Review of “Along the Razor’s Edge” by Rob J. Hayes

A brutal tale of a fantasy prison break

“Along the Razor’s Edge” is a dark, filthy, foulmouthed and brutally violent piece of literature. Like a rust-stained shiv pressed between your ribs when you least expect it. It is the story of the young sourcerer Eskara Helsene, who has had all her magic taken from her, everything she ever was really, and her attempt to escape the Pit, a penal mine for the worst scum of the earth, where the sun never shines. Her crime? She fought for the wrong empire in the great war. The Pit is built on prison justice, it’s a godforsaken place where the worst, most violent criminals rule and abuse their fellow inmates. Surrounded by ex-pirates, murderers, thieves and rapists, fifteen year old Eskara must forge alliances just to survive.

While the magical prison break theme is original (it certainly beets your average high fantasy), the never changing and torch lit setting gets repetitive fairly quickly. Luckily there’s the constant threat of violence or worse to keep the suspense up. There’s also some malicious demons in the depths, thrown into the plot for good measure, which was nice. The monotony of the Pit is further spiced up with grim flashbacks from the war where Eskara and her friend and fellow magician Josef stalk around behind enemy lines, harassing supply lines and burns villages, in order to deny the enemy. There’s also some flashbacks from her training at the royal school of magic. Between that and the stories of the other inmates, from when they were free men, I get the feeling that there’s quite an interesting world out there. Sadly, this world is not shown off too much due the protagonists being stuck in prison.

The characters are complex enough to feel real, except for Eskara, who is quite one-sided in her sullen hatred of everyone, her flash temper and her inability to let a grudge go. She also has this annoying habit of spoiling the story with cynical flashforwards in her internal narrative. Maybe I’m just too old to deal with teens, or the young adult format, nowadays.

All in all, this book gets 7 of 10 shivs. I prefer “Never Die” by the same author.