My slow march through my daunting backlog of books to read for review continues with the review of the Stephen Kozeniewski (The Thing Under Your Bed) and Steve Kopas co-written post-apocalyptic novel Razortooth. This is actually a prequel to Slashvivor, I have that on my reading pile, but figured I would read the prequel first. I am assuming that Slashvivor is similar to Sean E. Britten's Kill Switch series, seeming to sound like a futuristic game show where contestants are forced to battle deranged killers.
The story follows the trails and tribulations of a girl nicknamed 'Razortooth', who at a young age experiences and survives a nuclear war between Russia and the USA only to subsequently be captured by a post-apocalyptic warlord named Marisol and made into a sex slave. With skill at murdering her clients, it is decided to instead change her role to that of a hitwoman for the powerful warlord.
I really liked the set-up for this world, with it explained that purely by complete chance during the nuclear exchange with Russia all the American nukes missed their targets, while all the Russian nukes hit theirs. This has resulted in an irradiated America that saw the collapse of government. The tale bounces around in time and at a hundred and sixty seven pages wasn't much larger than a novella. It was a cool idea also to have the whole story being a fabricated one, an embellished version of a true (within the book's universe) story of how one of the Slashvivor killer's came to be there. This set up was added to with little throwaway chapters that act like 'commercial breaks' from the core story being told. From Razortooth's innocent beginning pre-nukes, to the early stages of the new country order, and the events that led to her being made into a slave. It moves along at a rapid pace and does a good job of fleshing out the world.
The world here is a dark one, and there are some disturbing topics alluded to, and some graphic scenes, at least a couple featuring severed testicles! The story never really stays in one place for too long, with a bunch of characters introduced along the way. My favourite aspect of the world were the 'Georges', with only one 'George' being around at any one time, their punitive punishments for perceived failure resulting in their replacement taking them out.
Having not read Slashvivor yet, I can't really comment on how successful as a prequel this is. I'm guessing Razortooth is an integral character of that novel, with this being an origin story relating to both her sad past, and how she came to have body modifications to fit the name she has.
A short well written novel that was as easy to get through as a hot knife through butter. The world of Razortooth might be depressing and bleak, but it is brought to wild life with a selection of madcap larger than life characters who create a Tank Girl type vibe, especially with the likeable titular lead.
SCORE:
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