The book I have recently read was really enjoyable in a lot of ways and yet has a good amount of frustrating points as well. Fortunately, its good points out way the bad; so onward with the reasons why!
The first paragraph is the perfect hook! From the very first word, I couldn't stop reading, it is so wonderfully crafted. '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." It raises so many questions that you cannot help read on. Of all the books I have read, this has to be one of the best openings I have come across. It rivals the first sentence of The Gunslinger, it's that good. The language through the rest of the novel is just as good and well worth a read if only for that reason.
The characterisation in this novel is to die for. They are so well thought out, so clever and so different that I was in love from the start. The protagonist and his companions are essentially Catholic boys being brought up in the cruelest manner. Trained to be soldiers, they are beaten, tortured and abused by their guardians - all before the novel starts. The story follows their escape from the sanctuary and their coming of age in a world very different from what they're used to. As a reader you interact with them, watch the change and become the very real enemies of the ones who trained them. There is real effort that has gone into them and this is another decent reason to read this book.
Hoffman's world-building could use some more thought. One of the things that annoyed me about this novel was the reference to real world places. The name of the city the heroes escape to is Memphis and there are other mentions of real world places, but nothing seems in context. Jesus was 'the one who was eaten by the whale' and although they are meant to show the similarities between our world and Cale's, I found them irritating and lazy on behalf of the author. (In the second book, he mentions a town names Fray Bentos...).
I found a couple of items forgotten as the novel went on as well. You never find out why one of the Redeemers is slicing up young girls for instance and this seems like a major part of the novel.A bottle of perfume Cale finds at the scene is shoved into his pocket and forgotten about, never to be mentioned again.
This novel has issues, that much is certain, but it is well worth a read regardless of these. The characters are beautifully written and as far as I am concerned, this is the most important aspect of a book.
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