|
THE AUTUOR:
Marion Zimmer Bradley comes from Albany (New York). She is known as a successful SCIENCE FICTION and FANTASY writer. As her popular novels THE LIGHT OF ATLANTIS and THE HAZES OF AVALON, also the recent
work of the author acts in a mythical space of time and at a mysterious place. Again women are the ones who try to recognize their purpose.
THE CUARACTERS:
Zadya (first person narrator),
Ifania, her mistress and
Beizun, Zadya\'s best friend.
TUE PLOT:
In an explosion of white light a young woman loses her
memory. Slave-traders find her in the desert and they carry her into town, to seIl her to the combatant\'s brothel. But the unknown beauty refuses to accept that, So she
takes the sword of the first man who approaches her and she kills hirn with a terrible stroke.She can\'t remember w hat she was in her life. She has forgotten everything - her name, her family,her origin except for the ability of fighting with sword and shield like the best combatants of the arena. And also another thing she knows deep inside her heart -that no man is allowed to touch her. She has been raped by the men who brought her to the brothel. So she is always scared when a man comes too near to her.
The arena is her onIy chance -a life- and -death career. For her rich mistress Ifania she has to fight against combatants and wild beasts as ZADYA THE HORRIBLE. Every victory means death for the enemy and a new reprieve for Zadya.
Two women tell her the secrets of love: Ifania and Beizun, her friend from the arena. Zadya falls in love with a very handsome man but she never wants to kiss him or anything like that. She wants to keep her virginity though she doesn\'t know why.
Ifania sends Zadya and Beizun to the lands beyond the desert to find other women who want to fight in the arena. For both, this travel is very difficult and for Zadya it\'s an adventurous expedition to her past. Because slowly but surely her earlier life comes back into her memory and then, at the end of her odyssey, the secret of her origin and her virginity is solved. That means, that all man and women of her fighting team have to swear, that they will never be united in love.
VOCABULARIES:
AMAZON die Amazone
HAZE der Nebel
RECOGNIZE erkennen
PURPOSE der Zweck
MISTRESS die Herrin\' \\,
COMBATANT der Gladiator
BROTHEL das Bordell
TO APPROACH sich nähern
ORIGIN die Herkunft
ABILITY die Fähigkeit
REPRIEVE die Gnadenfrist
BEYOND jenseits
ODYSSEY die Irrfahrt
VIRGINITY die Jungfräulichkeit
|
