Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Warrior Woman!

As the last M.Z. Bradley book to be reviewed on this blog, at least for a long while, I found Warrior Woman a much better read than the previous two.  Shorter, faster-paced, full of action, passion and an unusual, exciting female character (Zadya).  In this story, Zadya begins with no name since she remembers very little of her life before she is sold as a prostitute to a gladiatorial arena.  The flashbacks she does have of her former life are painful memories of being brutally raped, and being surrounded by white fire.  Zadya begins her new life by killing one of the men who tries to grope her as she's first introduced to the arena as one of its new whores.  In return, she is offered a place in the arena as a fighter - a gladiator, who among other gladiators will fight other men and women and animals to the death for the viewing pleasure of the crowds.  Zadya becomes her new name, and her career as a fighter is a roaring success - so much so, that she catches the eye of a wealthy woman who wants to start an all-female gladiator group.  This is where it all takes off, with Zadya remembering more and more of her past life and how she got where she did, the friends she makes, including Beizun a fellow female-gladiator who actually chose the life (and possible early death) of a gladiator for no other reason than to pay off her gambling debts.

Warrior Woman 

Will Zadya ever discover her pre-gladiator past?  Will she stay alive long enough to try?  These are the main questions, but other issues in the book are worth mulling over as well - if your life came down to a choice between a long life of misery as a prostitute, or a possibly short and terrible existence as a gladiator, which would you choose?  Why do these women make the decisions they do?  Beizun, for one, is an interesting character who volunteered to fight in the area.  The real reason why she chose this is anyone's guess, and I would've been happy to read another book just about her.  I would also have read further about the lives of gladiators in general, not to mention the female gladiators.  The theme was fascinating however short-lived - the book could have been longer, and it's hard to believe I'm saying that, but this one really had everything - mysterious characters who make even more mysterious decisions, lead crazy lives, and never give up their dignity and compassion for each other.  A page-turner and a pleasure to read.  And all for only $.01, imagine that.

Since I'm on a roll with the German, I'll continue with my German translation of Don DeLillo's novel White Noise, for a change of genre.  If you haven't heard, it's a hard look at modern America as we Americans know it: a consumerist's paradise and a European's seventh circle of hell.  Can't wait!

Edited for arrogance:  I tried reading White Noise in German, I really tried.  But it didn't take 50 pages for me to realize that I wasn't getting any of the intended jokes, if that is in fact what they were.  So without further ado, Annette Vallon: A Novel of the French Revolution shall take its place - every page of it in glorious English!

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