[Y7S]∎ [PDF] Gratis Gladiatrix Russell Whitfield 9781905802098 Books

Gladiatrix Russell Whitfield 9781905802098 Books

Download As PDF : Gladiatrix Russell Whitfield 9781905802098 Books

Gladiatrix Russell Whitfield 9781905802098 Books

I am a total history buff. I absolutely love ancient history. I remember back in 2006 or 2007 I watched a documentary about Gladiatrices voiced by Lucy Lawless and that was when my interest in this topic was sparked. I recently watched the documentary again on youtube and found myself wondering if there were anything else out there on the subject. A quick search on Wikipedia told me that Gladiatrix was the title of a novel and I immediately looked it up on Amazon.

Now for me, this book delivered absolutely everything I wanted from it. The prose was beautiful and nearly poetic at times. I was immediately immersed into the world and the scene from the first paragraph. This book had my adrenaline pumping in anticipation of a fight to the death every time a gladiatrix stepped into the arena. The book did a wonderful job of giving me an honest sense of what it might have been like to live in the ancient Roman world. That doesn't mean it was perfect and historically accurate every step of the way, but where it failed it did not offend me and as a fan of history I am generally pretty picky about the details.

This book, however, is quite brutal as other reviews have touched on. The training the gladiatrices endure is brutal. The world the characters live in is harsh at the best of times and it often was downright cruel. At the risk of spoiling the plot a little, the main character seems to be a Lesbian. Or in the very least she enjoys the company of women and is only interested in a very specific type of man. She does wind up in, what I thought was a very touching lesbian relationship. As a straight woman I didn't think I could find myself so deeply moved by a same sex relationship, least of all a lesbian one because I am not in the least attracted to women. And even though this book did nothing to arouse me, the love between Lysandra and her lover was very touching and had me laughing, smiling, sighing and crying in all the rights ways. If you're open minded then you may still find this book enjoyable. But if same sex relationships offend your delicate sensibilities then it may be best to keep moving. Another way in which this book is brutal, and very graphically so, is that there is indeed one true rape scene and another scene involving a prostitute I found disgusting and hard to read. However, it wasn't disgusting in the way that it made me hate the book, though it was quite graphic. It was disgusting in a way that made me hate the antagonists of the book and the cruelty they were inflicting upon various characters. Though again, if something like that is too graphic for you or it may offend you then you should probably look elsewhere for a gladiator fix. Though unfortunately, it was ancient Rome. Both homosexuality, slavery and rape should be expected given the setting.

The story itself was very riveting. I enjoyed every page of this book. If you consider yourself an open minded, mature adult then this book may have something to offer you too.

The characters were extremely well done. The protagonist, Lysandra, is not always a likeable person but her arrogance is downright funny most of the time. And despite herself there is a sense of tenderness and sincerity below the surface of her character that makes her hard to hate. She is very much human, though she tries not to show it and even fights against it in her pursuit to serve her goddess and live up to the ideals of Spartan society and her arrogance, as well as her ignorance can be endearing at times. No matter how you look at it though, this story is not warm and fuzzy. The protagonist is not trying to get you to like, or even love her. She's very harsh and cold at times, and her blind arrogance can be hard to swallow and yet, by the end of the book there was very much a special place in my heart for Lysandra and I was left thoroughly entertained by her tale.

The Kindle price seemed a bit steep, but if you like the first book and you buy the second book on Kindle you'll end up saving money getting both the kindle editions, rather than getting both the print versions. Regardless, I found this book worth every penny.

I hope this review was of some help to you.

Fantastic book!


Tags : Gladiatrix [Russell Whitfield] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 1st trade edition paperback, fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse,Russell Whitfield,Gladiatrix,Myrmidon Books Ltd,1905802099

Gladiatrix Russell Whitfield 9781905802098 Books Reviews

Warning spoilers!! I have a few qualms I want to air out before getting into the reasons I enjoyed this book.
First, the book ended with the main character gaining her freedom. How can there be two more books in the series if the biggest trial is already over? Second the main character has a big ego, and I would have thought that if she remained a gladiator longer, she could develop more as a character in terms. Of less ego and more visible compassion. Lastly, she never get her revenge on her tormenor. She trained super hard only to have him killed by the Dacian who sets up her to take the fall which isn't really touched upon. On the other hand all these reasons annoy me so much that I might just buy the next book to see how the protagonist developed as a character, and what she does with her freedom. Which is why I titled this review with the phrase darn it, I'm hooked.

This book is not for all. It could bee called gritty and disturbing in its content at times, and it surely is. For some though it might not be as gritty or disturbing as it might appear. This is more defined by the terms of each reader by theirself, however. Its certainly not suitable for kids, and perhaps some adults would not enjoy it's contents, other might find it lacking intensity as I did. Buy it's hard not to like or at least be curious about the futures of a few of these character once done teading, a sign of a good book. I recommended this book but won't go out of my way to say it's a must read, as there are better nooks out there, but I have yet to find any as good (though my experience is limited) in this genre.
When I found this book and read the plot summary, my first thought was "Holy crap! It's like Spartacus/Gladiator for girls!" Awesome! Since Spartacus is one of my favourite TV shows and Gladiator is an epic film, I had high hopes for this book. But even with my high hopes, I was not prepared for how much I would absolutely love this book!

When going into this book, I expected the violence, the fame, and the bloodlust -- all expected when you're reading a gladiator book.. But I didn't expect this book to be so full of emotion. Love, lust, rage, loss, suffering, revenge. I found myself hoping, praying, crying, and sympathizing. This book seriously yanked at my emotions! Gladiatrix is so much more than just the bloody life of a gladiator. It follows the life of a slave -- with all the hurts, dreams, and losses that that entails.

I felt every betrayal, every pain, and every loss so much more potently through the words of a book. I've seen them on screen in Spartacus and Gladiator, but Russell Whitfield magnificently weaved the story to tug at my emotions and really make me feel for the main character -- even if I was annoyed with her. I felt like everything that happened to her was happening to me.

At the beginning, I fell in love with the main character, Lysandra. I completely sympathized with her situation. She was once an honoured Spartan warrior priestess but was captured and thrown into a world of gladitorial arts and slavery. That's obviously a huge change and something that would be extremely difficult to adapt to. So I completely understood when Lysandra lost her will to fight and felt as if she shamed her people and her priesthood.

From there, I constantly flipflopped between being annoyed with her, hating her, admiring her, and sympathizing with her. She proved to be arrogant and self important. It was an interesting form of arrogance though. It's not like she ignored everyone because she thought she was better than them. She thought she was better than them so she felt obligated to walk around saying, "I'm more knowledgeable than you so it's my duty to help you." So I guess it was a bit of a double edged sword. She was a little annoying, but at least she was trying to be helpful.

But on the other hand, she is incredibly knowledgeable and strong, and I LOVE that in a character. And throughout all her hardships, I found myself wanting to reach out and hug her or something.

As a bit of a warning, this book is very sexual and very violent. That could turn people away from it. As for me, I love a good sex book and I like action movies so violence doesn't bother me. But in addition to just having sex, Gladiatrix does have some pretty vulgar scenes (rape). So keep that in mind if you're thinking about reading the book.

But back to the subject.. I thought the romance in the book was brilliantly crafted. I fell in love with Lysandra's relationship with her lover and every word felt so genuine and real. At first I was kind of put off by the lesbian relationship, only because I can't really relate and I thought I'd prefer something that catered more toward my own sexual orientation.. but after a while, I didn't care any more. I loved the relationship and I could relate to their feelings completely.

My biggest gripe with this book was the ending. There was a huge build up but I kind of felt unsatisfied and let down, though it was obvious that the main character felt the same way -- she didn't like how things ended. Now the second book, Roma Victrix, takes place four years later, so I'm concerned that I may not get the satisfying ending I wanted from Gladiatrix. But I guess I'll just have to read the next book and find out!
I am a total history buff. I absolutely love ancient history. I remember back in 2006 or 2007 I watched a documentary about Gladiatrices voiced by Lucy Lawless and that was when my interest in this topic was sparked. I recently watched the documentary again on youtube and found myself wondering if there were anything else out there on the subject. A quick search on Wikipedia told me that Gladiatrix was the title of a novel and I immediately looked it up on .

Now for me, this book delivered absolutely everything I wanted from it. The prose was beautiful and nearly poetic at times. I was immediately immersed into the world and the scene from the first paragraph. This book had my adrenaline pumping in anticipation of a fight to the death every time a gladiatrix stepped into the arena. The book did a wonderful job of giving me an honest sense of what it might have been like to live in the ancient Roman world. That doesn't mean it was perfect and historically accurate every step of the way, but where it failed it did not offend me and as a fan of history I am generally pretty picky about the details.

This book, however, is quite brutal as other reviews have touched on. The training the gladiatrices endure is brutal. The world the characters live in is harsh at the best of times and it often was downright cruel. At the risk of spoiling the plot a little, the main character seems to be a Lesbian. Or in the very least she enjoys the company of women and is only interested in a very specific type of man. She does wind up in, what I thought was a very touching lesbian relationship. As a straight woman I didn't think I could find myself so deeply moved by a same sex relationship, least of all a lesbian one because I am not in the least attracted to women. And even though this book did nothing to arouse me, the love between Lysandra and her lover was very touching and had me laughing, smiling, sighing and crying in all the rights ways. If you're open minded then you may still find this book enjoyable. But if same sex relationships offend your delicate sensibilities then it may be best to keep moving. Another way in which this book is brutal, and very graphically so, is that there is indeed one true rape scene and another scene involving a prostitute I found disgusting and hard to read. However, it wasn't disgusting in the way that it made me hate the book, though it was quite graphic. It was disgusting in a way that made me hate the antagonists of the book and the cruelty they were inflicting upon various characters. Though again, if something like that is too graphic for you or it may offend you then you should probably look elsewhere for a gladiator fix. Though unfortunately, it was ancient Rome. Both homosexuality, slavery and rape should be expected given the setting.

The story itself was very riveting. I enjoyed every page of this book. If you consider yourself an open minded, mature adult then this book may have something to offer you too.

The characters were extremely well done. The protagonist, Lysandra, is not always a likeable person but her arrogance is downright funny most of the time. And despite herself there is a sense of tenderness and sincerity below the surface of her character that makes her hard to hate. She is very much human, though she tries not to show it and even fights against it in her pursuit to serve her goddess and live up to the ideals of Spartan society and her arrogance, as well as her ignorance can be endearing at times. No matter how you look at it though, this story is not warm and fuzzy. The protagonist is not trying to get you to like, or even love her. She's very harsh and cold at times, and her blind arrogance can be hard to swallow and yet, by the end of the book there was very much a special place in my heart for Lysandra and I was left thoroughly entertained by her tale.

The price seemed a bit steep, but if you like the first book and you buy the second book on you'll end up saving money getting both the kindle editions, rather than getting both the print versions. Regardless, I found this book worth every penny.

I hope this review was of some help to you.

Fantastic book!