The good, the bad, and the ugly: Gladiatrix (Gladiatrix #1) by Russell Whitfield

Genderbent Spartacus with lesbians.

The good

• It's about female gladiators! Hell to the yeah!
• Scheming Romans 
• The book assumes the reader knows stuff about ancient Rome, because you'd hardly read it if you didn't (thank you, author, for treating us as the knowledgeable people we are)
• LGBTQ representation! There are: lesbian characters and F/F relationships (but they're gladiatrices, so don't expect happy endings) and a very very minor M/M relationship with a hopeful ending
• The protagonist, Lysandra, is Spartan and looks like Xena (just putting it out there)
• Her character growth is subtle but it's there
• Her gladiator name is Achillia, the feminine form of Achilles (how cool is that?!)
• Friendship, sisterhood, and kinship are very important to the characters in this book
• Lots of gruesome action (this could be a negative, depending on your POV, but I found it was fun and provided more realism)
• Gladiators that actually die
• One of the side characters is a prostitute, and her male lover doesn't judge
• The ending is happyish (the main characters don't get what they want, but it's not all bad) and sets things up for a sequel.

The bad

• Typos and strange paragraph formatting, but that might just be because it's an ebook
• No Roman matrons (c'mon, where are the Roman daughters, wives, and mothers?)
• No descriptions of the classical architecture (what do the arena and temple look like?) (I love my columns)
• It's quite long, so there's heaps in it, but it's not a quick read (which could be a positive, depending on your POV).

The ugly

• The one black male character is a creepy and violent rapist drug addict and his name is similar to the word "nasty" (need I spell out RACISM?)
• Rape. Not only that, but it's a violent gang-rape. Gross.

Conclusions

If it weren't for the rape and racism, I would've loved this book. In addition to that, if there were no typos and we saw some Roman women as well as the gladiatrices and slave girls, I'd definitely give this five stars. I'm definitely reading the sequel though.

I felt a bit strange that this was written by a man, but he did a pretty good job at writing a vaguely feminist novel whose main characters are lesbians. I'm impressed.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to fans of women warriors and Spartacus: Blood and Sand. There's explicit violence and sex, so avoid if you're not into that.

The summary

Under the Flavian Emperors the Roman public’s hunger for gladiatorial combat has never been greater. The Emperor Domitian’s passion for novelty and variety in the arena has given rise to a very different kind of warrior: the Gladiatrix.

Sole survivor of a shipwreck off the coast of Asia Minor, Lysandra finds herself the property of Lucius Balbus, owner of the foremost Ludus for female gladiators in the Eastern Empire. Lysandra, a member of an ancient Spartan sect of warrior priestesses, refuses to accept her new status as a slave. Forced to fight for survival, her deadly combat skills win the adoration of the crowds, the respect of her Lanista, Balbus, and the admiration of Sextus Julius Frontinus, the provincial governor.

But Lysandra’s Spartan pride also earns her powerful enemies: the Dacian warrior, Sorina, Gladiatrix Prima and leader of the Barbarian faction, and the sadistic Nubian trainer Nastasen.
When plans are laid for the ultimate combat spectacle to honour the visit of the new Consul, Lysandra must face her greatest and deadliest trial.

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