Gail Simone is a treasure. I have loved her writing for years - whenever I saw her name on a comic book cover I knew I was in for a good time. I adored her run on the Secret Six and her take on Barbara Gordon is the definitive one for me. So when I found out she was coming out with her first prose novel I was excited! But when I realized it was a Red Sonja novel I was a little apprehensive. Red Sonja was never a character I had read or wanted to read. Although I love D&D and sword & sorcery stories, I had never been a fan of the scantily-clad-warrior-in-a-chainmail-bikini subgenre and I had never read or seen any Red Sonja in any medium. But I trusted Gail, so I requested an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher, and received one in exchange for an honest review.
I was glad I trusted Gail. I enjoyed this book - I especially liked her way of starting every chapter with an excerpt of something, often scholarly work, that treated Sonja as a character out of myth or historical legend.
Now, although I enjoyed the book, I didn’t particularly like the character of Sonja herself - the book starts out with her stealing from and betraying a lover, actions I was unable to forgive her for throughout the book. That colored my overall enjoyment. Some of the secondary villains felt unnecessary to the story and some late plot twists seemed unnecessary or poorly telegraphed. But these are minor quibbles. I will be happy to read the next Red Sonja novel Ms. Simone writes, or anything at all she comes up with.
