Rating: 4 stars
Raised as an Athenian priestess in a harsh and secretive Spartan compound, Lysandra is nineteen years old and full of pride. She believes that the ways of Sparta are the only true and correct way to live. While on a mission trip to further her skills, Lysandra undergoes and survives a shipwreck which washes her straight into the hands of slave traders. She soon finds herself forced to fight for her life in the arena for the blood lust of Roman citizens.
Lysandra is taken into slavery under Lucius Balbus, who owns the largest and most successful school of female gladiators in the East. Her skill is immediately apparent, as is her unbending pride and arrogance. Knowing that her only way out is to buy her freedom or die, Lysandra determines to rise to Gladiatrix Prima.To do this she will have to take on the current Gladiatrix Prima, Sorina. The only certainty here is that one of them will not leave the arena alive.
As protagonists go, Lysandra is one of the most flawed and arrogant heroines I have seen in a long time. She is not a likeable person; in fact her very insistence on the rightness of her way is almost enough to put the reader off. What makes her so captivating though is the pride and confidence in her abilities. Lysandra is beaten and violated but she never breaks. It's a delicate balance that the author treads with great care.
The author also takes care with the history of the period, creating a setting of harsh violence and debauched beauty that mingles well. And be aware that this book is incredibly violent; it does not hold back and if you are in any way put off by violence towards women, then this is not a story for you.
The only issue I have with this novel is that so much is made of the inevitable battle between Lysandra and Sorina but when it actually arrives the whole scene is terribly anti-climactic. The last fifty pages were a great disappointment and this is what keeps this from being a five star book. I recommend it for the subject matter, skilled writing, and fascinating characters but be prepared for a let-down at the end.
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Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1 edition (April 14, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0312534884
ISBN-13: 978-0312534882