Giveaway: The Left Hand of God, by Paul Hoffman

The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman is, for better or worse, one of the hotly anticipated titles of 2010. Reviews have ranged widely in their opinion of the book and have also been sharply divided. Adam at the Wertzone, whose opinion I both respect and agree with in this case puts it quite elegantly when he says:

The Left Hand of God is a work of impressive drabness and unoriginality. There are flashes and glimmers of inspiration here and there which suggest that Hoffman may have a far stronger work in him, but this is certainly not it.

The consensus among the negative reviews seem to be that the The Left Hand of God, quite bluntly, sucks. It is unoriginal, jarring, and feels edited down so as to appeal to a broader audience than it rightly should. The "flawed but..." take on the book, oh so common in a blogosphere reluctant to bite the hand that feeds it, has also flourished.

Then again, we get passionate reviews of The Left Hand of God like that of Liviu over at FBC, who makes a strong defense of the book:

Flawed here and there, sure; easy to pick on if you do not like it, again sure, but The Left Hand of God is such a great read that it beats more technically accomplished but lifeless novels by a mile... Highly, highly recommended and my first A++ novel of 2010.

Partly, the divergent reviews are attributable to the 'hype' surrounding the book. Hype and anticipation lead to expectations which are all too easily missed, which in turn leads to reviews that implicitly smack of betrayal of one sort or another. Then again, maybe it is just a bad book.

And so, readers, to resolve the debate I propose to let you form your own opinion! Is The Left Hand of God an A++ novel or affront to the genre? You be the judge.

Giveaway Rules

Want a copy of The Left Hand of God, by Paul Hoffman? Done. Just follow these simple giveaway instructions for your chance to win (giveaway runs till 2/28/10 @ 11:59 PM EST):

1) E-mail me [bloggeratf@gmail.com] your name and address, with "LEFT" as the subject. Snarky comments increase your chances of winning and win bonus entries for future giveaway.
2) Sign up for site updates either in RSS or with Friend Connect on the side. This will also let you know about future giveaways!
3) Think happy thoughts.
4) (OPTIONAL) Spread the love, share or link to any post on the blog--this earns you brownie points as well as increasing your (if you have made it this far) already significant odds.
5) There is no rule number five. I just like odd numbers.