- Author Kate Lynd turns up the heat in this post apocalyptic struggle of love, lust, and survival. The characters are well developed as you see the depth of their emotions throughout the novel. This novella is packed with intrigue, action, and scenes that will get your pulse racing. If you enjoy action and erotic romance, "Gladiator," is the novella for you.
- This is a great story! I have been a post-apocalyptic fan ever since I was a kid in the 80s and we all thought we were going to get nuked by the Soviets. I normally like my PA more Mad Max-style, dudes in supercharged dune buggies fighting over gas in the desert. This is a more grim and realistic look at where we'd end up "After the End" than all those cool (but cheesy) old 80s movies, and was clearly written for women, but as a guy I still loved it. The fight scenes are REALLY good, and the erotic parts were pretty damn sexy, too.
- Gladiator unravels the tale of what happened to Tristan and how he slid into the life of a gladiator as he searches for a path to redemption. This isn't a story for the under-18 crowd but the plot and characters are engaging with a world that has me longing to learn more.
And my personal favorite:
- The book itself, however, is destroyed by the absolute pornographic language throughout. The story could have been made beautiful but instead the writer chose to appeal to the lowest level of readers. I have deleted it from my Kindle library and will purchase nothing else by this author. What a letdown!
You may be asking yourself why did you include the ripping review when the others clearly enjoyed it so much? Because I wanted to prove a point. Not every book is for everybody and what one person takes away from a book is clearly not what someone else will. The first two reviews are from men. And I think it's interesting to note the third review mentions it's not for the under eighteen crowd. And the one who didn't like it considered it pornographic.
And why this revisiting of a book that's been out for a while. GLADIATOR is going to be free again tomorrow and Thursday. I love to talk about Daniel Craig, music and sexy gladiators, but in the end that's not what the story was about for me. It was a commentary on our society and how people will do self-injurious things politically when their prejudices and socially conservative views make war on their common sense. When HATE over rules our sense of right and wrong and we do stupid things in the name of that hate.
Dystopian themes are not pretty ones. They expose the uglier sides of our culture. And GLADIATOR is the first book in a trilogy. ORACLE travels similar territory but pushes the story forward. The third book, QUEEN forces a character introduced to face the consequences of her actions and there is the question of whether or not she will find her redemption at this point.
I love the third review for reasons the reviewer perhaps will never understand. Our current political climate terrifies me. People are willing to walk into darkness even when one party is so clearly manipulating them. To me THAT is pornographic. They use voter suppression tactics. They are attempting to shrink the electorate and push out the disenfranchised and the most vulnerable. THAT is pornographic to me. Sex, violence, and foul language? To me I find it refreshing that all three of those reviewers can read and express themselves freely as I am free to write what I want and express my views as I see fit. Because agree or disagree it is the cornerstone on which our society is built.
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