1, there he was growing, here I cannot forget what a kid he is.

Also, is this our world or not!? If not, then why use our places names? Lame! If so, then how can they move so fast from one part to another? It is starting to annoy me, just make it fantasy and without a map I would not know.

The crazy religious people, well you know what, crazy is always interesting and I hope they all die.

It does sound like there are only bad things, oh! I forgot about the changing of tense, so annoying! But yeah, it does hold promise, but this book had a serious case of second book syndrome.

Paperback, 544 pages
Published January 16th 2014 by Penguin Books (first published April 28th 2011)
The Left Hand of God #2

Since discovering that his brutal military training has been for one purpose—to destroy God’s greatest mistake, mankind itself—Cale has been hunted by the very man who made him into the Angel of Death: Pope Redeemer Bosco.

Cale is a paradox: arrogant and innocent, generous and pitiless. Feared and revered by those who created him, he has already used his breathtaking talent for violence and destruction to bring down the most powerful civilization in the world.

But Thomas Cale’s soul is dying. As his body is racked with convulsions, he knows that the final judgment will not wait. As the day of reckoning draws close, Cale’s sense of vengeance leads him back to the heart of darkness—the Sanctuary—and to confront the person he hates most in the world…. 

My thoughts:

At least now I know there is no logic to names and how near they are. And that this is our future. Far away after an ice age.

Still, the way it started, the way it was told. Then finally a POV, but alas, no, DNF. I did not even really bother with the end

Disappointing 

Paperback, 512 pages
Published January 16th 2014 by Penguin (first published July 18th 2013)
The Left Hand of God #3