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Zelda Pryce: The Razor's Edge

by Joss Llewelyn (Goodreads Author)

4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 · rating details · 15 ratings · 10 reviews

Zelda Pryce is the youngest and most unusual security expert in Washington DC. Using her knowledge of arcane mathematics, she builds beautiful machines that defy explanation and allow her to break into any home, bank, or museum with ease (and in style!).

After successfully burgling the Smithsonian, Zelda is hired to test the security at the British Museum in London using he...more

ebook, 178 pages

Published May 20th 2012 by Joseph Robert Lewis (first published May 15th 2012)

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Mar 17, 2013 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I’m not sure if I can classify this book as steampunk. . .but I really want to. There are strange devices all over the place, but they are in no way what I would call clockwork. I would like to call them magic, but it is clearly stated that it isn’t. They make me want to live in Zelda’s world so that I can play with them, they sounded so cool.

This book is loaded with weird terms, and even stranger things. It was a little hard to get used to it all, but once I let go of the fact that everything s...more I’m not sure if I can classify this book as steampunk. . .but I really want to. There are strange devices all over the place, but they are in no way what I would call clockwork. I would like to call them magic, but it is clearly stated that it isn’t. They make me want to live in Zelda’s world so that I can play with them, they sounded so cool.

This book is loaded with weird terms, and even stranger things. It was a little hard to get used to it all, but once I let go of the fact that everything seemed super crazy (which I should have before I even started the read, I mean it is fantasy) it was a lot of fun to read. Thing are explained to you so it makes it easier to grasp.

The entire beginning of this book was so fun. I don’t want to get into it because I hate putting spoilers in my reviews, but heck man I wasn’t expecting any of what happened to happen.

I can honestly say I have never read anything that had to do with what this one did. This is full on brand new. The author put a lot of thought into everything, and made sure to explain everything so nothing is confusing. It had to be so much fun to think these things up.

This book is very fast paced. There is no slowing down once the action get started, and you pretty much follow Zelda all over Europe in a few days. I would have liked to take my time with this book but the way everything moved I couldn't help but read it fast. Everything stayed pretty realistic in the moving around area as well, airport visits, rented cars, etc. . .but you don't get bored with the details of this, you know whats going on, but not to the point were you feel like you have waited 5 hours in the airport terminal before hoping on a 9 hour flight.

Zelda is great, and I really love her personality. She is super smart but she doesn’t let her think she is better than anyone. I love her relationship with her sister.

I liked this book so much that I looked to see if there was a second one right after I finished it, thankfully there is. I have already read it and I’m getting ready to dive into the third one.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, I really enjoyed it. (less)

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Sep 24, 2012 Annette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Zelda Pryce: The Razor's Edge is a creative delight, full of strange devices and a perky main character that is hard not to love.

Zelda is a teen genius. She's a geometrix, which means she creates arcane objects to help her in her security business. She hires herself to museums to try to steal objects to test and improve security.

The book starts out with a bang, as Zelda is in the Smithsonian trying to steal a couple of very important arcane artifacts. She's successful, and feels that her busines...more Zelda Pryce: The Razor's Edge is a creative delight, full of strange devices and a perky main character that is hard not to love.

Zelda is a teen genius. She's a geometrix, which means she creates arcane objects to help her in her security business. She hires herself to museums to try to steal objects to test and improve security.

The book starts out with a bang, as Zelda is in the Smithsonian trying to steal a couple of very important arcane artifacts. She's successful, and feels that her business is off to a great start, especially when she receives a letter from the British Museum wanting to hire her. She takes the British job, but things don' t turn out as she expects. She ends up racing all over Europe trying to save her reputation while also saving the world from a mad librarian who has a dastardly plan (that I won't go into because it would be a spoiler.) And yes, I did say "librarian." Gotta love it when the villain is a librarian!

Zelda Pryce has a breakneck pace that took my breath away. I really liked Zelda as a character, and felt sorry for her every time she was duped or in danger (which seemed to happen quite a bit.) She did get some help from others, and those secondary characters were well done too. And, in case it's important to you, one of those secondary characters offers a hint of romance. While there are some tense moments, for the most part the book is lighthearted and not to be taken too seriously.

Llewelyn is crazily creative. The arcane devices he comes up with are entertaining and clever. I just wish there were more explanation of them. There's a glossary at the end of the book, which explains where each of the device names comes from. You see, they are named after famous people, mostly scientists but not all of them (Jimi Hendrix!), and the devices' function relates to the person they were named after. I would have liked to be able to flip to this during my reading, but that's one of the disadvantages of an ebook.

I got most of the references, but I think many people, especially the YA audience, will not understand most of them. I was familiar with Occam's Razor as a concept. The fact that it (and a bunch of other razors) is a real tangible object really confused me at first. I needed some explanation at the beginning. I felt plopped into a world that seemed familiar, but there was much I didn't understand.

I also wish there were more explanation of the political climate. After we are about 2/3 through, we get a little taste of some political ideology:

"For centuries, governments have controlled and abused the knowledge and power of the arcana to control people, to abuse people. When I marched at university and fought the police in the riots, they fought back with Crabtree Bludgeons, torturing the students. Geometers and alchemists, graphologers and actuaries, all coordinated by State astrologers to oppress the working classes, the poor, the young, and the foreigners."

This was the first I felt the dissatisfaction of some people about the government and the arcana. I would have liked to know more, and sooner, so that I could get a feel for world.

Zelda Pryce is entertaining, even at face value, without know anything about arcane objects and the state of the world. I mean, Zelda can fly. Who cares why they are called "Hypatian Wings." She can make herself invisible to cameras. Who cares how her Faraday Cloak works, and why it's called that. But, it's also fun to figure those things out.

Zelda Pryce is a quick, entertaining read, and for most young people will offer superficial entertainment. For those interested in science and scientists, Zelda Price can offer a much richer experience. The second book, Zelda Pryce: The Clockwork Girl is available now.(less)

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Jul 09, 2012 Mihir rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review originally at Fantasy Book Critic

ANALYSIS: After being introduced to Joseph R. Lewis’s writing in the form of the Other Earth books, I was very curious to see what else he has written. On checking his website I saw a brand new book being released called Zelda Pryce: The Razor’s Edge, two things nudged my curiosity, the reference to the classic Princess Zelda video games and the fact that this was going to steampunk-ish YA caper (of sorts) novel. I was partly right in my assumptions abo...more
Review originally at Fantasy Book Critic

ANALYSIS: After being introduced to Joseph R. Lewis’s writing in the form of the Other Earth books, I was very curious to see what else he has written. On checking his website I saw a brand new book being released called Zelda Pryce: The Razor’s Edge, two things nudged my curiosity, the reference to the classic Princess Zelda video games and the fact that this was going to steampunk-ish YA caper (of sorts) novel. I was partly right in my assumptions about those two nudges and here’s why.

The story opens up in current day wherein Zelda Pryce, our protagonist is currently testing the security of Smithsonian Museum of Arcane Science. She does manage to evade the security and procure the items as required but not without some high kinks on the way. Plus with regular phone calls from her sister Roxanne about her interests in arcane science, studies and life over all, she leads a life that can be deemed reasonable as befitting her persona. Soon after gig with the Smithsonian, she gets contacted for a new gig overseas in London. During the actual gig she realizes something is horribly off, combined with the presence of other people in the same place, she discovers that she has been mentally conned into following someone’s nefarious plan. Soon she learns from Yasmin Demir, a French DCRI agent that all is not well in the world of Arcane museums the world over. Soon Zelda will have to make a choice whether to go back to her normal life or to find out who is behind all of this.

If this book can be encapsulated in a single word, it would be FUN. Beginning from the first chapter, there’s a jovial undertone to this book that asserts itself in the dialogue as well as the inventions that abound the pages from cover to cover. The characterization ranging from Zelda, Clive & Yasmin are done competently as befitting a YA novel however we only get the story from Zelda’s point of view. The author though does his best to provide a decent background to the supporting cast however this move is hampered through the use of a singular third person POV. Going on to the second favorite part of the book, which was the presence of all these cool phenomena, gadgets and alternate arcane history, the author has created a world wherein magic is present but it is more akin to a science and is distilled by various famous historical personae, into its current highly evolved state.

Ranging from Chekov guns to Diogenes lamps to Occam razors to Nicomachean whistles to other cool but equally dangerous artifacts. The author has planned this world akin to the Harry Potter one but with a crucial difference, this is the age of science. Thereby having a cool machine-punk edge to history, the story gains a different edge more akin to the Scott Westerfeld Leviathan series but with a comical tone akin to that of the John Connolly Samuel Johnson series. Lastly there's no Link in this story and this Zelda does everything herself to save the world. The story does have a complete plot with room left for a sequel and readers who enjoyed this book will be glad to hear that Zelda will be back in the sequel tentatively titled “Zelda Pryce: The Clockwork Girl”.

What can readers look forward to in book, hilarious banter involving Zelda and her younger sibling Roxanne, action packed sequences in various international locales and overall a strong fun filled story to boot. With such plus features, it really becomes hard to point out any insufficiencies in this book but I think there might be some points to note. Primarily this book is equivalent to literary candy (as the author meant it to be); readers looking for a grimmer world setting akin to the current YA dystopian mold will not find it here. Also the author intentionally has made the series the way it is thereby choosing to disregard certain facts and history to make the story plot more accessible and if you can’t let go of your sensibilities completely then this isn’t the book for you.

CONCLUSION: Joseph Robert Lewis is a maverick writer and it shows in this YA outing, filled with colorful characters, fascinating gadgets and an action packed storyline. I strongly recommend this book simply because of its theme to be a funny book. If you haven’t read Joss Llewelyn yet then grab a copy at the earliest instant and you can thank me later ;)(less)

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Aug 01, 2012 W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, 2012-read

"We're all alone and the fate of all the arcana in the entire world, as well as a lot of innocent lives, rests on whether or not we can stop a librarian from finding a butterfly..."

When security consultant Zelda Pryce gets a handwritten request from the British Museum asking her to test its security, she never imagines it would lead to a chase across the Europe and Asia with a secret agent, trying to stop an elderly anarchist from creating massive, worldwide destruction. Fortunately, she has th...more "We're all alone and the fate of all the arcana in the entire world, as well as a lot of innocent lives, rests on whether or not we can stop a librarian from finding a butterfly..."

When security consultant Zelda Pryce gets a handwritten request from the British Museum asking her to test its security, she never imagines it would lead to a chase across the Europe and Asia with a secret agent, trying to stop an elderly anarchist from creating massive, worldwide destruction. Fortunately, she has the use of her arcana - mechanical devices that bend the laws of mathematics in ways that seem magical, if not impossible.

Our heroine, Zelda is a Nancy Drew-type character with "His Dark Materials" gadgets and an Artemis Fowl-like understanding of technology. A French secret agent who can warp the properties of metals, and a handsome Brit who uses mathematical probabilities to pull off heists complete the trio of "good guys" -- a daring, intelligent team who make the story interesting, and whose special talents create a world in which nearly anything is possible. Those interested in the history of science will find the names and descriptions of some of the arcana familiar -- the Archimedes Claw, the (Marie) Curie Corset, the (M.C.) Escher games, etc -- which was an intellectual treat. The story itself was intriguing, and I had a hard time putting it down!

I will admit, however, that I did have a very hard time figuring out the "world" of this book. I spent a good chunk of the novel confused about the arcana, specifically:

- Is Zelda's world the same as ours, and the arcana secret knowledge only known to the very elite (akin to the magic elements in Harry Potter)?
- Is Zelda's world in some sort of alternate-history world in which those that can create arcana are rare, but the use of them and knowledge of them is common?
- Or is Zelda's world in our not-so-distant future, a part of the progression of science?

After completing the whole book, I'm leaning towards the second option, but even now I'm not entirely sure.

Regardless, I'd definitely recommend this book -- though the premise of "beat the bad guys to the secret weapons that they're going to use to destroy the world" isn't new, this is a rather original take on it, one that stimulates the imagination and leaves you hoping for a sequel.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy of this book!(less)

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Mar 29, 2013 Miranda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, owned-books, science-fiction

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book. The idea that ideas like Occam's Razor could be tied into an actual object, a real razor, tickles my imagination into crazy dances.

Zelda Pryce: The Razor's Edge is the first in what could be a very enjoyable series of young adult reader books. A young American Geometrix (an inventor who uses arcane theories in her work) is set on a course to save the world with the help of a french spy, and a dapper English Riskbender (someone who can tell the cha...more

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Aug 04, 2012 RAIN Holt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

This was an extremely enticing book; even though I was falling asleep from fishing, I couldn't quite reading it until I was done. The scientific items started out as confusing but once I got it through my head that they aren't real life objects, the book flew by much smoother. There should be a sequal and Zelda should continue her work and relationship with... well, I'll let some facts stay secret. The last few pages explain about the different objects and where the idea for them originated whic...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Mandy Sickle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-in-series, fantasy, owned-books

Opening Sentence Teaser

"Hey Zel, has anyone else ever robbed the Smithsonian's Museum of Arcane Science Before?"

Review

I received this book in a giveaway from Librarything from the author in return for a honest review. The book is about Zelda Pryce a 19 year old security expert who doesn't use the typical tools of the trade. Zelda breaks into her favorite museum the Smithsonian to take a obtain a few things as a test. She is then hired to break into a British museum but learns that she wasn't hir...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Emily Jacobsen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, library-thing

I received an e-copy of this book through a Library Thing member giveaway from the author, Joss Llewelyn. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this book and the creative premise. The alternate world Llewelyn creates is similar yet the use of arcane as a standard science is intriguing. I enjoyed Zelda as a heroine; she has a good heart but not a big head. I am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

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Apr 09, 2013 Nayan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommendedbyothers

This was an extremely quick and light read. Zelda is a geometrix who is ambitious and decides to take up a security assignment in Europe.

So begins the story of a cross continent chase to catch the graphologer who dared to take undue advantage of her.

The world building is extremely unique and the book started off as a 5 star rated book for me but at some point transformed into a very predictable story arc. The characterization is a little shallow but is completely excused considering the short le...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Willow Webster rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another awesome book! Keep up the good work.

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Shelves: fantasy, steampunk, urban-fantasy

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