Along the Razor's Edge

The War Eternal, Book 1

By: Rob J. Hayes

Narrated by: Moira Quirk

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

An empire in flames. A prisoner of war. An unbreakable will to escape.

At just 15, Eskara Helsene fought in the greatest war mankind has ever known - and lost. There is only one place her enemies would send a Sourcerer as powerful as her: the Pit, a prison sunk so deep into the earth the sun is a distant memory. Now, she finds herself stripped of her magic; a young girl surrounded by thieves, murderers, and worse. In order to survive she will need to make new allies, play the inmates against each other, and find a way out.

Her enemies will soon find out that Eskara is not so easily broken.

©2020 Rob J. Hayes (P)2020 Podium Audio

Old lady rolls her eyes at past self.

LOL Every YA book should have to be told through the eyes of the exasperated older version of the main character, it's hilarious. This story could have been a dark and gritty edge lord wonderland full of drama and angst, and at times it is. However, having Grandma Eskar tell the story adds a lot of brevity to what could have been a rather depressing story about a child soldier being forced into a extremely harsh POW camp. It does take away some of the tension in some scenes because obviously she survives, and Granny sometimes jumps ahead of herself. She also tends to be somewhat of a harsher critic of herself than what is warranted, hind sight being what it is, but i still wouldn't trade losing that perspective for all the rope and gross bread in all of the pit. As for the world itself, well it's a first book so you only get a few hints here and there about the greater landscape but what you do get seems fascinating. The magic system is simple to understand if broad in scope, reminds me somewhat of The Mistborne magic system. My only complaint is that i wish there was a list of all the 22 magics the sorcerers could use. There is a small nitpick i have that took me out of the story for a moment. I'm sure the author has probably gotten a ton of flack for this, But the myth about carrots was started by the Airforce during WWII to hide their new radar system. It doesn't really make sense to have a fairly modern myth based around planes and radar systems in a book with neither of those things.... also blood is red both inside the body and out, it just looks blue through skin. Moira Quirk did an absolutely fantastic job, she switches from world weary Queen to pissed off teen seamlessly. i think she hit all the inflections perfectly. She even followed the authors direction on the voice, which sadly is not something that every narrator does. GREAT JOB!! Now i must get to the next book, which i grabbed around chapter five of this book.