"The Last Four Things" by Paul Hoffman - Publication Dates Set

(cover may change)

The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman

Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell
These are the Last Four Things
Now there are Five
Meet Thomas Cale

Returning to the Sanctuary of the Redeemers, Thomas Cale is told by the Lord Militant that the destruction of mankind is necessary; the only way to undo God's greatest mistake.

Cale seemingly accepts his role in the ending of the world: fate has painted him as the Left Hand of God, the Angel of Death. Absolute power is within his grasp, the terrifying zeal and military might of the Redeemers a weapon for him to handle as simply as he once used a knife.

But perhaps not even the grim power that the Redeemers hold over Cale is enough – the boy who turns from love to poisonous hatred in a heartbeat, the boy who switches between kindness and sheer violence in the blink of an eye. The annihilation that the Redeemers seek may well be in Cale's hands – but his soul is far stranger than they could ever know.

Set to be published in April 2011 (UK) and August 2011 (US) - though again things can change - the Cale phenomenon continues and this book already makes a claim as my top expected sff novel of the first part of 2011.

I have loved The Left of Hand of God and I am still astounded that our dual review here (RT + LS) has been the runaway most popular review here - at least before the blockbuster fantasy Towers of Midnight review - as page views go with a bunch of info requests about the sequel.

If "The Last Four Things" keeps the same inventiveness, expectation-confounding and mixture of everything but the kitchen-sink of the first volume - which highly annoyed the purists who want to fit books in metaphorically checked boxes - this one could go very high on my 2011 "best of" list. We'll see, but rejoice, Thomas Cale is back soon!