The Left Hand of God

by Paul Hoffman. A fantasy novel. I like fantasy novels. My first big love, as a little girl, was Wind in the Willows and, a little later, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The Left Hand of God is a tad darker than these.

I enjoyed this fast paced story, even though it is rather crudely crafted in places. I'd have enjoyed it more, however, with fewer reference to real places (York, Silbury for example) which just felt as though the author had run out of original ideas.  Not bad, though, and worth the trip to the library.

Thomas Cale is special, although he has no idea how special. All he knows is that he is brutalised and abused, by men who call themselves Redeemers, along with thousands of other boys, for reasons no-one explains. Thomas and two friends escape from their small world and, through a series of adventures, it gradually becomes clear why he is so special and why his training has been so important. Thomas fights, kills, learns to love and to be a friend as e also learns about freedom and making choices. The final twist is masterly and powerful, bringing to mind the same feeling I had when watching the final scene of the original Planet of the Apes movie.

Try it.

Remember Me

This book, by Melvyn Bragg, took me a long time to read. It was a bit of a challenge. I freely admit to liking stories with a bit of pace, stories that move forward. This one is slow and very wordy. Melvyn can find 6 ways of saying the same thing - beautiful ways, it's true, lovingly crafted sentences that roll sensuously across the page - but which left me thirsting for something to get hold of. Nor could I find any sympathy for either of the two main characters in the saga. Still, in that sense they were, I suppose, very real. Very few of us are the neat characters we often find in most contemporary novels, after all.

Natasha and Joseph meet in Oxford. From different backgrounds, different nations and with different aspirations they have nothing in common but, thanks to Joe's persistence, they become a couple, marry and have a daughter. Eventually their respective pasts overwhelm them with tragic results. The narrative is told in the form of Joe's letter to his grown up daughter, written when he is an elderly man, and in the present tense during their courtship and marriage. It's introspective, thoughtful and slow paced. Literary in style, with language that caresses and fills the mind with pastel colours, it's also overblown, overdone and pretentious.