Leia reviewed Red Sonja by Gail Simone
A Solid Low Fantasy
4 stars
Apparently this is a knockoff character by Marvel of Robert E. Howard’s “Red Sonya.” This is confused in my mind at least, by the fact that the movie with Conan is called “Red Sonja.” Which I suppose makes more since that Gail Simone wrote this one. That said, it references Howard’s lore and there is a lack of Spider-Man. Which is a good thing imo.
The book is more melancholy than I expected. For a character that touts so much that they don’t care about the past or future, there is a lot of internal fretting. The other characters that get narration it makes sense, but Sonja is in on the act too. That isn’t to say it’s bad. I just wasn’t expecting it.
I also wasn’t expecting Sonja to be bisexual. Much of the plot hinges on a woman whom she was lovers with and was introduced …
Apparently this is a knockoff character by Marvel of Robert E. Howard’s “Red Sonya.” This is confused in my mind at least, by the fact that the movie with Conan is called “Red Sonja.” Which I suppose makes more since that Gail Simone wrote this one. That said, it references Howard’s lore and there is a lack of Spider-Man. Which is a good thing imo.
The book is more melancholy than I expected. For a character that touts so much that they don’t care about the past or future, there is a lot of internal fretting. The other characters that get narration it makes sense, but Sonja is in on the act too. That isn’t to say it’s bad. I just wasn’t expecting it.
I also wasn’t expecting Sonja to be bisexual. Much of the plot hinges on a woman whom she was lovers with and was introduced very early on in the book. It actually takes a while to set up that she is bi and not gay. I’ve read some of Howard’s Conan stories and depicting him as bi or gay would probably make Howard spin in his grave, though something tells me he’d be less upset about Sonja. >_>
Speaking of Howard, I can happily say this book doesn't get into his worse proclivities. By which I’ll be a bit coy and mention something I read in a forward in a collection of Howard’s Conan stories. One of his best friends was H.P. Lovecraft. Some of the dark gods in Conan’s stories are from Lovecraft’s work. Back to what I was talking about, this book doesn’t have any of the racism or sexism that was in the original works. At least the Conan ones. I never read any original Sonya stories, but I imagine they’re similar in this. That’s one of the ways the modern interpretations are better than the originals.
I was a bit disappointed at how rushed one of the plot lines was wrapped up.
All in all, nothing groundbreaking, but a fine addition to Sonja’s story. Solid sword and sorcery. I was looking for something more popcorn to read, and while this has more pathos than I was expecting, it was what I wanted.