...with a bit of Chaos Walking mixed in.

I came home from my summer holiday to find an extra big brown parcel with my name and the Spinebreakers logo on the top. I was surprised to find such a monster of a book inside it, and going on first impressions of the cover (and the fact that I had a pretty busy week ahead of me) I wasn’t all that sure I was going to enjoy it. But I found myself pleasantly surprised. In fact, I was so hooked I read the whole book in just three days and, because I loved reading it so much I even “accidently” forgot about some of my GCSE coursework I should have been doing.

The Left Hand of God is the first book in a series written by Paul Hoffman. It tells the epic tale of Thomas Cale, a boy estimated at 14 or 15 years old by “the Redeemers” (masters/elders). The book starts in the Sanctuary, which for as long as Cale can remember has been the home he has shared with hundreds of other boys, who all receive the same amount of cruel and violent treatment from the Redeemers. Cale has no recollection of his past, and he knows nothing about his future. Every day of his life he is forced to pray to the hanged Redeemer and train for hours on end to fight other acolytes, an exercise that always results in death. One night, when Cale is sent by his Redeemer to deliver a letter to another Redeemer, he sees something that completely changes his life and kicks off the adventure. I don’t want to give too much away about the plot because I think it’s more exciting not knowing much about the characters and the adventure, and letting the story unfold page by page.

The characters in this book are amazing; you just instantly either fall in love with them (like IdrisPukke, the comic) or despise them (like Lord Bosco, the evil baddie) and you feel as if you could be sucked into the adventure with them. It’s a shame there are no animal companions in the book, like in His Dark Materials, but maybe there will be in the next book. I couldn’t help setting this story in the Middle Ages in my mind and in a slightly Lord of the Rings-type world, but I am still unsure as to where and when it’s really meant to be set; but that’s really good because it means you could just about set it anywhere in your imagination.

The Left Hand of God has everything you need for a good adventure story: love, fighting, revenge, goodies, baddies, betrayal, friendship, a bit more fighting… but it has something else too. It’s sophisticated, witty and quite dark and, like a typical first instalment, it leaves a lot for readers to think about and anticipate in the next book. Think Lord of the Rings meets His Dark Materials with a bit of Chaos Walking mixed in. It’s an utterly brilliant read and a book that I’m sure is the start of something really great.