Pick of the Week - When Women Were Warriors : The Warrior's Path
When she was a child, the author of When Women Were Warriors happily identified with all the male heroes she read about in stories that began, "Once upon a time, a young man went out to seek his fortune." But she would have been delighted to discover even one story like that with a female protagonist. Since she never did find the story she was looking for all those years ago, she decided to write it.
In Book I of the trilogy, Tamras arrives in Merin’s house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. To make matters worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the position of companion, little more than a personal servant, to a woman who came to Merin’s house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter, and this stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras.
When Women Were Warriors is the perfect representation of that time between childhood and adulthood when one feels as if their dreams are way too big to achieve or they are way too inferior to achieve them. The main character of this story, Tamras, has heard stories of these women warriors her whole life, her mother having been one of them in another place and another time, and thinks she knows just what will be asked of her when travels to become one herself. But nothing could have truly prepared her for what she is bound to experience.
Her new life will be filled with potential heartache, loneliness, and even great wisdom, both from those above her in status and those equal in her measure. She will touch lives, touch hearts, touch minds... She will discover things about herself she never would have discovered otherwise... In a nutshell, this book is breathtaking. It will leave you wanting to know more about the world surrounding Tamras and her fellow women warriors. It will leave you satisfied, yet wanting more. And finally, it will leave you yearning for times long past when strength was not just physical, but mental, spiritual, and emotional.
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