Customer Reviews

Gladiatrix

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a very interesting book that takes a look into the life of a gladiatrix. It is a fictional story, the author explains at the end of the book where he got the story from and how much is based in fact and fiction. Most of the book is fiction with the historical figures being accurate.

Lysandra is a Spartan priestess who is sold into slavery after her ship sinks and she washes up on shore. Her Spartan upbringing serves her well as a gladiatrice and she is quickly found to be ferocious fighter. She finds love where she least expects it and finds a trainer's hatred to be much more dangerous than anything she faces in the ring.

This was a well-written book. It was engaging, with well done action scenes. There is something for everyone here; love, hatred, revenge, action, politics. For some reason when I got the book from Amazon Vine I thought it was a young adult book...I don't know where I got that idea from but it is not.

This book is not for the faint of heart. The arena violence is described in detail, as is subjugation of the gladiatrix, rape, sex both between same sex and opposite sex partners. From time to time I was cringing at the bloody detail.

The author did a great job at weaving this story into what is known about Roman history. It was very believable sounding. The ending takes an ironic twist that was delightfully surprising and somewhat realistic.

I was a little disappointed that so much of the story was spend setting Lysandra up as the general of an army for an outlandish arena spectacle, and then nothing was really ever done with that. I guess maybe it was part of the irony of the story but it seemed like that was a waste of plot. Other than that I enjoyed the story.

Great book I look forward to more books from this author.

Lysandra is a Spartan priestess who is captured and sold into slavery. Her story begins with a brutal battle between her and another woman in the arena. Lysandra proves herself(by staying alive) and is then brought to a facility that trains women how to fight. It's here where the story unfolds and we learn more about Lysandra and the techniques used to train these women.

It is within this school that Lysandra meets an array of different characters including her trainers, slaves and other women who are fighting to stay alive. Lysandra makes numerous enemies for various reasons. Some hate her for her forbidden love affair. Others despise her because she is Spartan. And there are those who think she is full of herself and need to be knocked down a peg or two.

Much has been said about the violence of this novel. It's true. There is a great deal of killing(but then again these women are trained to kill). There are a few rape scenes(very brutal) and there are some lesbian scenes. The language in this novel is very blunt. I like to think of it as locker room banter. I can't write an example because it would be removed by Amazon. It's safe to say that this book does not censor itself. I did not find it offensive because I put this novel in the context it was written. These women are like soldiers and as we know sometimes soldiers can get a little um, colorful. However, I can understand why some would be offended. Again this is all personal taste.

Lysandra is an unforgiving character, but that's why I like her. She isn't your typical woman. Even after everything she has faced she doesn't turn soft, cry in a corner and wonder what her life has become. That is not the Spartan way. At times I wonder if the author has written her too much like a man. However she did come from Sparta, so perhaps it can be overlooked.

I read a lot of historical fiction and I would have to say this is not your typical book from the genre. Most HF is written with women in mind, but not this novel. It is brutal with very few of the traits you see in your typical HF novel. That isn't to say it is bad, but it is different.

Overall I enjoyed the book. Sometimes I thought it was a bit too long winded for me. The ending seemed to drag and was not at all fulfilling yet I still enjoyed it.

I went to the author's website and it appears as if a sequel is in the works.

One of the most enduring myths revolves around the Roman gladiator who rises from abject slavery - forced to fight and die for the entertainment of others - to become a lynchpin in the survival of the Roman Republic or Empire. Thanks to "Spartacus," "Gladiator," and numerous other efforts, there is no shortage of spins on this classic storyline.

"Gladiatrix" takes a slightly-different spin by acknowledging that the Romans liked to see women enter the arena as well. Inspired by a well-known frieze depicting two women locked in gladiatorial combat, "Gladiatrix" imagines the life of women forced into the gladiatrix school during the Roman Empire.

Our heroine, such as she is, is Lysandra, a Spartan priestess who is the lone survivor of a shipwreck. Captured and thrown into slavery, Lysandra is destined to be fodder for the arena until a Greek priest tells her that to fight well in the arena is to honor Athena, goddess of war. A Spartan woman, Lysandra has grown up trained in the military arts, and soon she is jockeying for position as the lead gladiatrix in her school.

Her arrival disrupts the carefully-maintained harmony of the gladiatrix school as she falls in love with a gorgeous veteran while earning the enmity of the First Sword of the school. Sporting an ego so large that it raises the question of whether Donald Trump has Spartan blood, Lysandra gets under the skin of everyone she encounters, for good or ill. Refreshingly flawed, Lysandra makes for an interesting protagonist.

Much of the novel looks like a classic build-up to an epic confrontation between Lysandra and the first sword of the gladiatrix school, but the final act of the novel meanders somewhat, ultimately building to an unsatisfying climax. Some story arcs are left dangling, while others are wrapped up in overly-convenient simplicity.

Well-researched and sporting some intriguing characters, "Gladiatrix" will not supplant the Rome-based novels of Colleen McCullough or even Conn Iggulden. But it is an enjoyable read that offers some surprises, and I look forward to future novels by author Russell Whitfield.

Normally I try not too be too mean or critical when someone releases their first novel. Having friends who write historical fiction, I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into writing and that your first book is often fraught with peril.

However, after reading Gladiatrix, I was torn. On one hand, it's a light, easy read that makes for good airplane reading and is not a bad way to spend some time, but the book wasn't that great. In fact, it bordered on mediocrity.

Gladiatrix basically takes the story of the movie Gladiator and replaces the lead character with a woman. Slave woman works her way up the ranks and becomes an awesome gladiator. This is really nothing new, and has been explored previously. The only niche was a woman character, and this being in the historical fiction category, I was hoping that this was really based in fact and not too much fiction was placed into the story. There's a partial truth to this.

Reading the book, it felt like it was a bad combination of the tv show Rome and most gladiator-based movies. The supporting characters had little or no depth, other than serving as plot points or foils. There's some profanity and sex, but that really had no bearing on how I felt about the characters since for the most part, they were paper thin.

For a first novel, it's not that bad and Whitfield should be pleased. But there's room for improvement, and I wouldn't mind seeing him give Lysandra another novel, but this time with better dialogue, supporting characters that have more depth and in the realm of historical fiction: less fiction, more history.

Lysandra is a Spartan priestess and the concept of being a slave is anathema to her. Unfortunately, her capture after a shipwreck leaves her with little alternatives. Lucius Balbus offers her a chance to excel despite her slavery, a chance as a GLADIATRIX in his budding entertainment industry. Lysandra will face many trials and tribulations in this new world she faces. Will she emerge as a survivor, as a winning GLADIATRIX in the arena?

GLADIATRIX is a harsh look at the world of female gladiators. As one would expect from the time period and setting, the world crafted by Russell Whitfield is brutal and violent. At its core, GLADIATRIX is a story of slavery, Sapphic love, and vengeance. Some readers may find the subject matter a bit disturbing, particularly the hostility exhibited towards women by some of the characters.

Unfortunately, Lysandra is a difficult character to like. Her pompous attitude gets to be quite wearisome as one tires of reading about how the Spartans are superior to everyone in every single way possible. In fact, if the story of the training itself hadn't been so fascinating, I'd have tossed the book aside in disgust! However, as the story progresses, Lysandra begins to soften somewhat. Her friendships with others add a new dimension to her personality. It's somewhat disappointing that the story takes the dark turn it does as the plot device almost seems to imply that women become more human and likable only after they are broken by men. Thankfully, there are heroes in the story who condemn the actions and thus save the novel. GLADIATRIX is definitely not for the squeamish!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

As a fairly young reader who has always been fascinated by the Gladiators and the civilization of ancient Rome itself, I've found this to be an interesting read that will be empowering to any woman of any age. Though this book did fufull its promise of almost non-stop action, it did have some scenes that I would have never expected and really struggled to get past to finish the rest of the book. Warning: this book contains heterozygous and homozygous sex, rape, and mastrubation that is all very detailed and very...uncomfortable to say the least. All I can say is that if you can keep an open mind and get over the initial state of shock that you may experience when you realize what you're reading, you'll be in for a thrilling read. Gladiatrix is really worth the four stars, and the charecter of Lysandra with her confidence bordering on arrogance and absolute abhorrence of failure is stunningly brilliant and somewhat inspiring. Overall, if you enjoy a story that has a strong female hero with an interesting backround that rises out of oppression and into the place of one of Romes greatest icons, then you'll love Gladiatrix.

In the end, it is in the arena that the matter is decided and, fittingly, it is in the scenes of arena combat that Russell Whitfield's Gladiatrix shines most fiercely. Himself an accomplished practitioner of martial arts, Whitfield sets his reader squarely on the sands where the blow and parries come swiftly and expertly, catching you up and carrying you along, breathless, till the final thrust. Sweaty, panting, dust-covered, his heroines fight their literal battles, carve out their emotional territory and raise their swords in salute to ideologies as disparate as Spartan asceticism, Roman imperialism and Dacian nomadicism.

Lysandra, Spartan priestess of Athena, is the center of the story and embodies the best and worst of Laconic traits. She is tough, arrogant, disciplined, racist and annoyingly skillful as a warrior, trainer and leader of the gladiatrices. Lysandra marches through most of the book, eyes forward, impervious or unaware of her grating effect on absolutely everyone else. That is, until she is won by the charms of Celtic Eirianwen. Their romance provides the first softening of Lysandra's defenses and at the same time crystallizes the polarization of the Greeks and the "barbarians" in the ludus that will lead to the book's climactic showdown.

Whitfield clearly knows and loves his subject matter, deftly weaving in enough detail to keep the story feeling authentic without using history as stage dressing or bogging down the action. His language is precise and varied, his prose lively and lucid. My only difficulty with the novel is the entirely unlovable nature of his protagonist Lysandra. She suffers terrible things, from the physically painful to the psychically devastating, and I just couldn't empathize. It wasn't until the story's focus shifted exclusively to the duel - physical and psychological - between Lysandra and Sorina the Dacian, that I felt her begin to achieve real human depth. Luckily for me, I have it on good authority that Gladiatrix II is in the works and I'll be able to follow Lysandra's further adventures and development.

In short, Gladiatrix packs a punch. It is carefully constructed historical fiction replete with Roman scheming, Asiatic excess, enough sex to keep me interested and fight scenes the vividness of which I'll not soon forget. Not suitable for the squeamish, it is good fun for fans of women warriors. Good job, Russ!

This is a very good book for someone who likes explicit sexual encounters, blood and gore, and can deal withe belittling of women. Granted it's just a story but I'm more of a romance person than someone who likes battles and unspeakable horrors.

The story itself is well written, detailed and action packed. It will capture the right person and keep them entralled for quite some time with the accounts of history and just how things could have really been in times past. The author has really out done himself at giving a quality story with proper writing skills.

Fans of Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire" and/or Frank Miller's "300" will find much to admire in Russell Whitfield's debut novel, "Gladiatrix."

Whitfield's protagonist, Lysandra, is a Spartan priestess captured in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) after she is the sole survivor of a shipwreck in the Hellespont. She is sold into slavery and becomes the property of Lucius Balbus, owner of the first all-female ludus (gladiatorial school) in the region. Along with Lysandra, readers are introduced to women from many cultures subdued by Roman conquest.

Whitfield pulls no punches when he writes about either the Spartan agoge or the Roman ludus, detailing the brutal training regimes of both. To do so, he draws upon not only historical documentation but also his experience as a gladiatorial reenactor/cultural interpreter.

This book is gritty, realistic, passionate and gripping. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the descriptions of scenery, battles and culture are brilliant. I recommend this novel without reservation.
(Review based on advance readers' edition.)

This book will make you feel as though you are walking side by side with Lysandra (the Heroine in the story). It is well written and it pulls you into the story and is a thrill to turn the pages to read what is happening next! That is so rare today!
If you are a history buff, and like stories like "The 300", "Persepolis" etc then this book is for you!