The Razor can’t quite decide what it wants to be

Although The Razor comes with some unique concepts, a mix of different plot threads all come so quickly that it becomes less and less interesting.

On the cover of The Razor, out this week from Tor Books, there’s a blurb from David Macinnis Gill that says the following: “If Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron had codirected The Shawshank Redemption, it would look like The Razor.” Normally, this reviewer ignores blurbs, but sometimes they provide a good jumping-off point to actually discuss a novel.

In this case, the blurb makes sense after reading, but if you try and put those three film references together, you might end up with something of a confusing concoction, and unfortunately, that’s what happens with J. Barton Mitchell’s Razor. On one level, it’s a fast-paced crime and action story. However, while Tarantino tends to group his vignettes together (or at least spread them out and put them in where they make sense), Mitchell is much more scattershot in when they come into the story, and the big reveals don’t always seem to land correctly.

As for the Shawshank Redemption comparison, one supposes this comparison was made because of a bunch of criminals trying to survive a hellish new world (and committing more crimes in the process). The title actually refers to the tiny bit of livable space on one planet, surrounded on both sides by quite literally hellish hemispheres, one of which is called, and I’m not making this up, the Cindersphere. At least The Razor involves women, and Mitchell does some interesting work with some of those women, although not always. Additionally, though this is probably petty, there’s a character named Gabliella Rosetta. It does not come up often, but every time it does, it feels particularly poorly chosen and just a little ridiculous, which leads into the final comparison.

That would be the mention of James Cameron. Now, yours truly is documented as taking issue with Cameron’s magnum opus of Avatar, and The Razor feels like it could be a grittier take on Avatar, only without blue people but with some of the same thinness to it.

But all three of those things would work on their own, and together, it’s harder to accept them as one cohesive story that says something or at least has points of style or plot to recommend it. Instead, because of this mishmash, The Razor starts to flounder as soon as you look past its surface, much like quite a few of Cameron’s films do.

At the same time, though, just like watching Cameron’s movies, it’s not like the ride isn’t fun while you’re on it. There are even aliens, pun and reference fully intended. The action scenes certainly keep things moving, although Mitchell’s choppy writing style that makes heavy use of fragments might turn some readers off or at least require some serious adjustment.

Ultimately, The Razor seems destined to fade out of your memory as soon as you’re done, and might not be worth a re-read down the line for sci-fi fans, let alone a first read.