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Gladiadora (2010)

by Russell Whitfield(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

La factoría de ideas

series

Gladiatrix

review 1: This book was very violent, but I guess I should have known that going in. It is about gladitixes. I guess I was suprised more by the ludeness of it. This is a good story, but the graphic nature of the book distracted me. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Be warned, if you don't want to read about sex, rape, or violent deaths, stay clear of this book. I really would have appriecated knowing how graphic the book would get before I was invested in the story.
review 2: Rating: 3.3 / 10At first glance I should love this book. I do have a certain fondness for “historical” fiction or, more accurately, sword and sandal, which in a broad sense may or may not involve either swords or sandals. I have a particular fondness for ancient Roman sword and sandal, and I count m... moreyself lucky that Roman is very big right now. Every second book on the shelves at Chapters in the general fiction section takes place in ancient Rome.Most of it, however, is garbage. To truly understand why, check out my review of “Hannibal's Children” by John Maddox Roberts. One of the biggest problems with Roman fiction is that with such a plethora of interesting male characters to choose from – Caesar, Antony, Cicero, or some of the more elaborate, like Caligula, whom raped his own sisters, or Attila the Hun, whom ate his own sons – the women tend to be forgotten, or relegated to the sidelines where they wilt and wither away. Here is a story of female slaves used in the arena as gladiatrices – female gladiators. For the longest time, historians doubted the existence of gladiatrices, but they're now accepted to have existed. Domitian was particularly fond of them, and without surprise, this takes place in Domitian's era. The story follows Lysandra, a Spartan priestess for Athene shipwrecked in Turkey and forced into slavery. Trained since childhood in martial arts to glorify Athene, she becomes a natural and quick crowd favourite in Halicarnassus. However, for all it's wonder, the story is, quite simply, boring. At least for the most part. I was captivated in the beginning, but I quickly found myself speedreading, and eventually completely uninterested in the outcome of the novel. This, I believe, is due to the prose, which is rather stilted at times, and the character development. I don't really care for any of these characters, although I did come to hate Sorina and Nastesen. Lysandra is an arrogant dunce, for the most part. Sorina is blindly tribalistic. Eirianwen's love seems to be based on physicality alone. Catovulcos doesn't know which way he's going. The prose is quite amateurish. Apparently in Britain they're not allowed to use contractions. Sorry, they are not allowed... And nothing is left up to interpretation. Every sentence with with some breathing room is reiterated to specify exactly what Whitfield intended to say. Bad sentence structure is often countered with a re-envisioning of the same sentence again. Readers be forewarned, this book also contains some graphic sex scenes, very few of them straight. Many of the gladiatrices are lesbian or lesbian-leaning, and Lysandra's sex scenes are described in vivid detail – nicely written I will say, and of course I have to praise Whitfield for including the anus in Lysandra and Eirienwen's, and Penelope's, sexuality. Moreover, there is a graphic rape scene about halfway through the novel, which is almost a little too gratuitous even for my taste. I appreciate the premise, and I appreciate the exploration of themes like Amazonian feminism, rape, and Roman imperialism, but the story itself I felt bored reading. It won't get an abysmal mark from me, but I won't be reading the sequel. less

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