Customer Reviews

Right Hand of God

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The first book was just good enough to make me read book two. Book two was just good enough to make me read book three. Good thing there is no book four, because I wouldn't have continued. This is a very disappointing conclusion to the trilogy. Kirkpatrick is a marvelous writer, to be sure, and his evocation of place is excellent, but in the end the characters just don't do enough to justify a book.

Without entering any spoilers in thie review, suffice it to say that the final showdown between the Falthans and their evil nemesis finally takes place in a fairly dry manner. In the end, this series would have worked better as a single book, with some tight editing and more attention to character development and plotting.

If you liked books one and two, you'll probably like book three. I found it disappointing and probably won't buy any more of Kirkpatrick's books until he stops trying to stretch one book into three.

'The Right Hand of God' is the third book in the "Fire of Heaven" trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick.

First the good (about the book and the series in general):

1.)I loved the premise for the story, even though it's the well travelled path of the unlikely, ill-equiped good guys going up against the all-powerful evil tyrant. The plot is slowly explored and then developed without rushing to ill-conceived conclusions.

2.)The multple characters of the saga were diverse enough to give interesting combinations of personalities, in both strengths and shortcomings. Conflicts and personality clashes were very helpful in providing a real human quality to the entire three books.

3.)There was a wealth of maps: maps of such extraordinary detail and scope. I've never a seen maps in any novel(s) that took the time to make sure the reader could not only find out where the heroes were but also what geographical problems they confronted.

The Cons: *SPOILER Warning*

For all the good things I've experienced with this trilogy I'm compelled to mention a perceived fault: a fault that degraded this final book to 3 (maybe 3 1/2) stars.

My concern was the prolonged (emphasis on prolonged) inability of our main progatonist (Leith) to come to grips with his destiny. Granted this was a 17+ year old boy, who had unwantingly thrust upon him, the responsility of saving the world. And instead of acting like the hero he should have been, he acts like, but what else, a 17 year old boy. Unable to come to grips with his duty to lead, unable to communicate with his parents or more importantly, Hal his brother. Or in fact, any of the slew of people in his party that were trying to help him.

And many of the concerns were not so much with Leith's very understandable immaturity in his dealing with this onerous responsiblity, it was the author's decision to drag this trait out over almost the entire length of this final third novel. It seemed that this 'shortcoming' was the main focus of this book, even more so than the final upcoming good vs evil confrontation. In short, I simply became tired of Leith's 'problem'...it resulted in many utterings to myself of "not again".

And yet having just explained my concerns, Leith's shortcomings were perfectly understandable. I'm just not sure that, within the context of a fantasy story, we (the readers) needed the prolonged exposure of an ideation more in keeping with a dramatic work of literature.

*End SPOILER*

Conclusion:
As a trilogy an outstanding work of writing. I loved the slowly developing story line, the characters and the maps. To me Leith's lack of 'maturity' issues, which seemed to dominated a significant portion of the final book, lessened the overall quality of the finale.
Book III 3 1/2 Stars. Entire trilogy 4 to 4 1/2 Stars

Ray Nicholson

If you've read the first two books of this series, and are hesitant to pick up the third because of conflicting reviews on Amazon (Like I was)... I say "Read on!!"

I read some of these reviews and was discouraged to read the last book in the trilogy because I was afraid I wouldn't like how it finished. Well, I have just finished and feel full contentment. Mr. Kirkpatrick gives a good story with exciting fight scenes, heart-wrenching moments of despair, and nail-biting pages of suspense. All of which kept my hand turning page after page until I found a good ending, and allowed myself a sigh of satisfaction at a story well told.

One reviewer expressed frustration at the main character's constant bemoaning of his circumstances, immaturity, pride and envy (you know what I'm talking about if you've read the first two books). It's true, Leith's personality does make him an unlikely and sometimes annoying protagonist. However! Mr. Kirkpatrick really does a good job of explaining his circumstances and in a small way challenges the reader... how would we react in Leith's place? Leith may not have the humbleness of a hobbit, but he definitely does have the uncertainty and honest insecurity of a very normal 17 year old human boy. He just happens to hear the voice of god.

So my challenge remains, if you read the first two books.... don't be discouraged! Continue the journey!

Enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy. At the end of this book, I felt as if I was saying goodbye to old friends, which for me is a sign that the author did a good job bringing his characters to life.
The battle scenes were well done , and the apparent defeat of the Falthan army at the end was an interesting twist.
As others have noted, the detailed descriptions of the different landscapes added to the realism, though the author/cartographer's abundance of place names was at times confusing.
In the tradition of Tolkien's work, if not quite as good, this trilogy held my interest right to the end.

Having just finished reading "The Right Hand of God", I had a feeling that I rarely get after reading a book; I wanted to throw it across the room. Mr. Kirkpatrick has done one of the great sins in fantasy writing - he managed to morph a fairly average fantasy trilogy into a slasher story. Of course the undying man is totally evil, but to go into detail about torture and burning at the stake does not make a fantasy story that I would recommend to anyone. A good writer should be able to imply evil without going into the gory details. The "Fire of God" trilogy is not an auspicious event.

Written in the style of "Wheel of Time "series this book leads you on a journey you will never forget. The characters get into your head and you can't wait to see what happens to them. Wonderful read!!!

Last book left me a bit frustrated - the plot was not completely thought out and I was left with a few questions, e.g. who or what exactly was Hal? There were too many holes in the plot and it spoiled what was overall a good yarn. I thought the author spent too much time on the landscape and maps and not enough on developing the characters.

Sometimes I wonder how this stuff gets published. I mean, this trilogy started out OK. And I mean, just plain OK. A real LOTR ripoff, but lots of books are, so that's no big deal. The second book really improved upon the first and I was looking forward to the third. But, Kirkpatrick really let us down with a formulaic, poorly written and wholly unbelievable conclusion to his little epic. The book starts out bad and just gets worse. Even the evil wizard/Sauron guy, who was fairly interesting in limited appearances throughout the first two books, becomes nothing but a weenie in the end. It's one thing to kill the bad guy, it's quite another to turn him into a weenie. It just doesn't make sense.

There's lots and lots of "this doesn't make sense" bits in this book, too many to mention. The set up for the war is implausible (all of a sudden, tons of armies just APPEAR, ready to fight!!!) The battle scenes are not well-written. The lead character's emotional problems and refusal to deal with them don't seem true to form and again, don't make sense. The ending is just plain silly and wholly predictable. The main female character, who was supposed to have some important part to play in everything, doesn't really do much except suffer. Her appearance at the end of the book attempts some form of clever ending, but it really doesn't do much. The book still retains the travelogue aspect of the first two as yet more geography is traversed. Eventually, you get tired of this gigantic mass of characters going through yet another storm in yet another mountain pass. Can't these guys travel to San Diego or something to get out of the weather for a few days?

I guess if you're 15 years old and think "Eragon" and "Harry Potter" are good books, you MIGHT like this series. For anyone older, it probably won't do much for you. Too bad, really, as the second book showed some promise. I hear there's another book or something similar coming up. I have no idea if I'll get it. Maybe if I'm desperate or stuck in an airport or something.

I just read the other one-star review and chuckled. I made it about 50 pages through this awfully written collection of words and then did actually throw it across the room. The premise was original and interesting, but the execution was worse than abysmal.