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Gladiatrix (2008)

by Russell Whitfield(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1905802099 (ISBN13: 9781905802098)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Myrmidon Books Ltd

series

Gladiatrix

review 1: I started this, and made it 45% of the way through, before I just couldn't take any more of it. The protagonist Lysandra does not engage or connect with me, and the repetition of other characters' observations about how beautiful she is, "but not yet out of her teens", how skilled a warrior she is, etc. means there's a lot of telling going on, and not enough showing. Additionally, the character is difficult to empathise with: she is a one-trick pony with her character depth. "I am a priestess of Sparta, this is all terrible and my goddess has abandoned me. Oh wait! Maybe not. Now I shall fight for her." The stone-cold attitude may be authentically Spartan -- but it does not make for a good empathetic character. The only other fully-developed characters are Lysandra's two l... moreove interests, making for a very flat tale.
review 2: I was suprised by how much I liked this book. Without revealing too much, the majority of the characters were profoundly unlikeable, arrogant, stubborn, bloodthirsty, and very difficult to relate to. Despite that, being a novel about battle, you are drawn into the devotion, and desire to win of the main character, her struggle to resign herself to her fate. The setting and descriptions are what holds it together, very detailed and well realised, colourful, and based on the authors knowledge of the time, very accurate of the time. A vivid, if not emotional read. less

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