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The Left Hand of God #4
The White Devil
THE GRIPPING NEW ADVENTURE FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE LEFT HAND OF GOD SERIES
Welcome those of you from the Old World. Welcome to the New.
Mankind's most reluctant hero - Thomas Cale - is back.
________
Thomas Cale has been running from his enemies. Believing him to be the incarnation of God's rage, the world's most violent religious sect trained him to destroy His greatest mistake. Mankind itself.
But Cale has other ideas.
Cale is a paradox: arrogant and innocent, generous and pitiless. Feared and revered by those that created him, he has already used his terrifying talent for violence and destruction to bring down the most powerful civilization in the world.
But having fled to America, Thomas Cale has been caught. He has been given a choice. Murder the American president - the father of that fragile democracy and the the best hope for ending slavery - or
be handed over for execution himself.
The survival of rule by the people, and the right of millions not to be owned by others, rests on Cale's decision . . .
Welcome those of you from the Old World. Welcome to the New.
Mankind's most reluctant hero - Thomas Cale - is back.
________
Thomas Cale has been running from his enemies. Believing him to be the incarnation of God's rage, the world's most violent religious sect trained him to destroy His greatest mistake. Mankind itself.
But Cale has other ideas.
Cale is a paradox: arrogant and innocent, generous and pitiless. Feared and revered by those that created him, he has already used his terrifying talent for violence and destruction to bring down the most powerful civilization in the world.
But having fled to America, Thomas Cale has been caught. He has been given a choice. Murder the American president - the father of that fragile democracy and the the best hope for ending slavery - or
be handed over for execution himself.
The survival of rule by the people, and the right of millions not to be owned by others, rests on Cale's decision . . .
- GenresFantasy
493 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 2, 2021
About the author
Paul Hoffman
16 books627 followersNote: Paul^^Hoffman
Possibly the only novelist of his generation to be born by the light of a paraffin lamp, Paul Hoffman spent much of his childhood on airfields all around the world watching his father – a pioneer of sports parachuting and European Champion – jumping out of aeroplanes. After a long battle with the English educational system which involved avoiding school whenever possible he was offered a place to read English at New College, Oxford when no other university would interview him. After graduating he worked in over twenty different jobs, including boardman in a betting shop, messenger boy to a City merchant bank and teacher. He was also senior film censor at the British Board of Film Classification.
His first novel, The Wisdom of Crocodiles took thirteen years to write. Among other things it predicted the re-emergence of international terrorism in the 21st Century and the precise nature of the collapse of the world financial system. Part of the novel was made into a film starring Jude Law and Timothy Spall. His second novel, The Golden Age of Censorship, a black comedy based on his experiences as a film censor, was published in 2007. As a screenwriter he has written or co-written three produced films and worked with, among others, Francis Ford Coppola.
Possibly the only novelist of his generation to be born by the light of a paraffin lamp, Paul Hoffman spent much of his childhood on airfields all around the world watching his father – a pioneer of sports parachuting and European Champion – jumping out of aeroplanes. After a long battle with the English educational system which involved avoiding school whenever possible he was offered a place to read English at New College, Oxford when no other university would interview him. After graduating he worked in over twenty different jobs, including boardman in a betting shop, messenger boy to a City merchant bank and teacher. He was also senior film censor at the British Board of Film Classification.
His first novel, The Wisdom of Crocodiles took thirteen years to write. Among other things it predicted the re-emergence of international terrorism in the 21st Century and the precise nature of the collapse of the world financial system. Part of the novel was made into a film starring Jude Law and Timothy Spall. His second novel, The Golden Age of Censorship, a black comedy based on his experiences as a film censor, was published in 2007. As a screenwriter he has written or co-written three produced films and worked with, among others, Francis Ford Coppola.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 7, 2021
I'm sorry to see there are no reviews for this book because it's weird and fascinating at the same time.
It's hard to find the world because it's alternate history, there're some elements of dystopia and a not-so-veiled satire of politics.
Thomas Cale is a complex character on the moral grey side of the spectrum. He's arrogant, knows what he can achieve but it's also a man with a story of child abuse and gaslighting.
I think he's the highlight of this book. I didn't know if I wanted to hate or love him, surely i was charmed.
The style of writing is the most distinctive tract: a mix of backstories, documents and thriller.
Even if it's out of my comfort zone I couldn't put it down as the author is a talented storyteller.
I wish the best for this book and I think it could be appreciated by people who love alternate history.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
It's hard to find the world because it's alternate history, there're some elements of dystopia and a not-so-veiled satire of politics.
Thomas Cale is a complex character on the moral grey side of the spectrum. He's arrogant, knows what he can achieve but it's also a man with a story of child abuse and gaslighting.
I think he's the highlight of this book. I didn't know if I wanted to hate or love him, surely i was charmed.
The style of writing is the most distinctive tract: a mix of backstories, documents and thriller.
Even if it's out of my comfort zone I couldn't put it down as the author is a talented storyteller.
I wish the best for this book and I think it could be appreciated by people who love alternate history.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
Read
October 15, 2021I cannot get on with this one at all. Such a strange style.
April 26, 2022
I enjoyed this addition to the series, despite feeling it was a little left field. I think the "quotes" from fictional books about the main character were a touch of genius. They often described the character's motives from one of two polar opposite standpoints and really helped cement Cale as a real character defying simple categorisation.
May 16, 2023
O escritor de forma inteligente, para não cair na repetição, retirou o Thomas Cale dos conflitos com os Redentores, e deu-nos um novo Thomas Cale, num Novo Mundo, num Estados Unidos transformado num barril de pólvora, luta de norte e sul pela abolição definitiva da escravatura. Mantendo porem, as suas guerras interiores de sempre, Arbell...
June 21, 2026
Since the 'Left hand of god' -trilogy is my best reads ever, it's needless to say I was over the moon when I heard a 4th book about my all-time fav character, Thomas Cale, was in progress. Obviously, I ordered it on the spot, and when it finally arrived, my expectations were skyrocketing.
Well.. It started according to expectations, but unfortunately that was pretty much it. I'm not saying it's bad, as Cale's fascinating complexity makes it worthy your time regardless. You're i.o.w still vouching for him, it's not about that..
- Where Cale was still in his teens when the original trilogy ended, he's now reached his 40's. The boy who managed to run away from the sanctuary of hell and his gruesome coach, Redeemer Bosco along with his classmates Vague Henry, Cleist and the girl who's life he'd saved after killing the redeemer about to kill her, is i.o.w now a middle aged man. His out of this world skills within fighting and strategic warfare that convinced redeemer Bosco he was the 'left hand of God', placed on earth to erase humanity so he got to recreate the peak of his creations without their flaws is what's kept him alive through the years. But when we meat him, his past seems to have caught up with him, but he manages to get out of it as his life will be spared if he kills the Am. president, which fonded the democracy.
We're in other words talking Abe Lincon and the civil war in some kind of a parallel universe, for then to jump from the one historic event to the other, mainly from WW1 and WW2, which is smeared together in a weired mess.
Where a few clues placed the original 3 books in some post apocalyptic time frame (e.g Cale's looking up to the moon while revealing he's heard someone say it was once visited by humans), and they were back to fighting with swords, bows and arrows, they have all of a sudden transferred into a micture of the past centuries where they're given advanced firearms as weapons. These environmental changes pulverized the unique credibility despite the unreal scenery that characterized the trilogy. Not to mention how the death of Vague Henry in 'The beating of his wings' leaves an empty space. The darkness that's coloring Cale's persona needed the light spirited Henry by his side to kind of even it out. The way Cale still misses him dearly is utterly touching and well written, though.
While we're at Cale's ghosts from the past, do we unfortunately also have what, in my view, is mostly to blame for this book becoming such a disappointment; His never-ending hung-up in the girl that betrayed him about 25 yrs ago, who's now somehow gained a powerful position in this entirely different environment, where Cale ends up with the job as her protector..
The bottom line is that I dearly miss the Cale that alters between a total cynicism and a just as overwhelming kindness and compassion as he's being forced into situations where he's forced into using his unmatched skills as a warrior. - The Cale who didn't take shit from anyone without coming back revenging it, even when it finally got too much grief even for him.
To top the disappointment, is Cale set to have been going in and out of treatment with this weirdo of a therapist that finally got him up on his feet again in 'the beating of his wings' throughout the years. That not only takes away a part of Cale's unbreakable survivor instinct, but what appeared as an eather elderly woman when we last met her is i.o.w still going strong as she reappears in this entirely different environment 25 yrs later..
I not only missed Vague Henry dearly, but also Kleist, and reckon Cale deserves to find the peace and happiness he's been longing for his entire life at last..
Well.. It started according to expectations, but unfortunately that was pretty much it. I'm not saying it's bad, as Cale's fascinating complexity makes it worthy your time regardless. You're i.o.w still vouching for him, it's not about that..
- Where Cale was still in his teens when the original trilogy ended, he's now reached his 40's. The boy who managed to run away from the sanctuary of hell and his gruesome coach, Redeemer Bosco along with his classmates Vague Henry, Cleist and the girl who's life he'd saved after killing the redeemer about to kill her, is i.o.w now a middle aged man. His out of this world skills within fighting and strategic warfare that convinced redeemer Bosco he was the 'left hand of God', placed on earth to erase humanity so he got to recreate the peak of his creations without their flaws is what's kept him alive through the years. But when we meat him, his past seems to have caught up with him, but he manages to get out of it as his life will be spared if he kills the Am. president, which fonded the democracy.
We're in other words talking Abe Lincon and the civil war in some kind of a parallel universe, for then to jump from the one historic event to the other, mainly from WW1 and WW2, which is smeared together in a weired mess.
Where a few clues placed the original 3 books in some post apocalyptic time frame (e.g Cale's looking up to the moon while revealing he's heard someone say it was once visited by humans), and they were back to fighting with swords, bows and arrows, they have all of a sudden transferred into a micture of the past centuries where they're given advanced firearms as weapons. These environmental changes pulverized the unique credibility despite the unreal scenery that characterized the trilogy. Not to mention how the death of Vague Henry in 'The beating of his wings' leaves an empty space. The darkness that's coloring Cale's persona needed the light spirited Henry by his side to kind of even it out. The way Cale still misses him dearly is utterly touching and well written, though.
While we're at Cale's ghosts from the past, do we unfortunately also have what, in my view, is mostly to blame for this book becoming such a disappointment; His never-ending hung-up in the girl that betrayed him about 25 yrs ago, who's now somehow gained a powerful position in this entirely different environment, where Cale ends up with the job as her protector..
The bottom line is that I dearly miss the Cale that alters between a total cynicism and a just as overwhelming kindness and compassion as he's being forced into situations where he's forced into using his unmatched skills as a warrior. - The Cale who didn't take shit from anyone without coming back revenging it, even when it finally got too much grief even for him.
To top the disappointment, is Cale set to have been going in and out of treatment with this weirdo of a therapist that finally got him up on his feet again in 'the beating of his wings' throughout the years. That not only takes away a part of Cale's unbreakable survivor instinct, but what appeared as an eather elderly woman when we last met her is i.o.w still going strong as she reappears in this entirely different environment 25 yrs later..
I not only missed Vague Henry dearly, but also Kleist, and reckon Cale deserves to find the peace and happiness he's been longing for his entire life at last..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2021
This book is set in a dystopian world. It follows Thomas Cale, who has had a very disturbing upbringing to be conditioned into some kind of ultimate warrior. However, his conscience fought back and he switched sides. His methods are still disturbing, but in his head he is doing what is necessary for the fight of good vs evil.
Ass he travels the world, fleeing from his enemies, he leaves behind a trail of death and destruction. You come to learn however that his reputation is far far worse than his true character, and that he has been built up as some sort of legend and an omen of huge disasters.
We follow Thomas as he tries to exact revenge on a betrayal from when he was a young man. He had his heart broken and his friends were all killed due to his one true love. He has since made it his mission to track her down and make her pay the ultimate price.
There are many historical events that occur or are mentioned that have happened differently to how they truly came about. Such as acts of war or assassinations of political characters.
Thomas is a very complicated character. He is very love/hate. It makes for a very interesting read as you can completely understand why he behaves a certain way, due to his horrific upbringing and all the abuse he suffered.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book when we were getting to know Thomas and his back story. It's made me add the previous series about him to my read list.
Ass he travels the world, fleeing from his enemies, he leaves behind a trail of death and destruction. You come to learn however that his reputation is far far worse than his true character, and that he has been built up as some sort of legend and an omen of huge disasters.
We follow Thomas as he tries to exact revenge on a betrayal from when he was a young man. He had his heart broken and his friends were all killed due to his one true love. He has since made it his mission to track her down and make her pay the ultimate price.
There are many historical events that occur or are mentioned that have happened differently to how they truly came about. Such as acts of war or assassinations of political characters.
Thomas is a very complicated character. He is very love/hate. It makes for a very interesting read as you can completely understand why he behaves a certain way, due to his horrific upbringing and all the abuse he suffered.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book when we were getting to know Thomas and his back story. It's made me add the previous series about him to my read list.
January 11, 2023
I enjoyed his three earlier Cale books, in descending order of pleasure from the first one. All three were gripping, exciting stuff, as well as developing the fascinating, and irritating, character of Thomas Cale and a few others. But this was a sequel too far. The beginning was quite promising, with an alternative version of the assassination of the US president, and gripping in places, and the end wasn't too bad. But the middle - the long, slow, discursive, pedestrian, details of Cale's tedious life at Malfi in the shadow of his past loves and life stretched over hundreds of pages - was extremely boring. I struggled to get through it, and the references to characters and incidents in earlier books don't help. After the end of this bloated, boring novel - albeit with some witty bits and mildly entertaining touches - there's an excellent essay by the author about fact, fiction, modern life and history, and the importance of story-telling. Very well done, but serving to highlight the main weakness of the preceding story - it just wasn't very entertaining.
October 24, 2021
It was one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I am afraid it had no appeal for me though I was hoping down to the very last pages that I somehow get hooked.
The story is pretty basic, as old as mankind really: committing a crime for the greater good. However, all actions and places and characters and motives and the language used were all too complex. The whole of the book could have been told in a couple of hundred pages, simpler, and it would have made more sense.
The "hero" is Thomas Cale, who is a villain really - with nothing really good about him. The book seems a dystopia, a magical what-if scenario on US history, but with all characters so dark, it felt rather gothic.
The story is pretty basic, as old as mankind really: committing a crime for the greater good. However, all actions and places and characters and motives and the language used were all too complex. The whole of the book could have been told in a couple of hundred pages, simpler, and it would have made more sense.
The "hero" is Thomas Cale, who is a villain really - with nothing really good about him. The book seems a dystopia, a magical what-if scenario on US history, but with all characters so dark, it felt rather gothic.
October 8, 2021
I loved the first three books in this series, this book was very different from the previous 3 books in the series although I am not sure if that's only because I listened to this one on audible. there are certainly words used that made me uncomfortable to listen to on the cars audio system when driving anywhere there was a crowd. that being said it was still a really good alternative history, a twisting of events which actually happened to fit a fantasy story. The one thing I will take away from this book is when writing, to be conscious of how it will sound coming from a car 😂
October 22, 2023
i have half-remembered memories for the first three thomas cale books, so it was through this haze that i journey one more time with the left hand of god himself. this has strains of bancroft, acker and the bizarre, and its suitably weird.
February 15, 2024
è molto dispersivo, ti prerdi in quello che sta descrivendo, pensavo fosse un bel libro, e lo è non fraintendermi, ma non lo rileggerei, il finale è un po' scontato e un po' da vogliacco, mi ha mandato in blocco, perché ci sono delle parti in cui è sconvolgente, altre in cui non succede nulla.
September 23, 2024
3.5. I really did enjoy it but it has left me baffled. Did I imagine parts of the plot or miss where they were tied up? I found it entertaining but frustrating. Still would recommend the whole series, and may go back to read the original trilogy
April 10, 2025
Maybe the rest of the series was better. This seems too wrapped up in world building, creating an almost-alternative universe, for the story to move ahead unimpeded. Was there any point, to either the protagonist's journey or the story? Is weariness enough to carry a book?
September 14, 2021
Probably ruined one of my fav grimdark anti-heroes forever
October 19, 2021
Frustrating.
February 24, 2022
Another excellent work of alternative past fiction that carries on the Left Hand of God trilogy.
kept me strongly engaged throughout
4.5 stars
kept me strongly engaged throughout
4.5 stars
February 25, 2022
Not as good as the original series but still ok
Read
November 3, 2022Meglio di no
Read
January 16, 2023DNF
Ho provato ad andare avanti il più possibile ma la vita è troppo breve per dedicarla a leggere capitoli insulsi di una saga che avevi amato
Ho provato ad andare avanti il più possibile ma la vita è troppo breve per dedicarla a leggere capitoli insulsi di una saga che avevi amato
October 16, 2025
I enjoyed this book very much
December 8, 2025
2.5/5 stars
Did not live up to the first three books
Did not live up to the first three books
September 12, 2023
Non ho capito dove voleva arrivare lo scrittore
April 27, 2022
Thank you to #NetGalley for providing me a copy of #TheWhiteDevil to review.
It took me a while to compile some sort of review for this book, as I found it quite disjointed and confusing. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it but from looking at other reviews it seems they found the same thing. Skipping around in time and taking a significant role in various major world history events is part of the main character’s role, but it just didn’t make for an easy to read novel unfortunately. It was interesting in a conspiracy sort of sense, but for a structured whole it was a difficult read.
It took me a while to compile some sort of review for this book, as I found it quite disjointed and confusing. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read it but from looking at other reviews it seems they found the same thing. Skipping around in time and taking a significant role in various major world history events is part of the main character’s role, but it just didn’t make for an easy to read novel unfortunately. It was interesting in a conspiracy sort of sense, but for a structured whole it was a difficult read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews