The Music of Razors [Paperback]

Cameron Rogers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

In nineteenth-century Boston, a young doctor on the run from the law falls in with a British confidence artist. Together–and with dire consequences–they bring back to the light something meant to be forgotten.

A world away in London, an absent father, haunted by the voice of a banished angel, presents his daughter with an impossible friend–a clockwork ballerina.

For two centuries, a bullet-removal specialist has wielded instruments of angel bone in service to a forgotten power . . . and now he vows to find someone else to shoulder the burden, someone with a conscience of their own, a strong mind, and a broken will. For a hundred years he has searched for the perfect contender, and now he has found two: a brother and a sister. Walter and Hope. Either will do.

Last night something stepped from little Walter’s closet and he never woke up. Now he travels the dark road between worlds, no longer entirely boy nor wholly beast, but with one goal in mind: to prevent his sister from suffering the same fate as he. Only the creature he has become can save Hope. But is it too late to save himself?


From the Trade Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Australian author Rogers's inventive but disappointing debut, Walter, a four-year-old boy with sudden intimations of mortality, makes the mistake of banishing from his closet a monster who was actually his protector. This leaves him prey to the depredations of Henry, a former rogue medical student now aged over 150, whom we first meet in an unconvincing Boston of 1840, rife with such anachronisms as [...] doctors aware of bacteria. Henry is part of a circle of decadents who have conjured up a demon (the conjuring scene makes for one of the novel's especially vivid moments) but bungled their demonic deal. In a parallel world, Walter merges with the spirit of his protective monster, determined to protect his younger sister, Hope—Henry's next target. Rogers aims for a Neil Gaiman–style plot about evil versus spirituality, but lacks Gaiman's grace or charm. (May)
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Review

“A nightmarishly imaginative debut from a writer of real assurance and vision . . . Cameron Rogers is going to go places.”
–Neil Gaiman

“Dark, disturbing, and filled with moments of real charm and magic, The Music of Razors is the best first novel I’ve seen this year.”
–Locus

“Cameron Rogers writes like a magician.”
–K. J. Bishop, author of The Etched City

“Superior fantasy. Fast-paced and seductive, it digs deep for effect and delivers.”
–Sean Williams, author of The Resurrection Man

“Packed with surreal images that haunt you long after you’ve put down the book.”
–Storm Constantine, author of the Wraeththu trilogy

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345493192
• ISBN-13: 978-0345493194
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.7 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,599,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cam Rogers is a novelist, travel journalist and photographer. He is the author of The Music of Razors (Ballantine Books, as Cameron Rogers) and Nicholas and the Chronoporter (Penguin Australia, as Rowley Monkfish). His articles and photographs have appeared in The Age and a magazine or two. Most mornings he'd rather wake up in a gutter overseas than in his own bed in Melbourne.

He is working on a number of projects with Penguin Books, as well as polishing his next novel, the romantic tragedy Falling.

He maintains a website at www.camrogers.net, and it updates with a new article every Tuesday.

He is represented by the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Publishers Weekly Rubbish, May 1, 2007

By 

Unknown Boulder - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Music of Razors (Paperback)

Not that it is particularly relevant for a fictional book to get historical detail perfect, but let's correct the Publishers Weekly's falsehoods before reviewing the beauty, uniqueness and brilliance of Rogers' writing.

First Publishers Weekly claim that it is an anachronism that 1840s Boston had gas-lighting. They're wrong:

"In 1820 Paris took up the problem of using gas for her public street lighting. As soon as the two leading cities of the old world, London and Paris, had discovered this method of lighting their publicc ways and bridges, we find that the City of Boston, in the new world, through some of its public-spirited citizens, carefully began the study of the subject. Boston was one of the pioneers in using gas in America... in 1822 the Boston Gas Light Company was formed."

Richards, J.L. Richards. (1908) 'The Boston Consolidated Gas Company: Its Relation to the Public, Its Employees and Investors' in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 31, Control of Municipal Public Service Corporations, pp. 59-65.

It is accurate to discuss gas lighting in Boston in 1840.

Now, let's discuss bacteria. Bacteria was discovered around 1700 by Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Since then it was known that little animals were visible under microscope and that it was likely that they had something to do with human health. It is reasonable that doctors of the 19th century discussed bacteria, regardless of exactly how much information they knew at the time.

So, The Publishers Weekly have got THEIR facts wrong. They have also decided that the only way to write a wondrous, fantastical Neil Gaiman-style plot is be Neil Gaiman. Thank goodness Rogers does not read like Gaiman.

I am awe-struck by this new writer's energy and unique voice. Read this book, it will change the way you think and open you to ideas you barely knew you were capable of. I eagerly await his next novel.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredible debut novel---more like 4.5 stars, May 24, 2007

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Music of Razors (Paperback)

The best writing convinces you that what you have believed is totally wrong. Writers like Rogers take your neatly ordered world and reshuffle the deck til you're not sure of the values or reality.

In the case of "Music of Razors", the reason the monster under the bed is so fiercely ugly is to protect the child--and there is a place that's not Heaven or Hell--and far worse than anyone ever thought.

Rogers' writing is like good chocolate: strong, bitter, and dark. Especially fascinating is the counterpoint between the child Walter, stuck in his body and forced to combine with a former foe to save his sister, and Dorian, wanting to wield the power of immortality.

I deducted half a star from the book's review because I did get lost more than once in time and place and had to re-read to pick up the thread. Overall, this is a very good dark mystery that will leave you haunted and wondering for days.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST novel in the "Dark Urban Fantasy" genre., March 17, 2008

By 

Tyr Shadowblade (TM) (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Music of Razors (Paperback)

Sadly, this GREAT piece of literature has not gotten the recognition it rightfully deserves. A lot of reviewers have compared "Music of Razors" by Cameron Rogers to the works of Neil Gaiman . . . there are, indeed, similarities in tone and style, but frankly this is better than anything Gaiman has ever written (and I really like Gaiman's novels). How can I spew such blasphemy? Well, try as I might, I could never fully immerse myself in Gaiman's books -- they read like modern day fairy tales and his protagonists are mildly annoying and only somewhat sympathetic. When something dreadful happens to one of them, I find it difficult to care. Conversely, I actually lost myself in "Music of Razors" . . . absolutely brilliant characterization and an amazing story. I genuinely felt for these characters -- even the "constructs" -- and actually wept over several scenes (that is a first for me -- only two other books, "Straydog" and "Blood Meridian" have brought me to tears: and only for one scene in each). The fate of the Closet Monster and the White Tiger are heartrending and profoundly moving.

"Music of Razors" by Cameron Rogers is the BEST novel ever written in the "Dark Urban Fantasy" genre. Deep, dark, literary, and profound. An obscure gem. Read it and weep.