Its all here, the blood, the gore, the rape, racial conflict, fighting cat women, lesbians no less, in this loosely based novel of gladiatrixes of ancient Rome. The action is fast paced enough as our protagonist, Lysander, priestess of Sparta, is imprisoned and coerced to become a slave of a fighting school. She falls in love with a fellow (no pun intended) gladiatrix who meets an untimely end. As re-named Achillia for the games, Lysander develops into a formidable fighting machine and hero of the games, which inspired the depraved Balbus, owner of the school, to create even larger spectacles, appealing as high as the Roman imperial court. Throughout we are treated with dialogue fairly heavy to inform us of Roman military tactics, gladiator training, and Roman culture. The path is clear to a follow-up novel in that this work introduces us to Trajan, eventual Emperor, subjugator of the Dacians, the area in which the chief antagonist gladiatrix originates from, and in this novel returned to at the end. Read this if you enjoy historical novels of the period and you would like to learn a bit about Roman entertainment.
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