Along the Razor's Edge by Rob J. Hayes

No one escapes the Pit. At just fifteen Eskara Helsene fought in the greatest war mankind has ever known. She lost. There is only one place her enemies would send a Sourcerer as wild and dangerous as her. The Pit. A prison sunk so deep into the earth the sun is a distant memory. Betrayed by her best friend, Eska finds herself stripped of her magic, surrounded by thieves and murderers. And there are far worse creatures that call the darkness their home. In order to survive she will need to make new allies, play the inmates against each other, and survive the darkness long enough to find a way out. Her enemies will soon learn Eskara is not so easily broken. A dark coming of age story, perfect for fans of Mark Lawrence and Jay Kristoff. Pick it up today.

A fantasy prison escape novel with Grimdark tendencies. Our protagonist is Sourcerer, a clever play on the idea of sorcery - here you consume a source to gains its power. It is a well thought through and reasonably hard magic system with all sourcerers being able to consume and use all sources, but some will kill you quicker than others. Most will kill in seconds, but each sorcerer will have some certain affinities where they can ingest the source for longer.

We are in the aftermath of a war where our sourcerer was on the losing side and has been sent to an underground prison camp (the Pit). This is a gulag style environment designed to break people. The setting provides a high base level of brutality, which is only added to as the story goes on. There is a small element of found family as our escapee puts together a team to help them escape but the brutality and feralness of everyone in this environment is always quite close to the surface.

This was grimdark how I like it. Nasty, brutish and fast-paced. An excellent start to a series and one of the better self-published works I have read. I look forward to reading more of this world!

This was an enjoyable book but the switch from the current time narrative to the past narrative was a bit jarring at times. Eska is a very good character. I plan to follow her story into the next book but I wouldn’t say she is a character I love. Frankly, I don’t think Eska would be surprised by that either :)

I listened to this on audiobook as it was included with my audible membership. The description interested me and I went into it not knowing what to expect, other than the blurb.

The story is very enjoyable. Extremely gritty and raw. This is a great escape story, with friendship being a main point and what people would do in a chance of escape.

The narrator was brilliant, really enjoyed listening to her read the story. 3.5 stars.

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