Customer Reviews

God of the razor

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Joe Lansdale's God of the Razor was a cult creation from way back (twenty or so years ago) that you had to be in the know to, well, know. Now he's an influence attested to by a host of writers; there's few characters that have been as wonderfully startling and grotesque (WARNING: SPOILERS HEREAFTER): rising out of a mystical razor forged from ancient sacrifical devices, wearing heads for shoes that squish wetly, wearing a hatband of razors and sporting razors for teeth, razors for fingernails, walking like an unstoppable force even though his as thin as a finely, surgically honed piece of thin surgical steel . . . The story centers around the God of the Razor transferring his drive for murder to others. I don't want to say more than that for fear or ruining the story for you. As to the particulars of this edition, you get _The God of the Razor_ packaged together with its precursor, _The Nightrunners_, (a novella about a couple's living an intellectual and philosophical joyride, if you will, until the wife is raped and the husband wants to murder practically everything that moves in the world to get revenge on the rapist) that Joe published long back and never quite felt satisfied as the evil character just hadn't risen to that level of mindbending evilness that Joe felt could be his destiny. Neither of these books are hard to find in other editions, but 1) You'd miss the wonderful Tim Truman rendition of The God of the Razor that is unique to this edition, and, 2) you may end up paying just as much for both together as you would for this hardback or much more depending on how rare a copy you're looking for (_Nightrunners_ was only issued for the mass market in paperback and those usually go for $14-$25; there was an extremely limited run that you can sometimes find for $250-$500 - not joking). This book is perfect for someone looking for an affordable edition of these two stories, and, considering the earlier copies weren't all that well made (not trying to be mean, they just weren't; I own them all; the paperback is fading every day; the hardback is nice, but the paper, being cheap, is yellowing and tanning), this is a nice, current standard of a well-made edition of a wonderfully well-made villain.

The Nightrunners is an excellent novel, and the centerpiece of this collection. The other stories are darn fine as well.