Review by gabrielletiemi -- The Hand Bringer
Posted: 14 Jun 2020, 18:26
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Hand Bringer" by Christopher J. Penington.]
The Hand Bringer tells the story of Peter Hadrian, a police officer who is in the grief of his missing son and murdered ex-wife. But everything changes when he goes attend a call and gets attacked by a strange pale man. After that, he was taken to a laboratory by mysterious people, where the doctors said that would save his life. However, they inoculated a drug in his body that made him stronger and almost invincible. In the same laboratory, he finds Boriana, a strong woman the scientists keep caged in a garden, who seems to know him. Soon, he finds out that the scientists’ choice wasn’t completely random, he has bounds to the Romania past that he doesn’t even imagine. But they helped him for a reason: they want him to go back to medieval Romania to stop a disease that can be the end of the human race. In exchange, Peter wants to turn back time to save his family, but nothing happens the way he planned.
In this book, Christopher J. Penington blends the genres of science fiction, time travel, supernatural and adds some historical aspects in a magnificent form. The language is adapted to the dialogues making it possible to discern some of the people’s personalities very clearly just by that detail. The author has a great ability to develop the story, making each chapter more interesting than the previous one. These were aspects that caused a good impression in me.
But what I liked most in this book was how the author made the chapters dynamic. The novel is long, but you don’t want to put it down a single time. The author uses short phrases, free indirect speech, and an omniscient narrator that shows what the characters are thinking in a fluid form. Also, the twists in the story don’t let us bored, since they are always unpredictable and each chapter comes to amazing plot development. Penington also uses descriptions only when necessary, thus reflecting in the fast progress of the narrative.
There was nothing that I truly disliked, but a detail made me uncomfortable, the fact that the story of one character, Elizabeth, remained incomplete. We know the beginning, but not how it ended. But since it’s the only plot hole I found, and it doesn’t affect the quality of the narrative, I’m not taking a star for that. But I can’t give it four stars since I found more than ten errors, most of them were typos and some grammatical errors, not so much for a long novel. However, it could do with another round of editing.
Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It’s a shame for me not to give this book four stars, the plot is surprising, and I enjoyed every moment of reading it. I highly recommend it for everybody who likes books about wars, with a touch of sci-fi, and has an attraction to the supernatural. However, the book contains a lot of violence, some suggestions of sexual assault and torture, with erotic content and profanities, so I don’t recommend that people sensitive to these topics read it since it could cause discomfort.
******
The Hand Bringer
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Hand Bringer tells the story of Peter Hadrian, a police officer who is in the grief of his missing son and murdered ex-wife. But everything changes when he goes attend a call and gets attacked by a strange pale man. After that, he was taken to a laboratory by mysterious people, where the doctors said that would save his life. However, they inoculated a drug in his body that made him stronger and almost invincible. In the same laboratory, he finds Boriana, a strong woman the scientists keep caged in a garden, who seems to know him. Soon, he finds out that the scientists’ choice wasn’t completely random, he has bounds to the Romania past that he doesn’t even imagine. But they helped him for a reason: they want him to go back to medieval Romania to stop a disease that can be the end of the human race. In exchange, Peter wants to turn back time to save his family, but nothing happens the way he planned.
In this book, Christopher J. Penington blends the genres of science fiction, time travel, supernatural and adds some historical aspects in a magnificent form. The language is adapted to the dialogues making it possible to discern some of the people’s personalities very clearly just by that detail. The author has a great ability to develop the story, making each chapter more interesting than the previous one. These were aspects that caused a good impression in me.
But what I liked most in this book was how the author made the chapters dynamic. The novel is long, but you don’t want to put it down a single time. The author uses short phrases, free indirect speech, and an omniscient narrator that shows what the characters are thinking in a fluid form. Also, the twists in the story don’t let us bored, since they are always unpredictable and each chapter comes to amazing plot development. Penington also uses descriptions only when necessary, thus reflecting in the fast progress of the narrative.
There was nothing that I truly disliked, but a detail made me uncomfortable, the fact that the story of one character, Elizabeth, remained incomplete. We know the beginning, but not how it ended. But since it’s the only plot hole I found, and it doesn’t affect the quality of the narrative, I’m not taking a star for that. But I can’t give it four stars since I found more than ten errors, most of them were typos and some grammatical errors, not so much for a long novel. However, it could do with another round of editing.
Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It’s a shame for me not to give this book four stars, the plot is surprising, and I enjoyed every moment of reading it. I highly recommend it for everybody who likes books about wars, with a touch of sci-fi, and has an attraction to the supernatural. However, the book contains a lot of violence, some suggestions of sexual assault and torture, with erotic content and profanities, so I don’t recommend that people sensitive to these topics read it since it could cause discomfort.
******
The Hand Bringer
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
