Along The Razor's Edge Book Review

Along the Razor's Edge by Rob J. Hayes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Dark, brutal fantasy and utterly compelling

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Modern fantasy is full of flawed characters. There are no more heroes it seems these days just anti-heroes and this tale is no exception though the telling is executed better than most.

It is Eska’s story and it starts at the end of a war she can’t quite let go. A war in which she is on the losing side. She is fifteen, a sourcerer honed for battle with mastery over five (or was it six) sources. Captured, she is thrown into the Pit along with her closest friend and fellow sourcerer, Josef. Josef who is considered a genius, once-in-a-generation sourcerer but one who lacks Eska’s conviction and thirst for battle.

Wow, the pit is a showcase of how monstrous humans can be and for a fifteen-year-old, slip of a girl stripped of magic, it is not the place to be. This is dark fantasy, it is brutal and sordid and vicious and Eskara Helsene is thrown in with only two ways of leaving. Death or desert and join the empire which destroyed her world. Damn that. Eska is a fiery, illogical, ball of rage and anger who refuses to bow to the enemy or suffer an eternity in the pit, she will escape to see the sky again and then rain bloody vengeance down on all those who have crossed her, even those she loves.

This story is told by Eska and you can feel every emotion and hear every thought as she grapples with her new reality. It isn’t pretty. It has moments of reflective interludes which I loved where we go back into Eska’s past and learn where she came from, who she is and how she became this force of nature. She is not pleasant or good and yet I found myself rooting for her, swept up in her vortex every bit as much as Hardt and Josef and the characters that inhabit her world. It grabbed me from the first page till the last. I know she’s going to be an evil little b!tch, if she’s not already, and this is just the first book of five, but if this turns into a redemption story it will be some feat of literary magic.

So yeah, I liked it. All the characters are so well-written and fully fleshed. The Overseer oozes his inner Hans Landa and Hardt I have a soft spot for, I mean comeon, Hardt is a seven-foot wall of muscle, a former pirate and born-again pacifist, how can you not like that contradiction of character?

The only negative criticism is the copy I read (Kindle Unlimited) had some typos and misconstructed sentences. Not many and not enough to steal a star but those few moments did take me out of the story which is never a good thing. That aside though it was well-crafted and masterly told.

So to finish up this review you could say it is a ‘coming of age’ fantasy but it is not the typical ‘coming of age’ tale you would expect so be warned. If you like good v evil storylines or do not like your stories too graphic then you may struggle. However, if you like grim and dark fantasy with no heroes then I highly recommend this book. It is unique and captivating and will sink its teeth into you and not let go.



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