I am easily swayed by a) hype b) cool book titles c) cool book covers, which is why even though I attempted and failed to get into, The Left Hand of God a while ago, I tried again (because I kept on seeing later books in the series and thinking “ooh that looks cool” and then remembering I hadn’t even managed to finish the first). For those few that don’t know The Left Hand of God is a sort of bleak, sort of dystopian YA novel where there it either some sort of alternate reality or set massively in the future (I favour the massively in the future theory myself, I have no idea if that’s what the author actually thought but I personally enjoyed the story more that way than imagining it as an alternate reality, as I could imagine all the ways how we could get from now to the world of The Left Hand of God, whereas the alternate reality idea didn’t give me those kind of thoughts to ‘entertain’ myself). Anyway, The Left Hand of God tells the story of the teenage Thomas Cale, member of the monk like Redeemers, a thoroughly unpleasant, war like bunch if there ever was one. On discovering one of the head honchos doing something thoroughly unpleasant, his consequent actions leave him no choice but to escape. Cale finds himself in the city of Memphis, ruled by the aristocratic Materazzi, where he ends up, by a combination of luck and cunning, the body guard of the beautiful daughter of the chief Materazzi. However the Redeemers are stil an unpleasant and violent thorn in Cale’s side . . .

I managed to get through this book this time but accompanied by the nagging feeling, that given the hype surrounding this series, that I must really be missing something because I still didn’t really like it. It felt like something I’d have written (not bigging myself up or anything), but it was mainly tell not show and it was so linear, as in this happened and then this happened and then this happened, it made the characters feel one dimensional at best because you could never really truly understand their motives. Positives about the book: the initial idea of the war like, highly unpleasant Redeemer monks is good and the world they’re set in is interesting and at the end the final battle scene is brutally good but in between, meh.

NB: I checked Amazon after reading the book and I was surprised, considering the hype, how many people agree with me . . .

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

I finished reading Paul Hoffman’s, The Left Hand of God. As the name implies the book is about a young boy who has been trained or chosen by “God” to be his left hand. The boy was brought to the Redeemer’s Sanctuary as a very young boy and trained in war by the monks who run the sanctuary to fight in a war that has been going on for years. Because of chance and intelligence he escapes the depravation of the sanctuary and sees the outside world for the first time in almost a decade.

I always seem to find books like this interesting, with their similarities to Christianity, they are intriguing.  I don’t want it to sound like I am saying that it is about Christianity, but Christianity is the religion that I know the most about and that I can compare it to.

I will say, that I sometimes find it hard to read a book when the main character is a child and is capable of incredible feats. Hoffman does a good job of making Thomas Cale believable, mostly.

This is a book that I had a hard time putting down and I plan on getting the next book in the trilogy when I can. They marked this book as a novel, though it doesn’t meet my definition of a novel. In my mind a novel is a stand-alone book, which this book was not.

4 out of 5 Stars

I knew Hugh Holton was a high ranking, highly decorated Chicago Police Officer.

I knew he was a fantastic writer from owning and reading three of his books.

I knew he had passed in 2001.

I did not know he had as many books, above and beyond the ones I own. Given his responsibilities as one of Chicago’s Top Cops, that he was able to be as prolific (and going by the novels I’ve read, as consistently good) as he was, is quite amazing.

So without further ado, today’s Recommended Writer is HUGH HOLTON:

Police Lieutenant Hugh Holton was a twenty-nine year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. He authored several bestselling novels, including, Time of the Assassins, The Left Hand of God, and Violent Crimes. At the time of his death, at the age of only 54, Hugh Holton was the highest ranking active police officer writing novels in America.

1994. Presumed Dead
1995. Windy City
1996. Chicago Blues
1997. Violent Crimes
1998. Red Lightning

1999. Left Hand of God, The
2000. Time of the Assassins
2001. Devils Shadow, The

The following three titles were published posthumously, which is why they came as a surprise to me when researching this post. I’ve heard REVENGE was an early discarded rough draft of his, so it’s not up to Hugh Holton’s high standards. It’s something he would have tweaked/perfected had he known it was being published. So take that into consideration when reading it. It’s basically just an early draft, the publisher decided to put out there, so judge it as such, and not as representative of Hugh Holton’s usual great work.

2002. Criminal Element (Amazon – Alibris)
2005. Thin Black Line, The (Amazon – Alibris)
2009. Revenge (Amazon – Alibris)

I was turned onto Hugh Holton’s fantastic Larry Cole mystery series a while ago, and they are pulse-pounding procedurals and thrillers, grounded by the experience of someone who knows intimately the facts behind the fictions… he writes about.. My personal favorite of the three novels I’ve read so far is the juggernaut-like TIME OF THE ASSASSINS. In terms of pacing, and just keeping you racing till the end, it’s the strongest [the others I own are WINDY CITY, and VIOLENT CRIMES].

It was a great starting point for me to the excellent body of work Hugh Holton left us with, but I think I’ll now go back, pick up all the books I’m missing and read them all chronologically.

REVENGE, by all reports should not be considered part of the chronology, it’s something that (again according to reports) was not ready for publication, and was put out as a cash grab by the family and the publisher. It’s a curio, at best, and I would have less problem with it if the family had put their name on the novel(his Daughter I believe signed off on this version), rather than just Hugh Holton’s.

Being a writer, the idea of assigning sole responsibility to me, for something I didn’t have the chance to proof/edit… well that would bug me even in the grave. A writer’s books are his reputation.

And Hugh Holton has a well earned, and well deserved reputation as a great writer. Try the books for yourself at the links below! And tell’em HT sent ya!!!

The Thin Black Line: True Stories by Black Law Enforcement Officers Policing America’s Meanest Streets
Presumed Dead (Larry Cole)

Windy City

Chicago Blues (Mysteries & Horror)

Violent Crimes (A Larry Cole Mystery)

Red Lightning (A Larry Cole Mystery)

The Left Hand of God (Larry Cole Mystery)

Time of the Assassins

The Devil’s Shadow

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Pic courtesy Planet Preset

See more on this writer at SciFan.
As well as an informative interview with him, done shortly before his passing, here!

However, I enjoy books more than just for their entertainment value. Honestly, I just like looking at them sometimes. That’s right: I’m one of those people who literally likes to look at books. I think that they provide great aestheticism to any room. Sometimes I go to bookstores just to admire what’s there: watching the literary world evolve from one shelf to the next.

I’ve noticed a few interesting placements of books during my journeys throughout the past few months. I’m not sure if it’s the result of a weird coincidence or someone’s odd sense of humor.

Now, I’m someone who enjoys a good joke now and then, but was this really by chance? I was at the larger Border’s in my area near the last few days of its existence looking for a book in the SciFi/Fantasy section. As I was trying to find a specific book, what caught my eye but this:

Both hands of God.

Behold: both hands of God in the respective order. I’ve heard of The Left Hand of God but that’s probably because it’s not really the most original of titles within the last 60 years. But at least someone had the decency to think of the placement of God’s other hand in the literary world. Perhaps this is where listing books alphabetically by author becomes the coincidence.

This doesn’t need to be stated, but I’m still going to: books have evolved throughout the years. From handwritten books to those printed on fresh paper, the written word has been experienced and improved by many gifted writers. However, due to recent branching out marketing strategies by celebrities (can you tell I’m not pleased?), apparently anyone can write a book.

From Poe to Polizzi...

I’m going to bite my tongue before I say anything I’ll regret. I hope you feel the same.

And finally, in my own home:

A History of Armenia (Abridged)

The full history of Armenia too long? It’s okay, the Brief History is close by. We have a plethora of books about Armenian history and religion (most written in Armenian), but out of the three bookcases in our family room, I notice these instantaneously. Was this the crafty work of my mother trying to organize chaos? Or did this happen by chance? No one will ever know.

Have you noticed anything like this at a bookstore, library, or even in your own home?

Veronika Larsen-Swedish Poker Player

Prompt: Title Prompt – Write a story involving playing cards and using these words: Ante, Drag, Bluff, Busted, Blind
Genre: Open
Word Count: Up to 1300 words
Deadline: Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:30 pm EST

THE LEFT HAND

By Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw

“I’ll meet you in the lounge, about 6:30?”  I say to my two new friends.  “You can tell me more about this game.  It is high-stakes, right?  I don’t do penny-ante.”

 “$100,000 buy-in… table stakes only.  That high enough for you, doll?”  Robert asks.

“Perfect!”  I stand and offer my hand.  “See you then.”  I walk away, across the lobby of the Benson Hotel, toward the elevators.  I don’t have to look back to know that their eyes are glued to my ass.  They better be… for what I paid for this dress!

~~**~~

“Are my seams straight?”  Stepping back from the mirror, I turn to my lover.

“I don’t know why you bother “tarting up” so much; no one is going to see your legs.”  Jenny motions me to turn around so she can see the back of my legs.

“Glass-top table.” I say, winking into the mirror.

“Well, I suppose it’s better than flashing your boobs like you did in Salt Lake City.”

Silence.

“Ronnie… Please!  Tell me you’re not…?”

“Hey!  Who knew Mormons were such a randy bunch?”

 “Uh-huh… who knew?  They were Mormons, hun… they weren’t blind!”

 “Just using what God gave me, sweetie!”

 “When do I get to be the “bad girl”?  I’m tired of always playing the prim little Sunday School teacher!”

 “But, Jenny… you do it so well!  Besides… I’m allergic to long skirts and high-collar blouses.”  I give my generous breasts a squeeze.  “My girls need breathing room!”

Jenny rolls her eyes and lets out a long sigh.  “Okay… this time.  But when we hit Seattle… I get to be “bad”…I just bought a red latex number that looks like wet paint on me.”

I walk over to Jenny and wrap myself around her slender body, pressing against her thigh.   Slipping my hand down to her bum, I whisper in Jenny’s ear…

“The game doesn’t start for a couple of hours; how about we…” 

~~**~~

When I walk in to the hotel lounge some time later, Jenny is already seated at the bar, nursing her drink.  We ignore each other and I take a seat a couple of barstools down from her.

“Stoli, rocks… with lime, please.”  The bartender nods, and moves off.

Promptly at 6:30, Robert and Harrison show up.  They order drinks, and then we talk about the game.  After awhile, Jenny speaks up.

“Excuse me.”  We look over at her.  “Yes?” I ask, with a touch of frost in my voice.  Even dressed very primly, Jenny exudes a sex appeal that men cannot resist… it never fails.

“I was wondering if your game was open to anyone… I’ve always wanted to learn how to play poker.”

Robert and Harrison exchange looks… Robert speaks.

“Well, little lady… this is a big game… lot of money involved… you probably want to start a little smaller.”    Ignoring the condescension in his voice, Jenny smiles back sweetly.

“My father is Charles Lambert… you may have heard of him?”   Charles Lambert is the third richest man in the Pacific Northwest… right behind Bill Gates and Paul Allen.  Ooh… nice touch, Jenny!

Harrison looks at Robert… Robert looks at me… I shrug my shoulders.

“Fine with me… her money will spend just as easily yours.”   I say with a little wink.  They both laugh.

~~**~~

We are seven… seated around a big glass-topped table in the Presidential Suite.  Introductions are made, and a white-jacketed bartender takes everyone’s order.  The banker/dealer, Tomas, counts in cash and hands out chips.  A casual look around the table and some quick mental math… there is close to a million dollars in this room!

Tomas passes the deck to me for the cut.

“Seven card stud… Aces high and low… three raise limit?”  Everyone nods agreement.

“Gentlemen… and ladies… ante is five.” 

I toss a purple chip in the center of the table; the others follow suit.  Tomas deals.  Jenny is directly across the table from me, next to Harrison.

My first up-card is the lowest on the table, a “6”.  I lift the corner of my two down-cards briefly… a “7” and an “8”.  I allow the tiniest twitch at the corner of my mouth.

I toss out a burgundy chip and turn to my left, giving the man a smile.

“That’s a nice tie, Howard.  Your wife has excellent taste.”

Howard tosses out a burgundy chip… and then, another.

“Raise.”  He winks at me.  “I’m not married.”  I wink back.  Then, you’re gay my friend.  I think to myself… straight guys don’t have that good of taste in clothing.

Robert wins the first hand.  I actually had the better hand, but I folded early.  I have a steadfast rule… never win the first hand… ever!

A minor victory for me in the third hand… nothing to write home about.

With a little coaching from Harrison… he explains “drag”, Jenny wins the fifth hand… not that the girl needs any help.  The pot in that hand was just over $28,000.

I made up for folding on a very good first hand, in the sixth… four jacks; two of them were up-cards… I didn’t raise until the last down-card was dealt, giving me my fourth jack.  Looking around the table, I gave Jenny a tell, and then tossed two brown chips in the pot.  Howard and Jenny both folded.  I won $69,500 in that hand.

After eight hands, we take a short break.  Jake, the bartender, has brought up some trays of appetizers from the Palm Court’s Tapas menu… the food is exquisite!

~~**~~

Under the pretense that the room is too warm, I shed my blouse in the tenth hand… I am sans brassiere.  Jenny was suitably “shocked”, mumbling something about “tarts”.  The “gentlemen” tried to let on that my firm and tanned 36D’s didn’t bother them at all…

I won the next four hands.

~~**~~

With the bartender now gone, Jenny fixes everyone drinks while the dealer exchanges some of the players’ chips.

In the sixteenth hand, I tried to bluff with three “3’s” showing.  Martin, the quiet one to the right of the dealer called my bluff… the little bastard won with three “4’s”!  I lost $81,000.

~~**~~

After the sixteenth hand, we take another break.  When Jenny comes out of the bathroom, she is holding a black Sig Sauer P226 DAK in each hand.

“Police!  Nobody move!”

Everyone freezes.

Except for me.

I take one of the Sigs from Jenny… we both pull out gold detective shields, holding them up for everyone to see.  I speak.

“That’s right, people… you’re all busted!  I want everyone to empty their pockets out on to the table.  Now!”

I then direct them over to the two large sofas.

Robert speaks up.

“I want my lawyer!”

“Sit down!”  I say.  I put my blouse back on and collect everyone’s belongings from the table, putting them into a black knapsack.

“Okay, Mr. Dealer… open the safe!  All that money is evidence.”  Jenny watches over the dealer as he takes the cash from the wall safe and puts it in another knapsack.

~~**~~

Ten minutes later, Jenny has everything we touched wiped down.  She sets the two knapsacks by the door.

I glance at the Corum chronograph on my wrist, and walk over to the men.

“How much of that sleeping powder did you put in their drinks?” I ask Jenny.

“Are they…?”

“Like babies!”

“Come on, lover… let’s split!”

~~**~~

Forty-five minutes later, we have checked our bags at the airport.  I am heading back to the orphanage in St. Louis; Jenny is headlining the new Folies Bergere Revue at Paris Las Vegas.

“Give the children at St Elizabeth’s my love, Sister Veronica.  $400,000 is going to buy a lot of new equipment.  What are you going to tell Mother Superior?”

I wink at Jenny.

“The left hand of God…?”

~~finis~~

Why is it so difficult to just sit down and read sometimes? I enjoy it when I do but then all these other musts gets in the way….

Ah frick I can’t fail on the first month.

A friend of mine insisted that I read this book and I’m glad she did.  The theology is not spot on (that should be obvious as it’s written by the co-founder of the so-called “God TV”…) but it is loosely based on certain passages on the Bible about the fall of Lucifer and the eternal struggle for souls.  Well worth the read (the 295 pages flew by!) and I look forward to reading the others in this series.

http://www.chroniclesofbrothers.com/FallofLucifer/

The film rights to this trilogy have been sold with the first film anticipated to come out in 2013 so you might want to read the books before they start churning out the movies! (The book is almost always better than the movie!   )

I picked up “The Left Hand of God” (click title to view website) at “Borders Express” for 3.5 rials. (On a sidenote, you’d think that a shop that includes the word ”express“ would be at least slightly faster but that wasn’t the case, ha!ha! It was a tiny Borders and should probably be called “Mini Borders”!)  I was so impressed with Paul Hoffman’s writing style and the story was so captivating that I finished off this book in a few short days.  Listen here to the first 6 pages (of 499) of the novel.  This would be great to read while following on audio book!  Unlike Wendy Alec’s book, this novel is definitely ”anti-religious”.  To be more precise, it’s a sinister twist on Catholism and the author himself (in Q&As on his website) admits its an attack on the Roman Catholic religion.  Here is the author describing this “black distaste of humor” within the book.

I’m only 20% through ”The Fuse of Armageddon” and I’m really loving it so far!  I bought it for only 1 rial on the Logos Ship when it was in town.  So far it’s the best of the 3 but I’m probably biased towards this book knowing Hanegraff’s theology is sound, having enjoying several of his books/CDs on ”The Bible Answer Man” radio program.  An action packed book with great twists that keep the pages turning!

Anyone out there happen to read any of these books?  If so, how did you find them?

It is a story set in a Medieval period in a pseudo-realistic world. The story revolves around Thomas Cale, a 14 or 15 year old boy who lives in Sanctuary, a enclosed city where young boys are brought to become soldiers and/or Redeemers, if they live that long. He has survived the last ten years having no friends and being the pet of Redeemer Bosco. The only person he remotely calls a friend is Vague Henri, a boy who acts dense but is in reality very sharp-wittedly reckless, which often gets him in trouble once they figure out he’s made a fool of them.

Life at Sanctuary is anything but a sanctuary. It is a brutal place to live where any infraction of the strict laws are greeted by harsh penalties ending in severe beatings, scaring and then in many cases death. While dealt with harshly by Bosco, Cale unknowingly is safe from any penalty which would cause his death. Not so would be for friend Vague Henri and unfortunate associate Kleist, an archery instructor of around the same age as the other two. While Cale is a smart boy whose arrogance makes him a bit cocky, which resulted in beatings, he was not ready for what he  stumbled in on when sent to the chambers of Redeemer Picarbo. The resulting answer was one thing: to run away.

No one had ever run away from Sanctuary and survived. But Cale had no choice but to run away and take with him Vague Henri, Kleist and new associate Riba. If he had left them behind they would have been killed for mere association with him. After Cale works everything out, they escape to Memphis.

And thus begins the epic journey of a violently clever and emotionally perplexing boy. You cannot help but love him as he struggles to undo the emotional destruction thrashed into him by the unforgiving, religiously twisted Redeemers. You also can’t help but be amused at the struggle between Cale and the arrogant royal Arbell. He is like a orange among apples. But that is what draws everyone to him, especially Arbell. Once she realises what horrors he’d been through, she begins to see him differently, not as the hardened killer who knows no different, but as a hardened killer forced to become so.

This book is so brilliantly written and developed. It is so brilliant how he takes typical religious stereotypes and makes them worse. The Redeemers are is essence priests mixed with fanatics of the worse kind. They are so in love with their ‘Hanged Redeemer’, that anyone who believes differently is a heathen and everywhere and everything is sin. In there century long fight against the Antagonists, their is no length they will not go to ensure their victory or get what their way. They are conniving manipulators with seemingly no morals.

Then there is Memphis, the capital on the outskirts of the Scablands (the desert between Memphis and Sanctuary). While it is resonant of a typical city with it’s rich sector and the sector resembling the Moulin Rouge, it seems to possess some sort of honour amidst the underhandedness of politics and the upper class. While everyone is out to cover their own necks, they are less violent and more emotion based, something the Redeemers do not value.

I am really glad that this book is the first in a series. I cannot wait for the remaining books to come out and I pray that they are as good if not better than the first one.

1.  Look, we’re not perfect.  No one is.  So STFU.

2.  See?  Everyone’s phone does this!  So STFU.

3.  You don’t like it-buy a Droid.  STFU.

4.  Here’s a bumper case so the rest of you will STFU.

5.  Now STFU and go back to kissing my ass.

Come on, did you really think that Steve Jobs would actually say “Wow we screwed the pooch on this one didn’t we?  Of course not.  Admitting mistakes is something that Dear Leader Steve Jobs NEVER does.  At least in public.

What gets me is the fact that all these journalist travel to hear what could have been handled by a lawyer reading a statement and then act like “Well, everyone gets a bumper, so it’s all good, so I guess we’ll just drop it now”.   Kids, that is what is known as raw power.  And that is why Apple means never having to say you’re sorry.

Now Playing: ABC – How to Be A…Zillionaire! – So Hip It Hurts

It’s getting to the point in the summer where you can feel it slipping away, week by week. Enjoy the summer while it lasts – sit out in the shade with a good book. Here are our latest recommendations. More librarians’ recommendations are available at YouTube or our Books, Movies & More page.

Zandra B. recommends:

Red Hats by Damon Wayans

Check out Red Hats in our catalog.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Check out Liar in our catalog.

Jessica T. recommends:

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman

Check out The Left Hand of God in our catalog.

Instructions by Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Charles Vess

Check out Instructions in our catalog.

Liz V. recommends:

My Boyfriends’ Dogs by Dandi Daley Mackall

Check out My Boyfriends’ Dogs in our catalog.

Tamar by Mal Peet

Check out Tamar in our catalog.

]]> http://jilekkritizuje.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/lava-ruka-boha-paul-hoffman/ Mon, 10 May 2010 23:00:00 +0000 peterfriusjilek http://jilekkritizuje.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/lava-ruka-boha-paul-hoffman/ Keby nebol chronotop románu Ľavá ruka Boha špekulatívne fiktívny, bolo by ho možné nazvať historickým. Ibaže jeho postavy žijú a umierajú v akejsi prazvláštnej verzii stredoveku, kde sa hráva box a fajčia cigarety. Tento svet je posunutý od reálnych dejín natoľko, že sa dá chápať ako alternatíva k nim, ale aj ako eventuálny návrat do temného feudalizmu vo vzdialenej budúcnosti. Práve časová nezakotvenosť neznámeho priestoru medzi kláštorným Útulkom spasiteľov na Shotoverskom zráze a metropolou materazziovského impéria Memphisom dotvára v tomto fantasy románe atmosféru tajuplného príbehu, tak trochu s prvkami gotickej i pikaresknej literatúry, smerujúcej do dobrodružnej rytierskej romance. V popredí sú teda túžba po moci, zákulisné intrigy, no i budovanie priateľstva, peripetie s láskou či pokusy dosiahnuť kurtoázne ideály. A za to všetko sa hojne prelieva krv.

Mimo tohto populárneho rozmeru sa v románe objavuje intertextuálna nadstavba a aj istá kritika voči spoločnosti v podobe odhaľovania mechanizmu náboženského pokrytectva preexponovane stelesnenom v kresťanstvo pripomínajúcej sekte bizarného obeseného mesiáša, ktorá horlivo pracuje na splnení prísne tajného apokalyptického proroctva.

Some of the things that annoyed me: Is it alternate history or SF? The city the three boys (and rescued girl) escape to is called Memphis and it’s unclear if this is the same Memphis that’s out in Egypt or not. There’s a desert, but the fort in York is a few days travel away. And Jesus of Nazareth was the guy who was in the belly of the whale. It feels like Hoffman was just pulling out historical names and places and slapping them down without any thought for how they’d interact. I think the Antagonists are Muslim analogues, but there are Jews that are just called Jews. It’s all very sloppy.

The Cult of the Hanged Redeemer is a cartoonishly dark take on Middle-Ages Christianity. So much so that I was sure the book was a fantasy novel. They eat gruel and get tortured and have to deal with their Original Sin and get flayed for breaking the rules. These are the ancestors of the Dan Brown Catholics. But Thomas Cale (the morally bereft thuggish anti-hero) got hit in the head as a young man and can tell what people are going to do in a fight, making him a preternatural killing machine.

Oh and he falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the Roman Empire governor analogue, but he’s so tortured and inarticulate. Oh noes. And apart from being a preternatural killer (demonstrated by his kicking the ass of the greatest fighter the Roman academy has produced in twenty years and then killing a hardened soldier who hates him in a gladiatorial duel) he’s a tactical genius and the battle in the end is lost due to other people’s incompetence and he does something heroic even though he’s so troubled.

I also hated the narrator’s voice. There’re these offhand implications that Cale will do great things and change the world, and these folksy “Oh but how could Cale know what she was thinking, the way we do?” kinds of asides that infuriated me.

And then the end of the book isn’t an ending but the point of departure for a series. A series I have no desire to read. Good thing I didn’t spend money on it. (It was a review copy from LibraryThing.)

Some of the things that annoyed me: Is it alternate history or SF? The city the three boys (and rescued girl) escape to is called Memphis and it’s unclear if this is the same Memphis that’s out in Egypt or not. There’s a desert, but the fort in York is a few days travel away. And Jesus of Nazareth was the guy who was in the belly of the whale. It feels like Hoffman was just pulling out historical names and places and slapping them down without any thought for how they’d interact. I think the Antagonists are Muslim analogues, but there are Jews that are just called Jews. It’s all very sloppy.

The Cult of the Hanged Redeemer is a cartoonishly dark take on Middle-Ages Christianity. So much so that I was sure the book was a fantasy novel. They eat gruel and get tortured and have to deal with their Original Sin and get flayed for breaking the rules. These are the ancestors of the Dan Brown Catholics. But Thomas Cale (the morally bereft thuggish anti-hero) got hit in the head as a young man and can tell what people are going to do in a fight, making him a preternatural killing machine.

Oh and he falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the Roman Empire governor analogue, but he’s so tortured and inarticulate. Oh noes. And apart from being a preternatural killer (demonstrated by his kicking the ass of the greatest fighter the Roman academy has produced in twenty years and then killing a hardened soldier who hates him in a gladiatorial duel) he’s a tactical genius and the battle in the end is lost due to other people’s incompetence and he does something heroic even though he’s so troubled.

I also hated the narrator’s voice. There’re these offhand implications that Cale will do great things and change the world, and these folksy “Oh but how could Cale know what she was thinking, the way we do?” kinds of asides that infuriated me.

And then the end of the book isn’t an ending but the point of departure for a series. A series I have no desire to read. Good thing I didn’t spend money on it. (It was a review copy from LibraryThing.)

Here are the details:

“Don’t Panic has teamed up with Penguin books for the chance to design artwork for their biggest fiction launch of the decade, The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman.

Each excerpt is different so please only choose one to base your design of Thomas Cale on.”

Sound good? I’m sure plenty of you are itching to get started! Follow this link to get more details (there are Terms and Conditions, too, so give that a read), and there is an excerpt ZIP you can download to read and get an idea of the world that Paul created.

So what are you waiting for? Get started!

Be EPIC!

Here’s the blurb for the book from Penguin UK:

“Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary.”

But the Redeemers want Cale back at any price… not because of the secret he now knows but because of a much more terrifying secret he does not.”

Now, I stick by what I said in my mini-review: The Left Hand of God will be, without a doubt, one of 2010′s biggest novels. Why? Here are my reasons:

The Worldbuilding: Paul has created a world that is at once weird and stranger than any place you know, but also exhilarating in the way that it echoes the world we inhabit. Places that we know are slightly different, cultures have formed around different concepts, and religion has taken a twisted, convoluted path towards something strangely funny but shocking.

The Characters: Thomas himself is, well, in a word, scary, the kind of guy you only have to look at to get the sense that you don’t want to do anything he might consider untoward; but at the same time, once he reaches the wide, outside world, he’s incredibly naive, reduced to stumbling along while trying to stay ahead of his enemies. But Paul doesn’t stop with Thomas Cale – the cast of characters range from very creepy gang leaders to hilarious, sometimes bastardly nobles, to mysterious yet comic ex-military types, to friends who know as little about Cale as he himself does. Paul handles everyone with an expert touch, allowing us to travel through the storyscape while seeing Paul’s world from many different points of view.

The Action: Paul manages to at once take you deep into the blood and violence and fear of battle while also placing you in the minds of those fighting and dying. And as you would expect from a created world with strange cultures and people, Paul also weaves in new tactics and kinds of warfare; there is one major battle in the book that’ll take your breath away and make you wince, and I’m really excited to see what Paul’s got up his sleeve in books 2 and 3.

Everything Else: Paul’s writing is really easy on the mind, poetic and beautiful in places, charging along with incredible pace and tension in others. His writing seems entirely suited to Fantasy, and I’m very glad that I got the opportunity to read such a strong debut!

2010 looks set to be an absolutely huge year for SFF, and I’m sure that The Left Hand of God will be a strong contender for Debut of the Year on many lists. Highly recommended!

9 / 10

The Left Hand of God will be available in South Africa from next month (from Penguin Books SA) (even though it’s already available in the UK), so pre-order your copies here and here. For those of you in the UK, click here to order your copies.

Also, here’s the novel’s page on Penguin’s UK website (where you can read an excerpt of the novel, too), and good news for those in the UK – Paul will be at Forbidden Planet this month for a book signing! Click here for details.

Coming up tomorrow on the blog, an awesome competition that’ll give you a chance to have your work seen in the paperback edition of The Left hand of God!

Thomas Cale is an acolyte at the Sanctuary of the Redeemers on Shotover Scarp. He is 14 or 15, no one is quite sure which, an expert in hand-to-hand combat and an advanced student of battle tactics. He is clever and brave but his harsh and strange upbringing has also made him ruthless, unpredictable and a little scary. For as long as he can remember, Cale has been planning his escape from the ironically named Sanctuary. He is finally old enough and strong enough to achieve his goal and has been putting his plan into action for months. But even if he succeeds, Cale knows the Redeemers will follow him and hunt him until the ends of the earth.

Can Cale survive in a world he barely understands and in the middle of a war it his destiny to fight?

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman is the first book in what promises to be a thrilling new series. Hoffman has crafted a dark new world and a story that makes your heart beat faster.

Jess

The recent hoopla on healthcare has shed light on an issue that has been painfully obvious to many progressives: even with a President that is a great communicator of progressive values, in terms of ongoing long-term communications, conservatives continue to dominate the public narrative.  So much so, that progressive framing guru George Lakoff has come out in full force to suggest an alternate to the boring “public option” branding: the “American Plan“.  Yes, of course any healthcare reform MUST at least include a strong public option (otherwise it will be a giant giveaway to the insurance companies’ already bloated greed).  However, in terms of branding, the name “public option” simply does not do justice to what the public option is trying to accomplish: reform the system so that the American people’s health is placed above CEO’s bonuses, rather than the other way around.  In larger terms of the picture in communications matters, 2009 is undeniably a different world when it comes to progressive media infrastructre compared to how it was back in 2000, when in that year we saw the conservative machine in full attack mode to make sure that Gore did not become the next President of the United States. 

I refer back to 2000 to illustrate and recognize just how far we’ve come in terms of building a progressive infrastructure but at the same time to highlight just how far we still have yet to go.  Like many others, that was the year when my political awakening began, amid a national media landscape that was incredibly hostile to progressive ideas.  Prior to George W., I was just a small town Latino teen that was absolutely apolitical, overwhelmed with my own families’ struggles, and could care less about what went on with politicians in DC.  However, the downward spiral into the depths of right-wing authoritarianism that the country took under George W.’s presidency became too alarming to ignore.  I started to take notice, from the blatant betrayals of the American public’s trust with the invasion and occupation of Iraq to the excesses of the scary right-wing/conservative religious rights’ alliance with the Republican Party. On that front, much has changed too: with some progressive religious figures like Reverend Jim Wallis, Michael Lerner, and progressive activist faith groups and projects like Faithful America, The Network of Spiritual Progressives, Interfaith Alliance, Catholics United, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good gaining some much-needed traction on the national stage to fight the authoritarianism of the religious right.  Nevertheless, the presence of progressive religious figures in the national media continues to be a struggle, as I have argued before (click here to read my previous post on the matter). 

In retrospect, it is no surprise I can track the moment when I became aware for the first time of the massive conservative propaganda machine: when I caught word through a progressive medium-a new movie, “Outfoxed“, which detailed just how much the Fox News channel serves as the bullhorn for the Republican Party’s propaganda.  I was so starved to connect to other progressives, that when the credits rolled at the end of the film, I frantically started to write down the names of the organizations that had contributed to make the film just so I could search for them online.  One of the major progressive hubs of information sharing and activism that I found was AlterNet.org, which would occasionally post information on progressive groups doing grassroots activities on the local scene. 

It was through one of such local grassroots events that I had another brush with another progressive medium that brought about for me a pivotal moment in the formation of who I am now as an activist.  It was when I saw Marcos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, speak at a bar in Santa Monica, CA during an event that was being sponsored by the Public Campaign.  He was promoting a book that he had co-authored, Crashing the Gate, and so I bought his book right there and then and asked him to autograph my copy.  I started reading it and quickly became amazed at how incredibly well-organized and powerful the conservative infrastructure really was to the point where they completely dominated the national discourse with their far-right messaging.  Crashing the Gate laid it all bare, pin-pointing how the conservative machine had come to be and how the inept angry left of the U.S., broken up into its silo single-issue self-righteous factions, had allowed it to happen.  After finishing the book, I immediately made the resolution to answer the call to action to help build an organized progressive infrastructure that could fight the conservative machine.  I did not exactly know how or where to start, so I kept on reading more progressive works like The Left Hand of God and Don’t Think of an Elephant, while at the same time continuing to attend progressive-minded events such as Drinking Liberally, and started listening to progressive radio personalities after they started to be syndicated nationally.  In short, whatever progressive communication outlets that had been launched back then were extremely useful to inform and motivate new progressive activists like myself and countless others. 

Today, there is now a “progressive infrastructure” that continues to grow that simply did not even exist back in 2000.  Nevertheless, currently a progressive nation-wide communications system is virtually nonexistent.  Famous professor of linguistics, George Lakoff, in his newly published piece The Policy Speak Disaster for Health Care, discusses this very same issue in terms of how it relates to the current healthcare debate.  He has, in fact, warned about this before, specifically on his “The Obama Code” piece:

The president is the best political communicator of our age. He has the bully pulpit. He gets media attention from the press. His website is running a permanent campaign, Organizing for Obama, run by his campaign manager David Plouffe. It seeks issue-by-issue support from his huge mailing list. There are plenty of progressive blogs. MoveOn.org now has over five million members.  And yet that is nowhere near enough.

The conservative message machine is huge and still going. There are dozens of conservative think tanks, many with very large communications budgets. The conservative leadership institutes are continuing to turn out thousands of trained conservative spokespeople every year. The conservative apparatus for language creation is still functioning. Conservative talking points are still going out to their network of spokespeople, who still being booked on tv and radio around the country. About 80% of the talking heads on tv are conservatives. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are as strong as ever.  There are now progressive voices on MSNBC, Comedy Central, and Air America, but they are still overwhelmed by Right’s enormous megaphone.  Republicans in Congress can count on overwhelming message support in their home districts and homes states. That is one reason why they were able to stonewall on the President’s stimulus package. They had no serious media competition at home pounding out the Obama vision day after day.

Such national, day-by-day media competition is necessary. Democrats need to build it. Democratic think tanks are strong on policy and programs, but weak on values and vision.  Without the moral arguments based on the Obama values and vision, the policymakers most likely be unable to regularly address both independent voters and the Limbaugh-FoxNews audiences in conservative Republican strongholds.

The president and his administration cannot build such a communication system, nor can the Democrats in Congress. The DNC does not have the resources. It will be up to supporters of the Obama values, not just supporters on the issues, to put such a system in place.  Despite all the organizing strength of Obama supporters, no such organizing effort is now going on. If none is put together, the movement conservatives will face few challenges of fundamental values in their home constituencies and will be able to go on stonewalling with impunity.  That will make the president’s vision that much harder to carry out.

In light of what the right-wing has been able to accomplish in their battle against healthcare reform, is it any wonder that many progressives are left wondering “where is the progressive messaging machine?”  Well, it is MIA because it simply does NOT exist.  Yes, progressive have the blogosphere and some rising stars on MSNBC, but let us not confuse that with an actual progressive MESSAGING machine.  The blogosphere and other media outlets are just that, outlets with a lot of useful information.  They ARE important and essential outlets, but they nevertheless are missing a piece: the messaging and framing element that works on a nation-wide marketing level.

So who would it be up to to build such a progressive communications system?  Al Gore considered creating a liberal cable channel, and instead settled for creating the youthful socially conscious “Current TV“.  Nevertheless, even a progressive channel would still need the right messaging.  In absence of a nation-wide progressive channel, Professor Lakoff suggests the following communications strategy concerning the healthcare debate: 

A progressive communication system should be started. It should go into every Congressional district. It should concentrate on general progressive ideas. President Obama has articulated what these are.

• The basic values are empathy (we care about people), responsibility for ourselves and others, and the ethic of excellence (making ourselves better and the world better).

• These values form the basis of democracy: It’s because we care about our fellow citizens that we have values like freedom and fairness, for everyone, not just the powerful.

• From that, it follows that government has two moral missions: protection (of consumers, workers, the environment, the old, the sick, the powerless; and empowerment through public works; communication, energy, and water systems; education; banks that work; a court system: and so on. Without them, no one makes it in America. Taxes are what you pay for protection and empowerment by the government, and the more you make the greater your responsibility to maintain the system.

Appropriate language can be found to express these values. They lie at the heart of all progressive policies. If they are out there every day, it becomes easier to discuss any issue. This is what it means to prepare the ground for specific framings.

Once progressives hammer out the right messaging approach, the need for a nation-wide progressive TV channel that can broadcast it everywhere will become even more evident.  MSNBC has taken some good steps, but it has not capitalized on its recent ratings success with its progressive hosts (Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, and Ed Schultz).  In fact, a recent poll reveals something that has now become almost painfully clear: MSNBC has established a marketable niche that it is simply not servicing at it should be.  MSNBC would do itself a favor by embracing its progressive niche and switch to an all-progressive format, before someone else beats them to it.  After all, our country is quickly changing with the new so-called millenial generation that tends to be overwhelmingly progressive taking over.  MSNBC from its inception positioned itself to be a bit more youthful and edgier than CNN.  In the spirit of its original business model, should MSNBC position itself to serve the up-and-coming progressive-minded millenial generation, it would reap financial rewards that would most likely eclipse its competitors’.

When will MSNBC start realizing that they have created a niche with the progressive community that it should capitalize on?  The above video is a sample of the kind of progressive talent MSNBC could benefit from.  Progressive media personalities like Stephanie Miller or even Randi Rhodes (on the radio) have proven to be hugely successful, even beating their conservative competitors day after day in the ratings.  So what are the powers-that-be waiting on?

I was lucky enough to have received an ARC from the kind folk at Penguin South Africa, and I finished the book in around 5 days – once I started, I just couldn’t put it down!

I’m going to be doing a proper review of the book later next year (closer to its release date), but suffice it to say that the worldbuilding in this novel is pretty damn unique and interesting, the characters are wonderful, and the action amazing!

I haven’t been this excited about a debut since Peter V Brett’s The Painted Man, way back in July last year! If you can get yourself a copy of this book, don’t hesitate!

Oh, and isn’t that cover awesome?

Be EPIC!

Here are the links to order the Audio Book and Book for readers in the UK, and for readers in South Africa, here’s your link to pre-order the book!

But I’ve got some good stuff coming up!

I’m pushing to finish Karen Miller’s The Riven Kingdom, Book 2 in the Godspeaker Trilogy, (got about 200 pages left, give or take) so I’ll have a review for you on Wednesday or Thursday. I’ll also be posting another Review-Spotlight, this time on Paul Hoffman’s The Left Hand of God.

And then there’ll be a post coming up spotlighting a cool new site with some awesome product – trust me, you may just find yourself ordering because it’s just too damn cool to pass up!

Anyway, that’s me!

Be EPIC!

This lucky reader will be getting a trade-paperback copy of Graceling, reviewed here by David! I’ll be posting the book off on Saturday (will be at work, but will take a break and dash upstairs), so the winner should have the book next week some time.

Without further a-do, the winner is…

Lood De Plessis! Congrats, Lood! You’ll have your copy shortly!

And now, let me show you what I’m reading right now – awesome stuff, really damn cool!

Check out the blog tomorrow for the next giveaway – 2 copies of a really cool SF book! This is also the first time that I will be opening the giveaway for readers in the UK too!

Until then,

Be EPIC!

Theseus stands before the maze.

Sakkara by Noel Barber
Sarum by Edward Rutherford
The River God by Wilbur Smith
The Left Hand of God by William Barrett
The Balance Wheel by Taylor Caldwell (for many reasons, both good and bad)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (because of the irony)
The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin (non-fiction)
The Gods of Eden by William Bramley (non-fiction)
The Twelfth Planet by Zeccharia Sitchen (non-fiction)
Story by Robert McKee (non-fiction)
most books written by Antony Sutton (non-fiction)
most books written by Stephen J. Gould (non-fiction)
a few books written by Hank Messick (non-fiction)

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend any of these books. I read them so long ago, I was a different person. That I remembered titles and authors shows what an impact they had at the time. In recent years, the only book that had any impact on me was Duma Key by Stephen King. I’m ashamed to admit it, but he did get me with that one. During the past couple of decades, the only other books that have completely pulled me in are The River God and Sarum, both of which I intend to reread. The River God is a story based on scrolls found in an Egyptian tomb, and Sarum is a Michener-type book about the Salisbury Plain in England. I don’t agree with a lot of Rutherford’s history, but the book fascinated me. I want to reread Sakkara if I can ever get it again, though I don’t remember much about it except that it’s a sort of North African Gone With the Wind. (Interestingly, I don’t like Gone With the Wind, though I did when I was very young. I tried rereading it a while back, and got bored.) I did reread Tanamera, (also by Noel Barber, and a sort of Singapore Gone With the Wind) and liked it the second time, too. In fact, I will reread all of Noel Barber’s books some day. Maybe even some of Nevil Shute’s books. And David Westheimer’s.

I read The Balance Wheel during the Vietnam era. Now THAT made an impact — reading a book about the war-to-end-all-wars during a later war. If I ever come across a copy of the book, I’ll reread it. (I lent it to someone who promised — actually swore — that she’d return it but never did.)

One book that got left off the above list is The Killing Gift by Bari Wood. I read it many years ago, and always remembered it. Reread it a few years ago, and it still had the same impact. It’s one of the few I’ve kept to re-reread.

I’ve also kept a copy of The Proteus Operation by James P. Hogan, so I can reread it someday.

One author who consistently pleased me was Kate Wilhelm until she stopped writing science fiction. On my wish list would be a newly written Kate Wilhelm science fiction novel (Are you listening, Kate?), but so far she’s sticking with mysteries. (They’re mostly published by Mira, which seems like hiding a diamond in the mud.)

Interestingly, I started rereading some of the classics, and couldn’t do it. Nicholas Nickleby, Sense and Sensibilty, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. AAGGHH!!!

For about fifteen years I got so sick of the pap put out by the major publishers that I stuck with non-fiction. Read everything — history, quantum mechanics, string theory, health, archeology, etc, etc, but that got old (or I did) so now I’m back to fiction.

I’ve decided I need to get rich so I can start buying indie books. I feel like the man who kept shrinking and shrinking until finally he shrunk so much he ended up in an entirely different universe, a microscopic one. For me, the publishing world has shrunk so much that the only hope for finding the sort of books that interests me is to find another world. Which I have. The indie world. I guess I’ll just have to get people to send me books to “review.” Yes, that’s it. I’ll tell people I’ll do a review if they send me their book.

I thought that it would bother me posting this for anyone to see — it does say something about me, though I don’t know what — and I half-intended to delete it, but then it dawned on me: this is the eve of my becoming a published author. I’ve approved the proofs, so More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire will soon show up on Amazon. (They are already listed on the Second Wind Publishing site.) If a list of books I’ve read exposes me, then the books I’ve written will expose me even more.

So, here I am.

For what it’s worth.

: : : : : : : : : : :

It’s also got me realizing how much I have fallen into the mindset of this culture of materialism…in the way I view people and the way I dehumanize people (unintentionally, of course) by seeing them as a list of “things” or attributes instead of a whole being. It is incredibly easy to succumb to the notion that people are merely lists of attributes or qualities or even beliefs or ideas…and only a step further to begin to view them in utilitarian ways. People are very quick to help you in this, also. They will gladly pronounce their affiliations, as if they could be reduced to that…”I’m a Republican.” “I’m a mother.” “I’m a lipstick feminist.” Or even, the slightly abashed but secretly proud, “I’m different from other people because of…a, b, c or d.”

Alongside the Lerner book, I’ve been reading Krishnamurti, an Indian philosopher. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. Krishnamurti sees all such beliefs as totally lacking in any reality. He sees experience as something that happens between and in spite of the thoughts we have about that experience. He sees thought itself as something that inherently lacks reality, because it always comes as a descriptive after the fact, and always contains an element of bias, distortion and illusion. Pure experiencing is something that thought cannot capture. I would argue, therefore, that most of us very rarely (if ever) experience reality.

What it’s making me come to realize is this. People in this culture really aren’t all that different from one another. Those who proclaim their differences the loudest often have some of the most superficial differences at the core…in terms of their need to hold on to absolutes and define themselves according to a strict description of reality that is unchanging and therefore “safe.”

I have grown pretty tired in recent weeks of reading the self-righteous rants of anti-religious “rationals” clinging to their materialistic views of the world with as much orthodoxy as your average religious fundamentalist does to the bible. That they think they are so different from these people is only part of the problem. There is so much venom behind some of these arguments, such a grasping need to be supported by one’s peers and reassured that yes, your way is the only way and all others are composed of wackos, wishful thinkers and fools (even while decrying that they are stating anything of the kind) that it makes me despair that self-examination can even occur en masse, to the point where any kind of meaningful dialogue could be reached. Everyone is too busy defending their particular worldview to realize that the problem is that they are victims of a world view. They refuse to see that any worldview adhered to in such a way has elements of delusion in that it supports a story about who they are…ordering reality in a particular sequence to personalize its meaning.

Many fact-seekings are just that, a positivistic attempt to rationalize one’s world view. Without the emotional maturity to seek the truth from a nonreactionary, open standpoint that has no expectations or emotional needs or even specific goals, a PhD of biology is going to be just as guilty of self-delusion in this regard as a Christian fundamentalist with a highschool diploma. It’s what the Rightists of Lerner’s book are doing by seeing a world falling around them and seeing that as proof of God’s coming. Seeing a world filled with self-serving, ‘rational’ materialists who care only for food and vying for power is just as self-fulfilling and delusional.

The question I always ask is, why would anyone want to see either of those things? What need does it fulfill to see the world as a hopeless mess and/or filled with souless animals who care nothing for one another apart from utilitarian needs? How could this make one feel safe, unless it’s to convince oneself that doing nothing is okay because nothing you did would make any difference anyway?

I don’t want to live in either of those worlds. Luckily, I firmly believe that I am far from alone in this desire.