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The Hand of God (Dark Legacies) Paperback – February 10, 2023

by Yuval Kordov (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 71 ratings
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The world ended—twice. Only Esther, the Eternal One, saw it all happen. As head of the powerful Revenant Sisterhood, she shepherds humanity from Cathedral, the Last City. Except Cathedral isn't the last city, and her sisterhood's power is far from holy.

It’s the year 2500, give or take. The passage of time has become as blurry as the gray wastes that cover most of North America. No moon or stars light the night, and demonic hordes smash against the last outposts of civilization.

Two reborn nations vie for humanity’s future. In the west, Cathedral unleashes its God-engines—ancient walking war machines—in a final bid to cleanse the earth. In the east, the struggling city-state of Bastion turns to the last living AI for salvation. Between them, a tribe of technological scavengers unwittingly holds the balance of power.

Hell is on the horizon. Who will survive?

--

For fans of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos, Iain Banks’ Culture novels, Dune, and other classic metaphysical science fiction.

This compelling new series explores questions of family, faith, and the human condition on the backdrop of a dark post-apocalyptic future.

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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 2
    Dark Legacies
  2. Print length
    374 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    February 10, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.94 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1738802515
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1738802517
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Kordov secures a place amongst my favourite authors with his unique, beautiful, expansive novel The Hand of God, which is equal parts Evangelion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, 40k, and Lovecraft." —Steven William Hannah, sci-fi author

"A very emotional and thrilling start to the Dark Legacies series that I highly recommend for readers who enjoy their post apocalyptic SF with loads of mystery and imaginative world-building."—Nick Borrelli, book blogger

"The Hand of God is a great debut, and sets up a great foundation for what can be an excellent sci-fi series." —JamReads, book blogger

"A captivating read that pulled me right out of my comfort zone."—Austin Novo, book blogger

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yuval Kordov (February 10, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 374 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1738802515
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1738802517
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.94 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 71 ratings

About the author

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Yuval Kordov

Yuval Kordov

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Yuval Kordov is a chronically creative nerd, tech professional, husband, and father of two. Over the course of his random life, he has been a radio show DJ, produced experimental electronic music, created the world of Dark Legacies™, and designed custom mechs with LEGO® bricks.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
71 global ratings
Engaging. Thrilling. Brutal. A true gem!
5 Stars
Engaging. Thrilling. Brutal. A true gem!
“The Hand of God,” by Yuval Kordov, is a superb example of an engaging storyline. If you’re into post-apocalyptic mysteries, thrillers, with a tinge of hardy science fiction, then what a ride that awaits you.What really sold me on “The Hand of God” was the atmosphere Kordov built. An enchanted technological world where the possibility of danger lays in every shadow. My favorite scene was the character Baptist situated in the fortress city of Bastion, being given a secret mission by the Lord Commander. Again, the atmosphere is what sold me on this story.Cover art A plus. Editing excellent. Prose flowed from the pages and into my mind, a testimony to Kordov’s mastery of this strange alchemy we call writing. Would recommend 1000%
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Top reviews from the United States

El
5.0 out of 5 stars Great postapoc multipov
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
This opened with one of the most beautifully written prologues that gives hints about the world and how it works post-apocalypse.

It then dives into the character of Esther for... a long while. Esther starts out as a child, and I'm not really a fan of child PoVs. The prose in Esther's PoV was also a bit cumbersome, long sentences that perhaps just had too much going on. I nearly DNFed the book because of this, but I'm glad I didn't.

Once it left Esther's PoV and entered the other PoVs, the voices of those characters were much smoother and cleaner. The other PoVs were also just more interesting to me. I adored A11 and Rebecca 6, who had character voices, motivations, personalities, and quirks that won my heart with ease. I enjoyed them enough that it brought the rest of the book up to five stars for me.

Even the characters like Esther, that I didn't enjoy as much, were compelling and believable and grew on me from around midbook. With the revival of societies in fashions that leave humanity morally askew, these characters make decisions that are at times questionable but, largely, for the greater good. Maybe.

The relationships between the various characters were intriguing and felt authentic. I found myself cheering some on and suspensefully worried about others. AI characters typically do nothing for me except perhaps add flavor, but A11 was excellently written and one of his early chapters made me a bit teary.

As far as action goes, the book had plenty. There was blood and death and high stakes throughout.

If you find yourself tempted to DNF, skip ahead to Esther 4:3 and read from there. There is nothing particularly essential to the plot before that, though it does have a great deal of character development for Esther, I feel she's authentic enough even without the earlier section. You'll be rewarded with epic characters and engaging plot threads.
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Michael Kane
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, vivid prose held back an experimental structure that doesn't always work.
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2024
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The Hand of God is “It could only be Indie” book. It features a one of a kind gothic, post apocalypse with witches, a faction that feels a touch of mad max, another that will remind some of the Imperium in Warhammer 40k, and more. That more includes mechs and those mechs are easily one of the most glorious parts. You can feel the author’s love for writing these war machines when they’re on page.

Yup. It’s a lot. So let’s do some pros and cons. This is, of course, my take and your mileage may vary. I hope from this review that, regardless of what I thought, you’ll have an idea about whether or not this book is for you.

Pro: The prose. I’ve actually struggled to find the right word to describe it. Imaginative. Intense. Graphic. Vivid. I’ve settled on vivid. Kordov flexes a bigger vocabulary than most authors and he uses it well. When the horror and other worldly elements are on page it really shines. When twelve meter tall mechs show up, you feel their power and weight through fantastic descriptions. Kordov has a killer imagination, and the job he does of making you see and feel some of the same things going on in his head is top shelf stuff. One particular detail I liked was the way he described demonic creatures warping and glitching reality. It’s the sort of thing you take for granted in a movie, strange perception altering effects. Kordov pulls off a similar stunt in prose, something I’m not sure I’ve encountered quite like this, and he does it well.

Pro: Some of the characters. This would get into more spoiler territory, but Kordov’s more unusual characters are his best. Esther, Aleph, Rebekah 6 are the shining standouts with their not entirely human perception of the world. Their points of view are like his prose. Vivid and unique. Easily the high points of the book.

Pro: The World. If there’s anything else like it, I’ve sure never read it, or else nothing with this exact combination of mechs. A conventional end of the world. A supernatural end of the world. A madness inducing deadlands. Religious/Military factions desperate for survival. Scavrats collecting the junk of the old world subservient to a faction of supernatural witches. Oh and mechs. And body horror tentacle demons trying to kill everyone. Can’t forget those. It’s a lot and I think the world and all its oppressive weight works well. (Even if it’s a bit too much for my taste. I think I’ve decided I’m not a huge post-apoc fan in general, but I’m not going to dock Kordov for that)

Alright let’s talk about the cons. There are a couple of big ones for me and they’re fairly intermingled.

Structure. This is the big one that’s going to be a hurdle for some folks. The Hand of God is fairly experimental with its structure and while I know exactly what the dramatic intention is…

I’m not sure it fully works. At least it didn’t for me.

The book is divided into 4 Acts, the first two being the longest.

Act 1 is amazing and the best part of the book. No question. Oddly it’s pretty much a prologue telling the story of Esther, the Eternal One. And wow is it amazing in every way. This is a story and character you can get into. Kordov’s vivid prose is front and center here and it just works. Absolute 5 star stuff.

Act 2 starts ~400-500 years later. Big jump. Big shift in narrative and story and unfortunately it doesn’t hit well right off the bat. You start with the character Baptiste and… Well I just could never get behind this particular POV, which was a problem considering he was an important vehicle for the narrative. Part of the problem is I just never found a reason to root for him. He’s a bit of a downer character, though driven by duty. All of this makes sense given the setting but I was just never compelled to feel or root for him. He’s a member of Bastion’s military, something we weirdly didn’t get to see in action much until later. Part of me thinks we needed to see that sooner to help build some support for Baptiste.

The other main character in this act is Sophus. He’s better. A grizzled veteran that’s seen things, lost people, and gets the job done he’s not going to surprise you. He probably also won’t blow your socks, but he generally gets the job done The other characters in this act are less often, but they’re the good ones I wouldn’t want to spoil much of.

The other Issue with Act2 going forward is that it’s difficult to reconcile timelines between the various points of view. Or even with a single point of view. I’m not remotely sure how long a period Acts 2-4 take place over. One of the POVs take place definitely in the past. Another I’m not sure about but think it’s before Baptiste and Sohpus’ by some extent. Further Kordov uses lots of nested scenes. IE a character in the present reliving, remembering, hallucinating a scene that happened in the past. When done well these aren’t a problem, but with the general confusion about the timeline and what comes before and after what, it sometimes made me scratch my head and reread paragraphs to make sure I knew WHEN we were.

And then we get to Act 3 which is entirely before Act 2. That was clear, but after the previous vagueness it didn’t make me particularly happy. (It was also better than Act 2)

Act 4 is generally straightforward (and short) but ends VERY abruptly right when threads start to come together, leaving me unsatisfied when I closed the book. I left with the feeling that I had read a prologue for a series rather than the first book of a series.

So yeah I’ve got some complaints about the books structure. And this is because there was stuff I really admired. As a writer, I really enjoyed Kordov’s prose. I WANTED it to be as good as Act 1 was, but some of the out of sequence nature of the rest of the book really didn’t land for me. Combined with a reliance on some less exciting POVs made it hard to slog through the second Act.

Will I read book 2? Umm. Probably, maybe, yeah. I like to finish things. I didn’t DISLIKE the book. And like I said. I feel that the threads have finally come together so that we can have the story I was waiting for. So I actually expect book 2 to be better. I’ll get around to it at some point down the road.

Who is The Hand of God for?

If you like Dark, Gothic settings, my goodness you’ll probably love this, structural issues and all. The book has a feel to it, and if you like that feel, you’re gonna be into it. I’m less into ultra dark settings so I was more in analytical mode and some of the shortcomings stood out more to me.

If you like Mechs, my goodness this will be a treat. They aren’t on page often, but are rather awe inspiring and terrifying war machines. When they’re present, they steal the show. They’re made out to be almost creatures of myth in the plot and you feel it when they appear.

Btw Kordov has Lego models of these things and they are jaw droppingly amazing. He’s worth the follow on Twitter just for when he posts pictures of his vehicles from in-universe. (This is another reason I suspect they’re so good on page. In one sense. They’re real. Kordov engineered them himself. He’s held them and knows them inside and out. Who better to write a book about mechs than a man that designs them?)

So there we have it. 5 Star Prose and 3 Star Plotting. That’s my take. For those of you closer to the target demographic, I don’t think my complaints will bother you much. If you’re like me and a little outside the target, you’ll probably have some quibbles. If you’re outside the target demo and don’t have an analytical writer mind to pick it apart, you might struggle.

Final note for those that care, this book does have strong content in general. Violence and language especially. What sexual content there is is relegated more to the horror and body horror aspects. So just be aware that there’s a lot. It’s dark.

Oh. Final, final note. There’s a lot of spiritual elements to the book. The supernatural is definitely real. I can’t say for sure what Kordov is trying to say about these things (Have to finish the series probably for that), though I suspect we’ll have disagreements on that front in the real world. It’s well integrated into the book though, just know it’s a big deal.

Fin.
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Tourbillion
5.0 out of 5 stars An Unsettling Sojourn into a Vivid Hellscape
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2023
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The Hand of God offers an immensely rich world filled with vying factions who are all trying to survive while residing on the lip of Hell. The story is woven through the eyes of multiple characters and challenges the reader's concept of protagonist vs. antagonist -- everyone has a hand to play in humanity's fate.

The combination of the author's worldbuilding and his visceral, feel-it-in-your-teeth prose teleports you deep into this richly imagined world. Often, I felt that itch I get in videogames where I want to veer off from the main questline just so I can explore all the intricate details of this world.

By far my favorite chapters are those written from Aleph's and Rebekah-6's POVs; both of whom are incredibly unique characters (Rebekah-6 reminds me quite a bit of Yennefer from Netflix's The Witcher). Seeing the world through their eyes is simultaneously otherworldly yet relatable.

Overall, the story is an unsettling, hair-raising adventure through a world desperately seeking redemption. Highly recommend.
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Frank
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging. Thrilling. Brutal. A true gem!
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
“The Hand of God,” by Yuval Kordov, is a superb example of an engaging storyline. If you’re into post-apocalyptic mysteries, thrillers, with a tinge of hardy science fiction, then what a ride that awaits you.

What really sold me on “The Hand of God” was the atmosphere Kordov built. An enchanted technological world where the possibility of danger lays in every shadow. My favorite scene was the character Baptist situated in the fortress city of Bastion, being given a secret mission by the Lord Commander. Again, the atmosphere is what sold me on this story.

Cover art A plus. Editing excellent. Prose flowed from the pages and into my mind, a testimony to Kordov’s mastery of this strange alchemy we call writing. Would recommend 1000%
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Frank
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging. Thrilling. Brutal. A true gem!
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2023
“The Hand of God,” by Yuval Kordov, is a superb example of an engaging storyline. If you’re into post-apocalyptic mysteries, thrillers, with a tinge of hardy science fiction, then what a ride that awaits you.

What really sold me on “The Hand of God” was the atmosphere Kordov built. An enchanted technological world where the possibility of danger lays in every shadow. My favorite scene was the character Baptist situated in the fortress city of Bastion, being given a secret mission by the Lord Commander. Again, the atmosphere is what sold me on this story.

Cover art A plus. Editing excellent. Prose flowed from the pages and into my mind, a testimony to Kordov’s mastery of this strange alchemy we call writing. Would recommend 1000%
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Top reviews from other countries

Offer Kuban
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly enjoyed this book!
Reviewed in Canada on June 4, 2023
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Let me start by first saying "wow!"

I'm not usually drawn to stories of the post-apocalyptic ilk. It feels to me as if there's rather a plethora of these, and many are not so much done poorly as they appear to be repetitive of what's come before. Granted, it's not an easy thing to envision fresh chaos to the possible end of civilization as we know it.

That being said, gosh, there's a lot going on here in Yuval Kordov's "The Hand of God". There is a richness to the world he's built here, obviously time well-spent in his attention to detail and lore, with a full and vast history (back-story) that he draws effortlessly from to share as we progress through the novel's storyline. The characters are well-drawn and well-rounded, with back stories of their own and motivations that are not always what they seem.

The action takes a little time to pick up steam, but as it does, we're introduced to a landscape that is only marginally familiar, the world as we knew it having been altered dramatically--in fact, having ended twice! Oof! And to make the ground beneath our feet feel a little shakier, there's no attempt to lead the reader or ease them into the setting or the circumstance. We're right in the thick of it from the get-go, learning alongside the characters how to navigate this landscape without succumbing to it.

Kordov's prose is tightly packed, but not florid or wasteful in the way it conveys us from character to character, situation to situation, and always leaving us with the question "what happens next?"

I highly recommend The Hand of God, and I'm looking forward to the next instalment! Thanks for opening up another avenue of storytelling for me to explore further. Cheers!
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Mr J.
5.0 out of 5 stars This book sets the standard when it comes to self-published Sci-fi. Beautiful. A must read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2024
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A red sea of crying and screaming bodies that will drive you insane when you look into it, what's not to love?

You can tell great passion and care went into writing this . The prose, the setting, the characters, all top notch. I got lost in the world and can't wait to read the sequel.
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Mirien Silowendë
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book
Reviewed in Germany on April 9, 2023
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This is beautifully crafted prose with a complex layered post - apocalyptic world. The author doesn't hand hold you, he throws you right in and expects you to keep up. There are a lot of POVs here, but they all are distinct from each other.
This story will stay with me a fair while.
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Stefanie Barnfather
5.0 out of 5 stars Viscerally Delicious
Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2023
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Yuval Kordov is a writer who pulls you into his viscerally lyrical storytelling style with grace and aplomb; which serves this story perfectly. The Hand of God—the first of the Dark Legacies series—takes readers on a journey, starting with the end of civilization brought on by humanity’s hubris and guiding us five hundred years into the future, when seas of radiation-poisoned demons hunt the surviving races under orange-and-blackened heavens. Kordov’s societies develop from historically religious norms: one world is governed by male-dominated orders split into seven factions; and the Revenant of the Sisterhood, ruled by angel-touched Esther and her following of chemical-infused Mothers; and a group of scavenger types, subservient to the rest. In between Kordov’s world-building and character establishment, these societies vie for the ultimate weapon to maintain dominance over the others: AI battle walkers. With its military and technically accurate descriptions, The Hand of God moves quickly and with high stakes precision, while smoothly including themes of loss, struggle, and the pursuit of understanding the meaning of ‘it all.’ Loved it.
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Phlostigen
5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious, visceral, brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2024
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"Old Testament Gothic Science-Fantasy" is the author's description, and it is perfect.
Epic, terrifying and deeply portentous.
I did it in one tumultuous sitting and the ruined world of deep faith, violence, eldritch mystery and supernatural threat dragged me in and didn't let go.
Top drawer thrills and intelligent action abound, also...

ANCIENT GIANT WAR ROBOTS.

Cannot recommend more
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