Incensepunk Book Sale: The Hand of God

The world ended twice—catch this deal before it ends!

“The world ended—twice.” This setup, and the tagline Old Testament Gothic, hooked me from the start with Yuval Kordov’s Dark Legacies universe. A world—a parable, really—of the world that survived the apocalypse twice. Once at their own hand. And once at the Hand of God.

The Hand of God is the first book in the Dark Legacies trilogy. In this first installment, we are introduced to an alien future world. The sun hides behind a constant haze in the sky. No stars shine in the night sky. The northern half of the continent is a devastated wasteland, haunted by swarming demons and stalked by the God Engines, mechanized weapons of war from the first apocalypse 500 years prior. These battle walkers, though, take on an even more hellish nature than their creators ever intended.

We have a complex cast of characters—from the government of Bastion comes one of our protagonists, Philippe, a haunted man, whose two primary goals in life are to help his civilization survive and to finally get a good night’s sleep. Bastion itself is, in many ways, the last attempt of what we might consider “regular humans” trying to survive in a form of civilization. Reborn from the ashes of the apocalypse, they live behind their fortifications, repelling as best they can the advances of the Adversary, the demonic hordes. In The Hand of God, they know of no other surviving human establishments. That is, until they come into contact with the scavrats.

Nomadic wanderers and scavengers, scavrats are bound together into the Union, a loose confederation of clans and tribes. The Union exists for the sole purpose of self-preservation. Each clan is most loyal to itself and its own people. Here with the scavrats, we meet our second protagonist, Julia. A broken woman, suffering still from the tragic death of her husband, estranged from her father, but still striving to work for the survival and betterment of her people. She, like many among the scavrats, grows weary of the heavy toll laid upon them by Cathedral.

Cathedral, ancient in terms of the post-apocalypse. Founded by the mysterious Revenant Mother Esther, a girl who survived the first apocalypse. Driven by messianic visions, she has built a strange civilization on the bones of the old world, by the blood of demons and the power of the God Engines. Aligned with her are the Revenant Sisters, her successors and assistants. Baptized in the arcane rights of the Revenant Sisterhood, these women maintain the power of Cathedral, holding up Mother Esther as their messiah, their Hand of God.

The Hand of God was the first book I’d ever read that billed itself as “Old Testament Gothic.” That phrase intrigued me. From reading the trilogy (as well as every other book Yuval has written up to this point!) and from conversations with Yuval, it is readily apparent that Yuval has delved deeply into his Jewish heritage for creating this world. But this is not what I would consider “Jewish science fiction.” This is no simple allegory, nor is it an apologetic for his own faith tradition. He has constructed here a complex world, rooted deeply in religious tradition (both Jewish and liturgical Christian), that is unafraid of the deeper reality. This isn’t just big stompy mechs in a post-apocalyptic world. Oh, that’s definitely present! No worries on that front. But this is a metaphysical literary exercise, truly worthy of the incensepunk designation.

And right now, Yuval is running a sale!

For a limited time, Yuval’s excellent debut novel, The Hand of God, is available on all platforms as a $0.99 ebook! This is an excellent time to dive into this incredible, darkly fascinating world of humans struggling against all odds, hellish God Engines, and mysterious women who strive against the tension between power and motherhood.