Pure Believable Fiction
Every once in a while I am surprised by a book. The Gladiator and the Guard, by Annie Douglass Lima did just that. It surprised me.
With a blur of action and intrigue, I was instantly transported into a world
that felt real…that had history…that had depth.
From the moment, I met Bensin, Ellie, Ricky and I just loved
this, Coach-Dad, these characters felt as if they really were. What Lima has done is created a world and a people that feel
as though they truly exist, and a place where if you only knew where it was,
you would visit. In our world where the NFL
and MMA exist as the kings of the
contact sports—sorry hockey fans—Lima has introduced Cavvara Shil. This world has weight, has
substance and a sense of history; and while Cavvara
Shil is not a real martial art, the principals upon which it is built is truly
martial in nature.
Lima captured what my martial arts friends
call, the Bushido Code—The Way of the Warrior—and rolled into it the life of her protagonist,
Bensin. As in real life, Bensin doesn’t get to experience his challenges in the
sterile Petri dish of flat-fiction; it is instead presented in the dynamics of
culture and
society, where the question of the value of human life; and perhaps to a
greater degree, the question of the value of one’s personal honor are examined.
In this fast past adventure, the reader is never bored,
never left hanging, and never left wanting. The reader is pushed right along
with the characters on this journey of growth and exploration. Lima allows the
reader to see and feel what the characters feel through the clever use of
reflective writing. She does this while not significantly slowing the pace of
the narrative. She also avoids the trap of creating an alternative world built of
stereotypes and clichés. This is truly a journey the reader will enjoy and
return to time and time again to discover the nuisances the writer has so
cleverly embedded in the text.
Although I received a free copy of The Gladiator and the Guard,
by Annie Douglass Lima, the thoughts and the opinions here displayed are my
own. It is a true honor to recommend The
Gladiator and the Guard to all my readers and those new readers looking for
a great adventure.
