Razr (1001 Dark Nights #56)

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Synopsis

Razr was once a powerful battle angel who was cast from Heaven, but he's neither Fallen nor Unfallen. Instead, he's been given the opportunity to earn his way back into Heaven by locating the Gems of Enoch that were the source of power for both himself and the other members of his triad. In the meantime, he's being punished by flogging every few days, something that's been going on for years. After being given intel on the possible whereabout of one of the gems, Razr travels to London in search of gemologist Jedda Brighton, He eventually finds her at a conference that turns out to be a front for a major demon sacrifice and discovers an inexplicably strong attraction to her.

Jedda is an elf from an otherworldly realm who prefers to live on Earth, where she can pass as human. She can literally absorb gems into her body, and years ago, she and her sisters came across some very powerful gems that they stole. Now a world-renowned gemologist, she was invited to the conference to supposedly give a talk on her area of expertise. There she meets Razr and feels an odd pull toward him that she can't seem to resist, but things quickly devolve when people start dying around them. Their host places a curse on her to bend her to his will, demanding that she find the Gems of Enoch for him. Jedda and Razr must trust each other enough to work together to defeat their nemesis, but when Razr discovers that the gem he's been searching for has literally become Jedda's life force, can he really take the life of the woman he's come to love in order to end his own suffering?

Review

Razr is the fourth book in Larissa Ione's Demonica Underworld series, which is a spin-off or sub-series of her greater Demonica world that follows characters who live in the Underworld, and it's the fifteenth book in the larger combined series. In this one, we have Z's assistant Razr, an angel who was cast out of Heaven but is neither Fallen nor Unfallen. He's being punished for allowing the gem that was the source of his power to fall into the wrong hands, but he can earn his way back into Heaven if he can simply find it. After finally getting a good piece of intel on its whereabouts, his search leads him to London and gemologist Jedda Brighton. Not the human that she seems, Jedda is instead an otherworldly elf who, not only derives power from precious gems, but her entire life force is tied to them. Years ago, she and her sisters came across the gems belonging to Razr and his fellow angels and stole them, not realizing the terrible consequences their actions caused. However, now that she has it, her entire life depends on it. With a Fallen angel, who is also on the hunt for the gems, twisting Jedda's arm to get her to find them for him, she and Razr will have to trust each other enough to work together to find a way out of their predicament, and along the way, they also discover a powerful attraction that just might lead to love if they don't get themselves killed.

Razr was once a strong battle angel and part of a special triad that derived their incredible power from the Gems of Enoch. However, each of them needed a human to act as a conduit for them to be able to tap into that power. When Jedda and her sisters stole the gems, it resulted in the angels' bonded humans dying. For their irresponsibility in letting the gems be taken and consequently humans losing their lives, Razr and his compatriots were cast out of Heaven, and at intervals of usually only a few days, he must be punished by flogging. If he doesn't accept the beating, it will result in excruciating pain and an angel coming to do the job ten times worse. Razr believes he deserves it for what he did and accepts his punishment, but he longs for the day that he can find the gems and earn his way back into Heaven. In the meantime, he lives in Sheoul-gra and works for Azagoth, training the Memitim in battle techniques. One day, a visiting angel brings him a lead on the gems, which takes him to Jedda and a conference that turns out to be a front for a demon sacrifice, during which a curse is placed on Jedda by the Fallen angel, Shrike, who wants her to find the Gems of Enoch for him. Eventually Razr and Jedda must learn to trust one another in order to find a way to defeat Shrike. But since his gem is now Jedda's life force, it would mean murdering the woman he's come to love in order to get it back. In addition to literally being tortured every few days, Razr exhibits some other indications of a classic, sympathetic, tortured hero, although given the brevity of the story, we don't get to see a lot of that beyond the physical beatings he has to endure. I like that he was able to forgive Jedda for what she and her sisters did once he hears the whole story and that he loves her enough to be willing to keep accepting the floggings indefinitely if it will protect her.

Jedda is a gem elf from an otherworldly realm that few have heard of. In fact, when Razr first meets her, he thinks elves are nothing but a myth and believes her to be a demon instead. She spends most of her time on Earth, where she passes for a human and works as a world-renowned gemologist. Jedda can actually absorb precious gems into her body where they provide the energy she needs to survive as well as giving her powers. She actually bleeds, cries, and sweats gems, and when she's panicked, she poofs out a cloud of diamond dust, which I thought was cute. While attending the conference where she was supposed to be a speaker, she meets Razr and quickly finds out Shrike's nefarious purpose in inviting her there. He places a curse on her so that she'll have no choice but to bring him the Gems of Enoch, but what no one knows is that one of the gems is literally keeping her alive, and to be able to give it to either Razr or Shrike, she'd have to die first. However, because of the gem's connection to Razr, she feels an immediate and strong connection to him as well, which makes her trust him enough to work together to find a different solution to their dilemma. Jedda can definitely have a spicy side as evidenced in how she handled the sexist mine boss in her introductory chapter, but she also has a sweet side, caring for Razr after his floggings and not wanting to be the cause of him receiving any more pain. She's also remorseful for stealing the gems in the first place, so overall, she was a very likable heroine.

Overall, I enjoyed Razr and thought it was a respectable entry into the Demonica series. I also liked the characters and their story. However, given that it's only 120 pages long, making it the shortest book in the series so far, the characterizations and plot aren't quite as developed as they typically would be in a longer book. Things happen rather quickly, including the declarations of love and the buildup and subsequent denouement of the conflict. A part of me couldn't help wishing it was a little longer to flesh things out a bit more, which is why I gave it four stars instead of higher. It briefly introduces readers to three characters, Hawkyn (Hawkyn), a Memitim, Suzanne (Her Guardian Angel), another Memitim who appears to be serving Azagoth and Lilliana (Azagoth), and Cipher (Cipher), an Unfallen angel who is taking refuge in Sheoul-gra. What little we see of them, they all seem like they have the potential to be interesting characters, so I look forward to reading their stories, which are the next three in the series. So all things taken into consideration, Razr was a nice little novella that was an entertaining read despite its short length.

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Larissa Ione

Themes

Tortured Heroes