That nasty bit of work, Joe R. Lansdale’s GOD OF THE RAZOR, is loose in the world again. Writers as diverse as Chet Williamson, Hugh B. Cave, Bradley Denton, and Gary A. Braunbeck have taken Lansdale’s trademark creation and given him new life in terrifying tales, each illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne.

Lords of the Razor, the book itself is a thing of beauty, from the corrupt Tim Truman cover, to the red demonskin slipcase that houses it.

But don’t take our word for how well this book turned out. Here’s a taste of the reviews it’s receiving.

From Locus:
“Lords of the Razor is another, rather more expensive, Lansdale-related anthology project, and it also revels in larger-than-life pulp territory… This limited edition invites several talented writers to use Lansdale’s character as they see fit, with some impressively bloody results.”

From The Rocky Mountain News:
“Their stories, each illustrated with a frightening drawing by award-winning artist Glenn Chadborne, feature the razor god in settings as diverse as Vietnam, a stately British manor and various American locales. Some are perversely humorous, but all are genuinely frightening and guaranteed to make you opt for shaving with an electric razor.

From Cemetery Dance:
Sometimes revisiting an earlier creation results in a tale that canÂ’t quite live up to its predecessor. Here, however, the new [Lansdale] story is superior to the 1987 story. “The God of the Razor” is a typical horror set-up: man goes to creepy old house at night and sees a creepier flooded basement with rats and a psychopath shows up. The crazed killer has an impossibly large antique straight razor in his hand and a story about the God of the Razor. Blood ensues. There’s some stylish writing and, of course, the establishment of an ingenious monster–but the characters exist solely to hang the story on.

“Lord of Shadows”, the new story, is the work of a mature writer who understands what “character driven” means. The two main characters are only slightly exaggerated. (After all, a Lansdale tale is almost always somewhat “tall.”) They live in the very cruel world of boys where just wearing glasses is enough to make you a four-eyed faggot booger eater and occasional punching bag.

Leroy doesn’t need an instant brother named, dear Lord, Draighton, but he doesn’t have much choice. Draighton’s father murdered Draighton’s mother with a straight razor then killed himself, and the orphaned kid is now part of Leroy’s family. We soon encounter that razor and much blood will be shed, but we also understand how easy it is for the Razor God to prey on the weak and rejected. The next time the moon is full we might think pretty hard of the King of Shadows with “his strange voice of broken glass and tumbling razor blades, two pounds of gravel and the screech of a dying cat.”

Lansdale also smoothes out some bumps in his mythology and the new nuances sharpen the story’s edge…so to speak.

Despite the high quality of Lansdale’s story, it’s not the best in the anthology. That’s no slight to Lansdale as Bradley Denton’s “Blackburn and the Blade” is one of the best stories of the year. Denton’s “moral killer”, Jimmy Blackburn, plays Satan to Lansdale’s Razor God in this accomplished novella. Blackburn wants to make it to Chicago, a big city where there’s plenty of dark corners for him and his dog, by New Year’s Eve 1983. But first he needs some decent wheels. He takes a side trip to the Quad Cities (Davenport/Bettendorf/Rock Island/Moline) in Iowa where he finds a sweet ‘76 Thunderbird. He sets about acquiring the cash to pay for it by relieving some of the area’s richer residents of a few items he can quietly pawn. While in a pawnshop he gets drawn into a situation that leads to his confrontation with the god of the slice. Denton handles the deadly intrusion of the supernatural into Midwestern normality with a matter-of-fact approach that blends pathos, humor, and a great deal of truth. The author seldom disappoints when he writes a story about Blackburn, a serial killer you can’t help but like. Not surprisingly, Blackburn proves a most suitable match for Mr. Cut–even when he’s wielding a chainsaw.”

Lords of the Razor is limited to 500 signed, slipcased copies, signed by all living contributors. Order now and US Shipping is still FREE.

Posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 10:26 am.