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juushikaTitle: The Music of Razors
Author: Cameron Rogers
Published: New York: Del Ray, 2007
Page Count: 314
Total Page Count: 40,253
Text Number: 115
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: A student of medicine meets a group of "exceptional" youths, intent on contacting a certain spirit through their seances; a doctor, running from the law, meets a mutilated man and a friend from his youth; a young boy, consumed by his own childhood monster, becomes his sister's monster to save her from a shadowed man that wants her to take his place, living an eternal life and wielding magical tools made from the bones of an angel. In this debut novel, Rogers unites these three stories into one narrative that traces tools of extraordinary power down to a young boy and girl from our own era as they discover and create their identities. Delicately plotted, heavily atmospheric is a way that is both magical and haunting, this is a readable, richly conceived story. Music of Razors is not without its faults—the mythos is arbitrary, and the ending is rushed and lacks the art of the rest of the book—but on the whole this is a promising debut novel and I recommend it, if with some caveats.
The Music of Razors has two primary strengths: a delicate plot, and exceptional visuals. At first, the plot seems complex—too complex, certainly, for the book's length. But as it grows, it combines three stories, three timelines, into one coherent narrative. Rogers does this with skill, such as the independent introduction of each plotline naturally introduces all of the characters, making them both human and complete, and the combination of the plot lines is logical, uniting the storylines and simplifying the storytelling to manageable complexity without ever over-simplifying it. The plot shows careful planning and real artistry, and Rogers excels at both. The second strength are the images, and these are exceptional: exceptionally haunting, exceptionally pervasive, exceptionally conceived. The dim magical atmosphere and the unsettling, haunting images illustrate each aspect of the story but, to say it better, they do more: they draw the reader in and create the dense, mysterious landscape that he explores. Sometimes, these images are overdrawn or excessive, but on the whole they are the delight of the book. Fans of retold fairy tales, of authors such as Neil Gaiman, of dark fantasy will be drawn to and enjoy this text on the images, the atmosphere alone.
For these strengths, the novel has failing as well: an arbitrary mythos, and an increasingly rushed and incoherent conclusion. The mythos that the story is based on—the bones of an angel, murdered by another angel, which were turned into tools of semi-divine power—does not reference back to any real mythology, and only obliquely connects to Christianity. It is seems arbitrary because it indeed is, and this fact weakens the supposed instinctual connection between the "extraordinary" students that draw together and removes the story from the religious and mythological plain that it claims to inhabit. However, even if the angel bones mythos is accepted at face value, its role in the book plays out in strange ways—at the beginning, it gradually leads the characters together and directs the key points of the plot; at the end, it directs every moment of the plot in actions that are little more than plot twists, and so are unjustified and unexplored and even strip away all intent and free will. This, combined with the increasingly fragmented narration of the book's last chapters, makes for an ending that feels both arbitrary and rushed. The book suffers for it: The plotting falters, as does the pacing and the storytelling itself; the skill of the book dissolves into a conclusion that feels hasty, unexplored, unsatisfying.
(I should also note that the text could use some editing—both to remove the fragmentary passages at the conclusion, or at least to unify them with the rest of the text, and to correct a few accidental shifts from past into present tense.)
I enjoyed this book, on the whole. I picked it up because of the Neil Gaiman blurb/recommendation, and was pleased to find an equivalent atmosphere—not a copy, not by a long shot, but rather an atmosphere and rich scheme of images that is equally enticing, dark, and atmospheric, and also magical but within our own mundane realm. Between this well-conceived atmosphere and the careful plot, The Music of Razors is an enjoyable read and a very strong first novel. I wish that the mythos had some sort of historical connection, and more than that I wish that the end of the book had shown the same care in plotting and in storytelling as is present in the rest. As a result, I do consider this a faulted book, and so I recommend with caveats: this is an atmospheric and enjoyable read, but it is far from perfect and feels a bit unfinished. I look forward to more from Cameron Rogers—I believe he does show great promise as an author.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Cameron Rogers
Published: New York: Del Ray, 2007
Page Count: 314
Total Page Count: 40,253
Text Number: 115
Read For: my own enjoyment, checked out from the library
Short review: A student of medicine meets a group of "exceptional" youths, intent on contacting a certain spirit through their seances; a doctor, running from the law, meets a mutilated man and a friend from his youth; a young boy, consumed by his own childhood monster, becomes his sister's monster to save her from a shadowed man that wants her to take his place, living an eternal life and wielding magical tools made from the bones of an angel. In this debut novel, Rogers unites these three stories into one narrative that traces tools of extraordinary power down to a young boy and girl from our own era as they discover and create their identities. Delicately plotted, heavily atmospheric is a way that is both magical and haunting, this is a readable, richly conceived story. Music of Razors is not without its faults—the mythos is arbitrary, and the ending is rushed and lacks the art of the rest of the book—but on the whole this is a promising debut novel and I recommend it, if with some caveats.
The Music of Razors has two primary strengths: a delicate plot, and exceptional visuals. At first, the plot seems complex—too complex, certainly, for the book's length. But as it grows, it combines three stories, three timelines, into one coherent narrative. Rogers does this with skill, such as the independent introduction of each plotline naturally introduces all of the characters, making them both human and complete, and the combination of the plot lines is logical, uniting the storylines and simplifying the storytelling to manageable complexity without ever over-simplifying it. The plot shows careful planning and real artistry, and Rogers excels at both. The second strength are the images, and these are exceptional: exceptionally haunting, exceptionally pervasive, exceptionally conceived. The dim magical atmosphere and the unsettling, haunting images illustrate each aspect of the story but, to say it better, they do more: they draw the reader in and create the dense, mysterious landscape that he explores. Sometimes, these images are overdrawn or excessive, but on the whole they are the delight of the book. Fans of retold fairy tales, of authors such as Neil Gaiman, of dark fantasy will be drawn to and enjoy this text on the images, the atmosphere alone.
For these strengths, the novel has failing as well: an arbitrary mythos, and an increasingly rushed and incoherent conclusion. The mythos that the story is based on—the bones of an angel, murdered by another angel, which were turned into tools of semi-divine power—does not reference back to any real mythology, and only obliquely connects to Christianity. It is seems arbitrary because it indeed is, and this fact weakens the supposed instinctual connection between the "extraordinary" students that draw together and removes the story from the religious and mythological plain that it claims to inhabit. However, even if the angel bones mythos is accepted at face value, its role in the book plays out in strange ways—at the beginning, it gradually leads the characters together and directs the key points of the plot; at the end, it directs every moment of the plot in actions that are little more than plot twists, and so are unjustified and unexplored and even strip away all intent and free will. This, combined with the increasingly fragmented narration of the book's last chapters, makes for an ending that feels both arbitrary and rushed. The book suffers for it: The plotting falters, as does the pacing and the storytelling itself; the skill of the book dissolves into a conclusion that feels hasty, unexplored, unsatisfying.
(I should also note that the text could use some editing—both to remove the fragmentary passages at the conclusion, or at least to unify them with the rest of the text, and to correct a few accidental shifts from past into present tense.)
I enjoyed this book, on the whole. I picked it up because of the Neil Gaiman blurb/recommendation, and was pleased to find an equivalent atmosphere—not a copy, not by a long shot, but rather an atmosphere and rich scheme of images that is equally enticing, dark, and atmospheric, and also magical but within our own mundane realm. Between this well-conceived atmosphere and the careful plot, The Music of Razors is an enjoyable read and a very strong first novel. I wish that the mythos had some sort of historical connection, and more than that I wish that the end of the book had shown the same care in plotting and in storytelling as is present in the rest. As a result, I do consider this a faulted book, and so I recommend with caveats: this is an atmospheric and enjoyable read, but it is far from perfect and feels a bit unfinished. I look forward to more from Cameron Rogers—I believe he does show great promise as an author.
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
