Complex, twisted, cynical and wickedly funny. Also totally not appropriate reading for Christmas Day.

Read this in a day. Infinitely more captivating than its prequel. Better pacing, great introduction of new intriguing characters, relationship developments both old and new. Moments of real heartbreak. The chapter when the assassinations were carried out was brilliant. The new dynamic between Cale and Bosco I found very enjoyable. However, I must admit that I skipped a few paragraphs when it came to military tactics/battle descriptions. The dick-less pope though. I wonder what'll come of that.

Not bad, not too good either. Still no anime-level fantasy fights only actual-war-level battles, which is good enough, I guess. (Also still no humour, shut up).

I cannot overstate how much of a action book this is.
The writing is impeccable for an action movie, for a book it's kinda of meh.
The ending was foretelling from the middle of the book, however the complete destruction of Thomas by disease of the mind was not, and that was sure to be a welcomed surprise.
To be honest the Kleist side story was not compelling and most of the times almost made me sleep, so if they were to be there, at least the author could've made them exciting and not just the generic "Guy that knows how to kill teaches kleptomaniacs to kind of not kill other people but scare them though???"
Also, please stop inserting irrelevant characters. Like, who the hell cares about the laconic king that died 4 paragraphs later or that new clothes maker that was there just to sew Henri's face never to be mentioned again? THis already happened in the previous book and continues to happen in this book, making what could be a 4/5 short story a 2.5/5 book.

Wow. I delayed a bit because I doubted the second one could be as good as the first, but I couldn't put this one down either. I think I liked the character development better in the first one, but the lack of inexplicably crazy groups of people like in Memphis makes up for it. The only thing that disappointed me was that there wasn't nearly as much personal interaction between Cale and, well, anyone. But the situation he was in dictated that, so I can't complain. Good story, good read, the battles are well-done and I never knew what was coming - I was sure

Spoiler

Cale wouldn't go for Bosco's plan, or that he would undermine it somehow. The fact that he didn't, I think Vague Henri understood best.

The ending tells me there must be a third one forthcoming - there better be!

This is book two in this series and I read book 1 a fairly long time ago (maybe 3 or so years) so it did take me a while to get back into this book and remember who all of the characters were and where we had left the storyline.

This is the story of a young boy called Thomas Cale. Cale is a boy who has been raised in a Redeemer (like monks) Sanctuary and he has lived a very dark, horrific life at the hands of one Redeemer named Bosco. Bosco, like all Redeemers, believes that punishment is the answer and therefore Cale is used to very little food, horrific beatings and a generally terrible way of life from his younger years.

Book 1 follows Cale as he encounters something he really should never have seen and has to decide if there is a way for him to escape the horrors of the Redeemer Sanctuary and find a new life elsewhere.

This book follows what has happened after a rather terrible chain of events in book 1 and focusses mostly on Cale as a leader of a huge army. There is a lot of tactical strategy and innermost contemplation and the story has a large basis in a rather twisted and cruel faith, the Redeemer faith. The character that Cale has become over the course of the two books is so very menacing and scary at times that it's really quite hard to tell just whether he is a good or a bad character and still I can't say for sure... I hope he's good, but he's certainly got flaws beyond belief due to how he was raised.
Cale has gained recognition since book 1 and he has grown into something which almost resembles a monster. He is charged by Bosco to take over he Redeemer army and defeat every enemy around (which, because of Bosco's constant military testing and beatings when he was younger) he has been groomed for his whole life and is certainly proficient enough to manage, despite everyone being an enemy to the Redeemers.

Vague Henri and Kleist are two of Thomas Cale's friends from within the Sanctuary too. They are featured a lot in book 1 and they have smaller, but still important roles in book 2. Kleist is a hard character who likes to look out only for himself. He and Cale are friends more through default than through choice and this is certainly evident in book 2. However Kleist strays away from the other characters pretty quickly in this story and meets a clan of people, the Klephts, who are so unusual in their way of life and fighting technique that I just couldn't help but love them. I also loved the emotion and raw feelings which we saw from Kleist as a result of this as he grows a lot as a character and I feel like in book 3 he will certainly become a better and more prominent character.

Vague Henri, so called due to his vague answers, is a much more loving companion to Cale (if still rather flawed in character). He is a loyal follower and a kind-hearted soul when he sees people being treated unfairly. He has just as much loathing for the Redeemers as the other two, but he still has room in his heart to find goodness and he can be the counterbalance to the hatred within Cale a lot of the time which was interesting to see. He's a gentle character and his loyalty is certainly tested a lot in this story, but he is true to his friend and I think he's the most human of the three.

Bosco is a very dark and mysterious character in this book, but maybe a little less menacing than in book 1 as he seems to give more reasoning behind his actions here and we learn a lot about why everything happened as it did in book 1 and what that was all leading up to. He is a meticulous and cunning character who has been plotting for years about what to do with Cale and how to use him as his pawn boy and now is the time to 'unleash him on the world'. Bosco certainly gives us some insight into the political systems of the Redeemers (being a fairly high-up Redeemer himself) and helps Cale (and us) to understand some of the ways and things that have been done whilst he lived and before he was around in order to lead up to this moment in time. Certainly a nasty character whom you would not want to meet!

There are three main people discussed in this book and all of them are engaged in a long-standing and seemingly never-ending battle for power and dominance over the others, until Cale comes along that is. The Materazzi are the people who are discussed the most and focussed upon the most within The Left Hand of God, book 1, and they are a strange people who value honour above all else and who are obsessed with personal image and being proficient fighters. They are a noble breed and the fight strong, but in the end are they a match for the Redeemers??

Then we have the Redeemers themselves. They worship God, but they have a very different belief system to that of Christians or other faiths in our world, they believe in the darker forms of punishment and any wrongdoing or disobedience is instantly punished. Executions are very common among their own people and they love a good display of the dead. They are just as conniving and evil towards one another as they are untied against other non-Redeemers. They are dark, fighters and very stuck in their religion but without a leader they are at a stalemate in the war...

Finally we have the Laconics who are another race of people who are looked down upon greatly by the other two races. They are known to do terrible sexual acts with the young boys that they raise and they are considered by the Redeemers in particular to be disgusting and blasphemous and they must be removed. They are indeed a very grim people and they do have some rather dark qualities surrounding their ideas.

The general plot of this book follows the struggle of Cale trying to defeat these other races of people for the Redeemers (or maybe for himself, we never really know his true intentions) but there is actually not all that much in the way of progression through the storyline. Instead of a long journey or a lot of things happening all over the place, Thomas is central to the action and the focus is placed far more highly on the discovery of the inner workings of the Redeemers, the political suspicions involved and the inner turmoil that Cale faces when addressing the ideas taught to him by his faith. This is much more of a character-driven and thought-provoking book than a big adventure, but it's still a very good book. The only reason I gave this a 3.5* rating instead of 4* or 5*s was because I would rate The Left Hand of God (book 1) as a 4* book and this one doesn't have quite as much action as that in terms of plot so I didn't like it quite as much (but I think that the third one will lead to something very big and exciting). This is left on a cliffhanger, so I will need to get onto book 3 fairly soonish and see what happens! :)

I came into this book with the wrong spirit. From the very short blurb, and not having read any of Hoffman's previous work, I thought this was going to be Terry Pratchett-esque with a bit more religion thrown in. The religious bit I got right, and the twists on familiar religious ideas and dogmas with a more explicit and devious motive, was a delight.

However, it was far from whimsical Discworld novel. I did find it holdingmy attention, but I'm surprised at that(and suspect that had I not been in a foreign country with no English books to tempt me into replacing it, I may not have lasted right through). Everytime I thought a bit of character driven story was shining through and beginning to steer the plot, I got another bloody battle. The characters were well observed and created, but for one thing, coming in (I presume) at the second novel, it wasn't mentioned that Thomas Cale was still only 15 until I already firmly had a Roland Deschanel type figure in my mind that I couldn't replace.

If you like tactics and war plans for medieval style epic slaughters, and tongue in cheek religious overtones, you will adore this book. As it stands, the very well written dialogue, interesting characters and facinating world gripped me; but only enough to make it through yet another set of battle plans.

A frustrating read, the first book showed promise but the second just seems to get a bit lost. I finished the book despite its poor pacing and meandering plot, but I don't think I'll finish the series.

This author’s handling of women got worse which I wasn’t sure was possible.