The Razor

By: J. Barton Mitchell

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

J. Barton Mitchell's The Razor is a riveting science-fiction thriller about a man struggling to survive the chaos on a prison planet.

Brilliant engineer Marcus Flynn has been sentenced to 11-H37 - a hard labor prison planet better known as the Razor, where life expectancy is short and all roads are dead ends - alongside the galaxy's most dangerous criminals. At least until the Lost Prophet goes active....

In a few hours, prison guards and staff are evacuated, the prisoners are left to die, and dark mysteries begin to surface. Only Flynn has the skills and knowledge to unravel them, but he will have to rely on the most unlikely of allies - killers, assassins, pirates, and smugglers.

If they can survive each other, they just might survive the Razor....and claim it for their own.

©2018 J. Barton Mitchell (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

If you draw ... you pull

This is a really fun nonstop action fast paced prison escape story. Reminded me a bit of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country with a alien prison planet that the main characters are trying to escape mixed in with a bit of Riddick’s universe. The setting is quite exciting and so is their battle for survival. With all the action this book is packing you will want to devote long stretches of time to listening, so make sure you settle in, buckle down, and prepare for an exciting science fiction thriller.

The plot unfolds quickly and immediately pushes you to the edge of your seat. Everything with the penal colony is not as usual and soon the thrill ensues. There is a lot going on with this prison planet, but there isn’t much time to explore it, because as soon as Flynn arrives chaos ensues. With the chaos you are greeted by a mixture of characters and creatures. Flynn indivertibly assembles a bandit team who eventually is put to a task greater than just saving themselves.

This book really had a nice mixed crew of characters. Truly some unique ones that are quite colorful that I would really like to see more of with potentially their own origin stories. The characters were well thought out and really advance the story. Zane was my absolute favorite, especially with Baldree’s voice for him. Seemed to me he may have received some inspiration from Bane, the original comic book depiction, and not from any of the movies. Gabel was another great character, and one you can tell Baldree really enjoyed narrating her. With the exception of Flynn, none of this crew is a person of moral character, yet all come together to fight a good fight and I rooted for all of them despite their personal motivations. Very much like some of the more recent comic book movies.

Travis Baldree is an amazing narrator. You can hear in is narration that he loves what he does and really likes the books he narrates. That makes every book he does so much fun and just an absolute blast to listen to. His voices for male and female characters are fantastic as he has such a range for them all. I absolutely loved his voice for Zane, as usual with Baldree’s narrations, he really gets you into the stories with all his character voices and if you close your eyes you can see everything unfold.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

one of the best sci fi books I listened to in 2018

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a fantastic sci fi story with an intensity you usually find in horror and thrillers. I thought the story was great and the characters were very engaging and fun to listen to. The narration was fantastic. Travis Baldtree really made this book come alive in my mind. Before I knew it, the book was over. I would highly recommend this to any sci fi fan!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

A raw and gritty galactic prison story!

The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell and narrated by Travis Baldree is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary. This book starts out very raw, gritty, and terrifying as the reader is introduced to the prison planet. The characters, the projects, and lives of those that live there are revealed slowly as chaos erupts due to certain events! Suspense, action, and the unknown kept me on the edge of my seat...creatures also abound...and the razor thin area of habitable zone is about to be destroyed. Pretty exciting.
The narration was totally on top of it! The voices of men, women, emotions, and everything else was excellent as usual for this narrator! As always, great job!

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Exciting!

This book seems to be a blending of several genres and was an exciting read. Once the action starts it does not let up.

The story holds together and the characters are pleasantly written.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

It's a movie script (and only part 1)

Razor has a great premise to work from, a mercury like planet with no rotation and a thin habitual zone between molten hell and freezing desert; what to do with such a planet? turn it into a penal colony of course... This book was actually a lot of fun and I enjoyed listening to it, the narration was good and fitted the story well. Some of the scenes were superb set pieces - I was particularly gripped by the events underground at at the research base where we are introduced to what I know will be a repeat adversary to our hero, Marcus Flynn in the almost inevitable next in the series.

However, therein lies the main reason this book falls down a bit for me, it reads too much like a movie script - fast paced action where the main characters move from one 'arena of danger' to the next. This is all great stuff but we've been here before and from a great premise there is nothing particularly new on show in Razor. It also suffers from the usual clichés such as the inevitable (and rather poorly developed) love interest; the masculine focus (women need saving or are uber-evil \ uber-weird \ uber-tough beings) and, of course, the aforementioned 'setting the scene' for the next part in the movie (sorry, book) franchise.

There is no doubt that this book is worth one of your credits, it is a good story and is well read but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like an opportunity missed. For all that, I will be looking out for part 2!

A gripping read

I liked this book from its opening pages. The characters a well drawn, and the plot grips you, once its pace starts picking up. The idea behind the story is good, and it takes the entire book to work out some of the hidden features of it. Be aware, these characters are desperate and are certainly not the type one would normally invite home to dinner! Consequently, their language is sometimes not nice. For all that, though, they are engaging in their different ways.

The book ends on an enigma - it's obvious that the story will continue, and I am one who will be standing in line to get its sequel. Baldree does a good job of performing the plot with good voice characterization.