Reseña de ARC: Silverlegs I: Seed of Rage

*Digital ARC gently provided by publishers and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*  {RESEÑA BILINGUE}

Silverlegs I: Seed of Rage 

by

Camilla Monk

 400 pages

Published August 27th 2019 by Yaypub

ASIN: B07SY6SL58

Edition Language: English 

BLURB: A fifteen-year-old girl with a gift for violence and nothing left to lose, Constanter is running. To escape the farm she grew up on in a remote part of the Western Lorian empire.  She runs east, toward the distant war she knows only from the tales of travelers—a twenty-year long conflict, opposing the Western and Eastern halves of the empire. Mistaken for a boy after she stole the gear of a dead soldier, she is captured and drafted by a band of mercenaries whose leader recognizes her innate speed and agility. Her face hidden under a mask, Constanter surrenders to the anger she wears like a second skin and becomes Silverlegs, a legendary killer, an uncontrollable weapon in the hands of power-hungry rulers and religious fanatics.  As the Western empire spirals into madness in the name of the One God, Constanter will have to choose what she truly fights for, before Silverlegs’s rage leads her down the road to hell...

My rating: 3.5 death is my gift stars

Hear the warnings, kids: rape , violence galore, and tons of profanities in this book.

In a Romanesque world (different names and 2 moons) a farmer girl runaway to ends recluited into a mercenary army as male warrior. Constanter was good at it. Mortal, as a matter of fact.

Uh, I'm debating with myself since yesterday how to rate this. Certainly, not my usual reading preference. I never got to watch Spartacus the series so only can compare this to that excellent HBO's Rome series for the kind of viciousness and show how the real society was. So it's a historical drama. Religion divide the Empire between 2 forces at war (you know is not that simple, but... ) ; one is monotheist and the other worship old gods.

The camp of Clearchos is brutal, the treatment between men is brutal, let alone the treatment toward women and weak men.

Putting ourselves in a historical context, the woman is worth nothing except to make marriage deals if you were high class, but if you weren't, it only remained to be wives or prostitutes. Wise women who healed with herbs were called witches and would be for many more centuries.

So, is it too surprising that a girl prefers to be a man and fight?

--

People didn’t really care for pride in my village, except maybe if someone called you a mollis or they said your wife was a witch. Beyond that, the consensus in our community was that dignity was overrated where survival was concerned. Victrix, with his fica, was the first person who ever made me see that there was pride in me, and who made me consider how much I valued it—evidently more than the two boys who scrambled to pick up the fruit and fought like dogs in the dust.

--

Constanter soon becomes known for his agility and speed as Silverlegs.

And the rage within her, is a rage against everyone and also against her. The victim no longer wants to be one, now she is a predator, but to do so in this brutal world she must still exert a more brutal violence so as not to be discovered.

Deep down, I knew I didn’t belong here with the winners— the predators. But I never wanted to be prey again.

But this is not a tale but a historical drama , do not believe there will be a happy ending. Let's just say that GRR Martin would be proud.

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{En castellano:}

Escuchen las advertencias, niños: violación, violencia en abundancia y toneladas de blasfemias en este libro.

En un mundo románico (diferentes nombres y 2 lunas), una granjera fugitiva iletrada es reclutada en un ejército mercenario como guerrero masculino. Constanter era bueno en eso. Mortal, de hecho.

Estoy discutiendo conmigo misma desde ayer cómo calificar esto. Ciertamente, no es mi preferencia de lectura habitual. Nunca pude ver la serie Spartacus, así que solo puedo comparar esto con esa excelente serie Roma (de HBO) por el tipo de crueldad exhibido y mostrar cómo era la sociedad real. Entonces es un drama histórico. La religión divide el Imperio entre 2 fuerzas en guerra (ya sabes, no es tan simple, pero ...); uno es monoteísta y el otro adora a dioses antiguos.

El campamento es brutal, el trato entre hombres es brutal, y no digamos el trato hacia mujeres y hombres débiles.

Poniéndonos en un contexto histórico, la mujer no vale nada excepto para hacer tratos matrimoniales si eras de clase alta, pero si no lo eras, solo quedaba ser esposas o prostitutas. Las mujeres sabias que curaban con hierbas se llamaban brujas y lo serían por muchos siglos más.

Entonces, ¿es demasiado sorprendente que una chica prefiera ser hombre y pelear?

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Constanter llegará a ser conocido por su agilidad y velocidad como Silverlegs.

Y la ira dentro de ella, es una ira contra todos y también contra ella. La víctima ya no quiere serlo, ahora es una depredadora, pero para hacerlo en este mundo brutal todavía debe ejercer una violencia más brutal para no ser descubierta.

Pero esto no es un cuento sino una novela dramática histórica, no creas que habrá un final feliz. Digamos que GRR Martin estaría orgulloso.

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