Warrior's Woman

Ly-San-Ter Family #1

by Johanna Lindsey

In the year 2139, fearless Tedra De Arr sets out to rescue her beleaguered planet Kystran from the savage rule of the evil Crad Ce Moerr.

Experienced in combat but not in love, the beautiful, untouched Amazon flies with Martha, her wise-cracking, free-thinking computer, to a world where warriors reign supreme - and into the arms of the one man she can never hope to vanquish: the bronzed barbarian Challen Ly-San-Ter.

A magnificent creature of raw yet disciplined desires, the muscle-bound primitive succeeds where no puny Kystran male had before - igniting a raging fire within Tedra that must be extinguished before she can even think of saving her enslaved world...

Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Historical Romance, Fantasy, Historical, Futuristic, Science Fiction Romance

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Johanna Helen Howard was born on March 10, 1952 in Germany, where her father, Edwin Dennis Howard, a soldier in the U.S. Army was stationed. The family moved about a great deal when she was young. Her father always dreamed of retiring to Hawaii, and after he passed away in 1964 Johanna and her mother settled there to honor him.

In 1970, when she was still in school, she married Ralph Lindsey, becoming a young housewife. The marriage had three children; Alfred, Joseph and Garret, who already have made her a grandmother. After her husband's death, Johanna moved to Maine, New England, to stay near her family.

Johanna Lindsey wrote her first book, Captive Bride in 1977 "on a whim", and the book was a success. By 2006, with over 58 Million copies of her books have been sold worldwide, with translations appearing in 12 languages, Johanna Lindsey is one of the world's most popular authors of historical romance.

Johanna's books span the various eras of history, including books set in the Middle Ages, the American "Old West" and the popular Regency England-Scotland. She has even written a few sci-fi romances. By far the most popular among her books are the stories about the Malory-Anderson Family, a Regency England saga.

Johanna Lindsey died on Oct. 27, 2019 in Nashua, N.H. She was 67.

Reviews

[Nalini Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was chatting to some fellow long-time romance readers last night and this book came up and we all made that "OMGitwassoawesome" noise. If you haven't read it, you must! It's sf romance written back when there was hardly any sf romance. But if you read it, go into it with it knowing you're going to get a barbarian alien hero who drags the heroine off to his lair.

It's fun, has a great world, and the romance gets me every time. I saw Meljean Brook's review in which she said it's a guilty pleasure book but that she has no guilt reading it. Yeah, me too.

Now I want to reread it.
p.s. I have the original Fabiotastic cover! It's totally awesome.

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 3.60 ***

A buddy read with the ladies at Abtastic Ab Loving Geishas who research books with abs on the cover for science!!!

We wanted barbarians in space, we got them!!! And look at this cover drawn by the artist Elaine Duillo - how can we pass on a book with Fabiolicious on it???

I decided to do some research and read the reviews of my fellow readers on GR. Wow! Not very flattering, many complaining of this and other books of its ilk singlehandedly reversing every centimeter gained by any of the women's rights movements of all times. ... Heavy burden on the shoulders of a Barbarian-Romance-in-Space book... With Fabio on the cover... Who are we kidding, ladies?

When we pick up a book with this visual as its advertising, do we realy expect a book of enlightenment and feminist propaganda? No, we do not! Those of us who choose to read these books know that we are going to get a mostly implausible romance, which usually starts with insta-lust/love, between an alpha male, possibly a brute, with a woman, most likely a virgin or a courtesan, who go trough ridiculous, unrealistic and at times absurd hurdles in order to rip each-others clothes off and get to sexy times, after which something tragic and once more unlikely trifle will separate them, they will both be total jerks, and somehow, against all logic and human comprehension, they will get back together and live happily ever after!!! Does this sound like something that any of us take seriously at all? We are not idiots, we read it for the fun and hilarity, even for the total ridiculousness of the barely existing plot, and to run away from the reality, which is full of real hassles, real responsibilities, and real issues, from which we desperately need a break!!!

To pick on this book as being over the accepted limit for women is just lazy! The author could not make it any more clear that this book is for entertainment and humor only, and if you went into it with other expectations, now that is sad for you wasting your time.

We are in a world where a bad guy takes over and proclaims the age of lawfully remaining a virgin is going from 25 to 18!!! Because not being "bridged" is detrimental to the woman's health! And it legalizes said woman's proper punishment if she is still a virgin after that age limit for the good of the community!!! Also, on this planet they have clinics which provide sex on daily basis for tension reducer! And if the citizens are denied their gods given right to their daily sex, they participate in riots.... The female MC takes off on a spaceship with her trusty and very humorous super-computer Maria, so they can find allies in order to return to her world and fight the bad guy. She lands on a Barbarian, almost cave-man type of planet and meets the man of her dreams - one of the biggest cave-men there:-) Wow! How can anyone think that a premise like this would be anything but for entertainment? We are obviously going to have the battle of the cultures and sexes, and the brutish barbarian is going to have to win the ladies heart! It is just how it is, no rights for women, but no true humiliation or rape situations either, so we can root for their mutual surrender!

I found the story entertaining, although the plot started in one direction and then got lost in naked times, then it never realy returned on point... I am only glad I did not have to wait on this MC to ever come back and save me, or I will be dust wayyy before she remembers me:):):)!!!

If you can live with this premise and don't get your hackles up in the presence of an alpha male, this is for all the Romance genre lovers, in space:) I laughed and it kept me smiling. Hope you all have good times with a book as well!!! Happy reading!

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I was impressed that Johanna Lindsey wrote this futuristic, science fiction romance when she was a historical romance author, but at the same time, I felt that the hero Challen was very much a caveman, moreso than her heroes in even her most bodice-rippery romances.

I loved Tedra. She was pretty awesome: independent, upbeat, fashionable, intelligent. I found it hard to believe she would be happy being the 'little woman' for Old School Macho Guy Challen. I know, opposites attract. But still it was a little difficult to suspend my disbelief. I have a few feminist leanings. I'm not hardcore, but I believe in gender equality. I don't believe in a woman being under her husband's yoke. And I was born and raised in the 20th century. Here is a woman that was born far into the future, used to living in a progressive society, and she falls for a man from a culture where women are subordinates in every way. Not sure I bought that. Sure he was a big, hot, buff stud-muffin. But his attitudes (I know it was due to his culture) were way psycho when it came to women. I had major an issue with the hero spanking the heroine. What the Frell? That is so paternalistic and not sexy to me. I know I can tolerate some questionable hero practices (depending on the execution and the circumstances), but putting a woman over one's knee and spanking her like a child is not one of them.

This was a very imaginative romance, and at the time, I liked to keep science fiction/fantasy very separate from romance, but I ended up really enjoying it. Although I did want to do an intervention for Tedra. Come on, girl. The galaxy is a big place. You need to find yourself a man who's not living in the BC Era where he tries to drag women off to his caves.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suppose if it didn’t have such a creepy, rapey vibe---not to mention the actual rape scenes---Johanna Lindsey’s 1990 novel “Warrior’s Woman” might actually be decent. But, no, now that I think about it, no, it would still suck.

The one good thing about this book is the Avon paperback book cover. It’s a gorgeously painted Boris Vallejo-style romance cover with a shirtless muscular man with flowing blonde locks (clearly modeled after Fabio) holding a voluptuous brunette in a skimpy purple dress tight to his chest, a starry night sky in the background. Awesome.

The book itself? Not so much.

Maybe it’s the fact that it is an attempt by a romance author to write in a science fiction setting, and it fails miserably, mainly because the story is practically non-existent and what little story there is is subsumed by endless sex scenes.

It’s quite befuddling to me that I even wrote that sentence. I’m the last person to be annoyed by a proliferation of sex scenes. I love sex scenes. I think just about every single piece of classic literature---from “The Scarlet Letter” to “The Great Gatsby” to “Frankenstein”---would be improved with the addition of more sex scenes. The more the merrier, I say. Here’s the key, though: they have to be well-written sex scenes.

Having read several romance novels in the past six months, my one pet peeve is a poorly-written sex scene. What makes it poorly-written? When the author prudishly and illogically fails to use basic words like “penis”, “cock”, “rod”, “vagina”, “pussy”, “quim”, or any of the hundred creative euphemisms for them. There is nothing more annoying to me than when an author simply writes “...and then he was inside her.”

No! This isn’t transporter sex, where the man’s loins are magically or scientifically teleported into the woman’s nether regions. It’s sex. Dirty, nasty, fun, funky, sexy sex. These authors have forgotten, or never learned, the number one rule of creative writing: Show, don’t tell. If you aren’t going to have the decency to be as graphic as possible when depicting a good old-fashioned fuck, then why the hell write a sex scene in the first place?

Well, anyway, thanks for letting me rant. Now, back to the review:

“Warrior’s Woman” is set in the far future, when humans have spread throughout the galaxy to populate new worlds. On one of those worlds is a tough-as-nails security officer named Tedra, whose planet has just experienced a political coup. An army of warriors from another planet, working for a disgruntled politician, has taken over the seat of government. They have also captured all the women they could find to be sex slaves. Tedra manages to escape in her ship with her smart computer, Martha.

Tedra manages to arrive at the home-world of these warriors. In her attempt to work out some kind of deal with them, she is taken captive by a warrior named Challen. She is immediately stripped of her weapons and her clothes. She’s rather embarrassed because her breasts are so large. (I’m not making this shit up, people, I swear.)

Tedra, it turns out, is a virgin, and she’s never even seen a naked man. When Challen takes advantage of her sexually, and against her will, numerous times, she starts to like it. This, of course, is by no means a forgivable way of hiding behind the fact that Challen is continuously raping her. It’s still rape, even if he’s really hot.

Holy shit, do I really have to explain that?

Anyway, this book is shit. Other than an amazing book cover, I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. Well, maybe rapists...

[Dino-Jess ✮ The Book Eating Dinosaur ✮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange book this was.

Don't get me wrong, I found it quite enjoyable? I think?

But I feel like it suffered from not knowing quite what it wanted to be.

It started off as a call to arms, with Tedra fighting to free the females of her planet from slavery. But the way she went about getting their freedom seemed... ludicrous. Submitting to and obeying a warrior on a planet in another galaxy? Who willfully and knowingly uses her lack of knowledge about his customs to his advantage? Makes total sense, right? Right.

But having made my derision clear.... I still found this an enjoyable ride. And while I mentioned that Tedra submits and obeys, she does it with a strength and power behind her every action that challenges Challen's will and authority, crumbles his ironclad control and makes him fall for her.

The drama-llama is hard at work in this. It was like watching a soap opera! The games, the betrayal, the scheming, it was wonderfully cheesy and over the top and I enjoyed it, even if I was rolling my eyes at times.

The sexytimes in this.... Were okay. Not my favorite. Too many closed door scenes and not enough description when we did actually get to read about the deed. I'm a smut lover and this didn't set my loins aflame, as they say.

There was a lot of nothing going on here, too. Basically all that happened in the middle section of the book was that they had sexytimes, she broke rules, was punished for breaking rules, she sooked, they reconciled, rinse and repeat.

Challen was a stubborn ox of a man. I liked seeing him floundering with the guilt of punishing Tedra too severely in the middle there. But I liked him the best when he was saying swoon worthy things like:

"I give to you my life, yours to keep until the day I die."

and

"Warriors do not love... they should not... but here is one who does."

Tedra was a perfect stubborn match for Challen. Really, they are two stubborn peas in a pod and belong together. She was irritatingly bound by her honor at the start which I found quite vexing, but she grew on me and by the time the story was winding down I was pleased for her to be getting her happily ever after. I wish she wouldn't have called everyone "babe" though, that was quite annoying.

This was an entertaining, but bizarre read. I will probably read the sequels at some stage, but alien lurve week is coming to a close and I think I'll cool it for a bit on this genre.

Oh! And can I just put it out there that you have to be really careful what you do and say around aliens? Because all of these women seem to be getting engaged and/or married to them without even realizing it! Watch your words, everyone!

3 i-give-you-my-life Stars

Thanks for the alien lurve week buddy read my lovelyAbtastic Ab Loving Geishas

[Niki {Still a Widow but reading more} · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nooooooooooooooo!!!!

Okay so with everything going on with Covid I am a little behind the times. I just found out Johanna Lindsey died. I am devastated and wanted to acknowledge her and her tremendous impact on my life. I didn't have the best tween/teen years growing up and so turned to reading as my escape. One of my first and all time favorite authors was Johanna Lindsey. I believe A Gentle Rogue was my first and still one of my top 5 book boyfriends ever. I even practiced for months until I could raise the single sardonic brow like James Mallory (that is until The Rock came and stole it lol). Anyway I escaped into her rich storytelling. I cried and laughed a lot, she was tremendously sarcastic with her dialogue. I couldn't wait each year for her newest novel to come out. I own every book she has ever written in its original cover. I keep them sealed away so my kids can't somehow destroy them; only pulling them out every few years to reread her entire library from start to finish. It never gets old. I really just wanted to say she was a phenomenal writer. I don't want any arguments about rape and pc issues. The 80's and 90's were a different time. Also she mostly wrote historical romance set in historical times, trying to stay true to the actual societal expectations, and it should be looked at through those glasses. I am so sad to lose her, she meant a great deal to me and helped me through so much of my teens and early adulthood. Her Heroines were so feisty and usually badass, they gave as good as they got and I loved them. This book is one of my favs, it was my first ever Syfy Romance. I never thought to fall in love with an alien. It lit a fire in me that still burns bright to this day with SFR being my favorite genre. Yes Challen claims Tedra as his pseudo "slave" but she's a kick-ass fighter who puts him on his ass a few times and he loves her all the more for it. She never gave up and fought for better treatment and equal rights of women across the galaxy.

R.I.P. Johanna Lindsey. Your stories will carry on!! (even with Fabio on the cover-though it's a Fabio wanna be on this cover lol)

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A science-fiction romance novel featuring shades of BDSM from, of all people, Johanna Lindsey, Queen of the Historical Romance.

Mixed in among the loose allusions to The Princess of Mars, Star Trek, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and The Handmaid’s Tale are also clear instances of spanking, slavery, bondage, and a battle for the role of Dominant. And I would argue that it's the heroine, Tedra, who holds that title. Even though she starts out as the initially conquered one in her interactions with the hero, Tedra ends up not only liberating her home planet from a wannabe tyrant (with the aid of sexy, giant barbarian warriors, of course) but also winning the heart of the alpha hero, Challen. But since this is romance it's ultimately a win-win situation for them both.

Challen may have been a literal giant raised in a patriarchal society, but he was also a sweet hero who uttered some really swoon-worthy lines. Tedra, meanwhile, was a feisty and emotional heroine who always kept him on his toes and therefore made his "conquest" of her a difficult one. Martha, Tedra's free-thinking super computer, stole every scene she was in.

The pacing was a bit slow in the middle after Challen and Tedra arrived at his hometown because of the heavy reliance on dialogue and not much happening in terms of plot, but this was still a memorable and adventurous romance overall.

[Snooty1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to introduce you all to my very first romance novel...imagine if you will, a naive 10 year old girl...
Heading into a new section at the library, likely on a dare, but no bother I would hand this novel (a la over the top cover) to my kind librarian and check this puppy out. THEN imagine that I re-checked this out about 5 times...
This my friends, started my romance addiction and I haven't looked back since.

RE-reading this now, at a slightly older and much less naive age, this was funny and lighthearted. Romance novels have come a LONG way since then, but I must say I still loved it. Now that I know that it's part of a series, I think we all know I must continue on with the series.

***Five Nostalgic stars***

[Petra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedra our heroine from technologically advanced civilization travels to a “barbarian” planet where she meets Challen (a giant warrior and a leader of his city coincidently)


It wasn’t a bad book. I was fascinated by the clash of civilizations as Tedra has to get used living on a barbarian planet. But there was so much more stuff slowing this book down such as:
- computer Martha - I found the dialogue between Tedra (our heroine) and Martha very dull
- I never quite got Challen and did not found him appealing
- the world of barbarian planet was freakishly demeaning to women
- plot was meah

[ᑭIᑭEᖇ⒤ᗩᗰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating was almost a 4.
This was a spur of the moment read from raiding the MacHalo's dungeon yesterday. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this barbarian prose in all its glory! Tedra was a super fun, smart-mouthed, take-no-shit female and Challen was the ultimate "I am a barbarian hear me roar" do what I say kinda warrior! But I think my favorite character was Martha, Tedra's all knowing computer best friend who would stop at nothing to get Tedra laid! HaHa! The plot was minimal, and any adversaries were easily defeated. I thought the author was creative in exploring the vast differences between Tedra and Challen's planets, from artificial wombs, food, landscape, and energy. The overall tone was light and fun with just enough emotional sentiment between characters to keep you connected.

[Iradai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me costó engancharme, y no termine de empatizar con los protagonistas sobre todo con ella. Hubo momentos que si me gustaron pero nada memorable.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1990 and I read it several years later, when I was in high school. I’ve been recently re-reading old books on my Nook and this one popped into my head.

Warrior’s Woman is pure, fantasy silliness and it’s almost embarrassing that I like it. Then again, my favorite movie of all time is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and I feel the same way about it, so I’ll describe it the same way: it’s like loving a big, dumb jock.

All right, here’s the plotline: Tedra De Arr is a virgin warrior from a technically advanced planet. She’s Sec 1, the crème de la crème of the police. However, when a put-out, misogynistic politician hires a large group of warriors to take over the planet’s government, she’s now an outlaw in a police state. Women can no longer have jobs and the age of ‘breaching,’ that is, losing your virginity, is now legally eighteen. That’s right people, in this society sex is considered the cure for many ills and if you hadn’t had sex by age twenty-five, the government will send someone around to make sure you have sex. Only now the age is eighteen so Tedra, who is in her mid twenties, is an illegal virgin.

So she does what any self-respecting virgin warrior would do, she absconds with a spaceship in hopes of finding warriors she can hire to help she and her ilk take back the planet.

In a classic case of ‘out of the frying pan, into a different kind of frying pan’ she ends up landing on a planet of barbarian warriors. The first one she encounters is Challen Ly-San-Ter who is quite incensed to find a woman who is wearing pants, doesn’t give him the deference women are supposed to, and not only that, she offers to challenge him. Challenging, which until Tedra was only between two men, means that you fight and whoever loses spends the next thirty days doing a job for the winner.

When Tedra loses, she’s told that she’ll be spending the next thirty days obeying whatever commands he gives in a place where he sleeps. Now just to ease everyone’s mind – rape doesn’t happen. Tedra thinks Challen is very hot and is more than ready to have sex with him when the time comes.

Much of Tedra's grief comes from her tendency to assume things and to charge into situations without asking questions. Challen relies heavily on sematics to get his way.

The planet is, on the surface, barbaric and backwards, but the men are very protective of women. A woman who asks a warrior for protection cannot be forced into a sexual relationship unless she offers. Women are punished with either chores or if they have a man, by orgasm-denial. Yes I am serious – a woman is literally punished by being brought to the edge of orgasm and then denied release.

There are so many jokes that could go along with this system that my brain may explode.

This book is pure, silly fun, but only if you go in with the attitude that it’s just a fantasy romance novel. Otherwise it is a feminist nightmare. My four-star rating is for the amount of time I spent laughing, not the manner in which it was written.

[Cate Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am embarking on a project of reviewing the romances in my life that have stuck with me. Warrior's Woman is my first review because it was my very first romance. Long story short: as a teen, I was on vacation at Ocean City, MD, and I got sick. The fam left me at the rental alone. This was the only book in the place. It blew my mind.

I had no idea.

In some ways, my jaw is still dropped.

Plot spoiler...
.
.
.
.
there is edging.

I read it a hundred times as a teen - that library copy got a workout - but I haven't since. I'm not sure how it's aged. I'm so fond of the memory that I don't want to risk tarnishing the shine.

Johanna Lindsey passed not too long ago, and when I heard, I had such gratitude in my heart for the woman who told a story about an intrepid space traveler intent on rescuing her planet with her trusty computer friend - who saved the day kinda through next level lovin'. The early 90s pumped a lot of garbage into my teenage girl brain, but that was some solid inspo. RIP Johanna Lindsey.

[Martha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw this listed on some list of romances, and remembered that I read this back when I was a teenager, I think. This was one of the stupidest romances I've read. Start with a supposedly self-sufficient and capable woman who learns that what she really wants is a primitive warrior who will abuse her to keep her safe. (He punishes her for getting in danger by arousing her and not letting her come.) Then add in a stupid artificial intelligence who keeps telling the woman that this is what she needs -- and can't even use proper terminology. The AI keeps referring to "probables" when it really means "probability." If the author can't even be bothered to look up to see if there's a real word instead of one she made up, why should I bother reading it? Definitely avoid this book! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[Al *the semi serial series skipper* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half the time i did not understand what was going on. I was thrust into a new world . When it comes to space travels and intergalactic missions, i don't really care for it so i struggle to say i enjoyed it. Johanna Lindsey's writing is excellent as usual but this book was not for me. Still good enough to wile away time.

[Tori Gardner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Personally? I would like never to read about this world again. From the lack of consent to the bizarre world building and just so many issues…I plan never to read another romance written before 1995.
Accounting for the age of the book is the only reason it gets 1 star instead of my desired 0 stars.
Farden is my least favorite fake word.

[Gwen (The Gwendolyn Reading Method) · Rating 2 out of 5]

no.

[Aly is so frigging bored · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thia is the precursor to alien erotic romance :))

[Ariel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful, and it made my feminist self feel awful for her being a total dumbass and him being a giant misogynist. It huuuurt. Half star?

[Cece · Rating 3 out of 5]

I purchased WARRIOR'S WOMAN by Johanna Lindsey back in 2017, when I discovered NPR's list of the top 100 romance novels, but I decided to read it recently because my favorite romance novel podcast, Whoa!mance , has an episode devoted to it and I was hoping it would fit the "violet eyes" prompt for Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo (alas, it doesn't). After Defy Not the Heart and Prisoner of My Desire, WARRIOR'S WOMAN is the 3rd book I've read by Johanna Lindsey.

WARRIOR'S WOMAN is a science fiction/fantasy romance that takes place in the year 2139. The heroine, 23-year-old security specialist Tedra De Arr, must flee her home planet, Kystran, after a political coup that sees the elected leader imprisoned and the women forced into slavery by giant sword-wielding barbarian mercenaries. Eventually, her space craft comes upon the original home planet of these oversized warriors and Tedra decides to go down to the surface, to see if anyone is interested in trade or lending a hand in the fight to reestablish control of Kystran. Once she lands, she immediately runs into the hero, Challen Ly-San-Ter, who reacts to her with disbelief and desire. She challenges him to a physical fight and when she loses, she agrees to be his captive for a month. They spend that time having sex, exploring dominance and submission, and gradually falling in love.

In WARRIOR'S WOMAN, Lindsey is asking unwieldy questions about women's sexual and social yearnings and although I don't agree with the answer she eventually lands on, I deeply admire the bold and uncompromising way she explores these topics. Sometimes, this book felt impossible to read because like many fantasy romances, its linguistic world-building is divorced from contemporary rules of grammar. At other times, it's clear that WARRIOR'S WOMAN is a primordial BDSM love story and a foundational text for an entire sub-genre of "barbarian alien" erotic romance. I wouldn't recommend WARRIOR'S WOMAN and I can't say I enjoyed it, but the ways in which it was simultaneously of it's time and ahead of it's time are endlessly fascinating.

When WARRIOR'S WOMAN begins, Tedra is a supremely confident and competent commander, but she's physically and professionally intimidating to the "puny" men on her planet. She's legally required to lose her virginity by her 25th birthday and although she's sexually educated and eager, she's understandably uninterested in partners who are apprehensive of her. When she encounters Challen, she's excited because he's taller, stronger, and impossible to frighten or best in physical combat, but she gradually learns his dominance is rooted in a sexist worldview that sees woman solely as the extensions of men. In his culture, women aren't allowed to earn a livable wage, travel without a male guardian, take any leadership role, or publicly disagree with men. Tedra has finally discovered sexual compatibility and satisfaction with Challen, but it comes at the cost of her own independence and agency. WARRIOR'S WOMAN is arguing that this trade - sex and love for basic human rights - is equitable, if it's done with the right safeguards (Challen never physically harms Tedra).

Decades before Fleabag or Fifty Shades of Grey, WARRIOR'S WOMAN is trying to understand how to square contemporary feminism with a heterosexual woman's desire to be sexually submissive to a man. Twenty nine years before Lena Dunham posed the question in Vogue magazine, Lindsey is asking, can a good man mistreat you during sex - if that's what you desire? And I think of WARRIOR'S WOMAN when I hear Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion celebrate female sexuality ("Never lost a fight, but I'm lookin' for a beatin'") in their hit song, "WAP". Sadly, Lindsey's imagination stopped short of envisioning a future in which women were both sexually satisfied AND able to participate in society as equals, but she is hardly to blame for this conclusion. The patriarchy frames feminism as a zero-sum-game in which women's gains ultimately result in women's losses and WARRIOR'S WOMAN ends with a scenario that reflects the patriarchal environment it was produced in.

Beyond the general discourse of dominant or submissive sexual roles, WARRIOR'S WOMAN depicts specific kinks found in BDSM subculture. After enthusiastically agreeing to be his captive for a month, Tedra doesn't meekly take on the attitude of a stereotypical submissive. Instead, she engages in brat role play by constantly talking back, intentionally misbehaving, and explicitly instigating Challen into harsher reactions. Their struggle for control is a central part of their lovemaking and their biggest disagreement happens after Challen edges Tedra for hours, way past her comfort level. He also dictates what she wears, insists on hand-feeding her, and spanks her for "punishment" after she disobeys him. Once, they switch roles during foreplay and Tedra clarifies why their sexual dynamic appeals to her:

She rose to her knees, faced him, and reached the unpleasant realization that she didn't want to impale herself on his ready flesh, she wanted to be impaled...the plain truth was, she had become addicted to his special brand of domination. The helplessness it engendered was what took her outside herself and joined her to him, making her feel totally possessed...making her feel - loved.

The quote above wouldn't be out of place in Fifty Shades of Grey, but WARRIOR'S WOMAN was published 21 years before that epic bestseller reshaped the public discourse around sexual role-playing and the transcendent freedom that can be found in BDSM relationships.

In addition to its implicit embrace of BDSM, WARRIOR'S WOMAN is a foundational text for the "alien barbarian" sub-genre of erotic romance. Like Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet Barbarians, Evangeline Anderson's Brides of the Kindred, V.C. Lancaster's Ruth & Gron, Laurann Dohner's New Species, and Michelle Diener's Class 5 series, WARRIOR'S WOMAN has it's human heroine leave Earth to find love with a nonhuman hero whose size, alternative sexual practices, and cultural dissimilarities are deeply appealing. These female characters renounce human men and, by extension, the patriarchal world they come from. Although these texts vary in their embrace or rejection of feminism, they all build on the work that Lindsey does in WARRIOR'S WOMAN by supplying their heroines with attractive alternatives to traditional human masculinity.

I also had a tough time reading WARRIOR'S WOMAN. Like many fantasy and some older historical romances, Lindsey decided to use language to support her world-building. I don't think that this book is poorly written; I believe that Lindsey made the authorial decision to break conventional grammar rules to suggest how foreign or different her fictional worlds are. I understand it, but it made WARRIOR'S WOMAN nearly unreadable for me. I'm dyslexic and when words are scrambled, my already scramble-prone brain goes haywire. If I had started this at another time, when I wasn't as intent on finishing every book I begin, I would've given up on WARRIOR'S WOMAN.

When I think about rating or grading WARRIOR'S WOMAN, I keep comparing it to the last book I read, A Knight in Shining Armor. These novels came out within a year of one another and their themes are startlingly similar. In WARRIOR'S WOMAN, Tedra is frustrated by the ways "advanced" men are intimidated by her and yearns for the "barbaric" man who will sexually dominate her. In A Knight in Shining Armor, Dougless is frustrated by the modern expectation that she be both housewife and career woman and yearns for a 16th century man who appreciates her old-fashioned, domestic femininity. Although it's tougher to read, WARRIOR'S WOMAN doesn't share A Knight in Shining Armor's shame about female sexuality, toxic fat-phobia, or hostility towards female characters. For that alone, WARRIOR'S WOMAN deserves 3 stars.

WARRIOR'S WOMAN is the grandmother of both Ice Planet Barbarians and Fifty Shades of Grey, but its message that women have to trade their freedom for sexual fulfillment is as tough to read as it's prose style. Grade: C+.

[belle de jour · Rating 1 out of 5]

Creo que si me hubiera criado leyendo novela romántica del siglo XX, las cosas habrían sido muy diferentes para mí. Está confirmado que las historias fundamentalmente eróticas de los noventa no son lo mío.

Debería haber parado de leer a partir de las bromitas sobre las violaciones, pero me había emperrado en que me gustara la gran Johanna Lindsey. Mala idea. Y que hayan pasado treinta años no es excusa. Chica, en la última década de 1900 ya existía el feminismo, o por lo menos se sabía diferenciar entre el buen y el mal gusto.

Psicológicamente inverosímil, escenas eróticas sin gracia, diálogos muy repetitivos. La traducción deja bastante que desear. Me habré reído en algún momento, y seguro que alguna sonrisa me habrá sacado, pero me voy a quedar en la mitad de la novela. Es una pena porque el planteamiento parecía interesante.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ stars. Enjoyable, pleasant story about a space traveling futuristic woman falling in love with a sword wielding barbarian.

STORY BRIEF:
Tedra is a top level government security police person on the planet Kystran. People have sex sharing for pleasure not to procreate. The government creates humans by taking cells from the most desirable subjects, grows them in test tubes, and then raises the children in group centers and schools. There are no parents, families, etc. Machines create all food. There is a shortage of water, so people take solaray baths. Tedra has a computer named Martha. Martha can fly spaceships and transport people (Star Trek style). Martha wants what’s best for Tedra, and they argue frequently. Tedra is a virgin. Martha wants to change that because she knows it would be good for Tedra.

Bad guy Crad hires mercenaries from the planet Sha-Ka’ar who help him take over the government. These mercenaries are 7 feet tall and carry swords and shields which are impenetrable by Kystran’s modern weapons. The former Kystran ruler is kept in prison. One of the payments to the Sha-Ka’ari warriors is Kystran women being sent to the Sha-Ka’an planet as slaves. Tedra was away during the military takeover. Her friend Rourk helps her get away from Kystran using a trading ship. Tedra’s computer Martha is onboard and flies the ship for Tedra. Martha locates the planet Sha-Ka’an which has barbarian style warriors similar to the Sha-Ka’ar. Tedra transports down to the planet and meets Challen. She challenges him to a fight, Tedra loses, and as a result she must be his slave for a month, fulfilling his every wish. She learns that women have no rights and cannot walk around unescorted by a male. All women must be either under the protection of a male or married/mated to him.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
Although she is his sex slave for a month, he is good to her. She is so in lust with him, she can’t resist him and is willing to live caveman style to be with him. His punishments for her were a little odd, sexually arousing her but not letting her finish. It was written twenty years ago and reflects romance writing of that time. There were no sexual words. Instead, phrases like he entered her were used.

OTHER THOUGHTS:
My mind went on a tangent at one part of the book - to the point that I had to reread several pages. Challen took a drug which affected his judgment. As a result he caused Tedra to suffer a punishment much longer than she should have. The next day when Challen regained his senses, he felt regret and guilt. He asked the computer Martha for advice. Martha said to let Tedra rant, rave, and hit him to get rid of her anger – without Challen stopping the assault. Martha said if Tedra did this, it was a good sign that Tedra still cared for Challen and needed time to forgive him. If Tedra was silent, showing “no anger” and “wanting his blood,” that meant she no longer cared for him, there was no hope for the relationship, and he should return her to the ship. This portion of the story had me thinking about abusive spouses and the question of “if or when to forgive.” I think women should not forgive men who repeatedly abuse them and ask for forgiveness the next day. Those women should leave the abusive relationship. My first reaction was for Tedra to leave Challen, but I had to remind myself that this was the first time Challen abused her, he was under the influence of a drug, he was truly sorry, and it probably would not happen again. In that case, it was ok to forgive, but I had to think about it for a while to accept it. In addition, the idea of women having no rights and forced to obey men, added to my discomfort. I’m confused. I’ve read a number of books with the subjects of abuse or women as slaves which did not bother me the way this book did. I don’t know why. I still liked the story but only after the forced adjusting of my mental attitude.

COVER PICTURE:
I love the cover picture guy drawn by the artist Elaine Duillo. She also drew the same guy for the cover of Gentle Rogue by the same author. I don’t think a guy like this has ever existed, although, there is a slight resemblance to Fabio. I bought both books in their original hardback editions just for the pictures. Please note the picture you see may be different from mine. Amazon and Goodreads may be linking this review to other editions of the book. The picture I see is a shirtless guy with long blond hair and a sword, standing on the right side of the cover. The girl is wearing a light pink fabric dress (of sorts) and has long wavy black hair.

DATA:
Story length: 282 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 6. Total number of sex scene pages: 11. Setting: 2139 AC (After Colonization) on the planets Kystran and Sh-Ka’an. Copyright: 1990. Genre: science fiction romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Johanna Lindsey books, see my 5 star review of “Gentle Rogue” posted 6/14/08.

[Tiera McMillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Reread Review*
One of my very first SF/Fantasy romance experiences. I was amazed at the amount of world building, details, and super high tech gadgets involved in this world back in the day, and crazily enough with all the wonders we have seen in the last 100 years, during my reread I was still sucked right in and amazed again.

Tedra our FMC is as bad A as they come, for her world anyways.. but during a political takeover in which a hostile political figure brought in off world "giants" to secure his new spot, Tedra must escape with her super computer Martha until things die down or else end up in slavery to the giant Warrior class men. The back and forth between Martha and Tedra throughout this entire series is so funny but also irritating because its constant arguing. Tedra ends up on a different world with Warrior Class giants in an attempt to negotiate their cooperation to free her own world. Only Tedra quickly realizes she is way out of her element and ends up a challenge looser and having to serve one of the very warrior's she had attempted to run from.

I have loved this book in the past and I continue to stand by my love for it. I haven't ever read anything anywhere near like the details and thoughts put down for this story even with my love of historical romance turning into love for high fantasy and paranormal romance. 30 years after this book was written and thousands of fantasy books under my belt and still haven't found anything like this. I agree with every review that Challen our MC is almost unbearable in his warrior tendencies to dominate, be overbearing, and just plain irritating. However, this doesn't lessen my enjoyment of the story. While I myself love the culture I was born into and my ability to be free as a human and as a woman I know that isn't the case world wide. I love how this book really calls to the forefront the embracing of other cultures even if they are different. Yes they may seem barbaric but who is complaining? Just the person who isn't from there? This makes sense to me and calls alot of attention to not judging a culture based on their practices especially when the "victims" of said practices aren't unhappy with said practices. It really brings a lot of much deeper thought into play.

I will just go ahead and say that the "punishment" used by warrior's for their women is absofreakinlutely absurd. In what freaking world would a woman not just finish the job themselves lol. I can't even fathom how that never occurs to any of them but maybe at the time this was actually written, women being in charge of their own sexual needs wasn't a hot topic to write about. But lets just be real. This punishment would not be effective.. we all know it.. you would think with all of Tedra's high tech gadgets that something would have already been invented to take care of this problem so to speak lol. Either way Still love this series and can't wait to continue my reread!

[fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never imagined in my life liking a science fiction book , but then I never read a Johanna Lindsey science fiction book.

I loved every minute I spent reading it.

Challen was the perfect alpha hero— confident, complex and sexy , I mean he is a warrior so you should expect warriory traits and actions
And our heroine, tedra was a very strong heroine without being annoying , difficult, or bitchy . She got great humor and I loved how she adapted to the new world with open mindedness and maturity.
I really want to have a copy with the fabio cover

Looking forward to reading the next one is the serie.

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is basically a "How to justify rape culture and Toxic Masculinity." Feminists, do not attempt this book.

Challen is a humanoid "Giant" (7ft and all muscles, muscles that are rocks apparently) from a primitive world. And because it's a trope romance, he is, of course, the equivalent of the king of his people and also the strongest most bad ass in town. Tedra is a Sec 1 security officer (the highest level of "soldier" from her planet) whose planet was just overrun with people that originally came from Challen's planet and she's on a mission to avoid becoming a slave for her new captures. (The aliens that invaded her planet originally came from Challen's planet, but 300 years ago, Challen's planet is ignorant to the outside world and only knows of rumors of "star travelers").

Tedra's computer, Martha, navigates to Challen's planet after Tedra escapes her own turmoiled planet. Tedra plans on being an explorer and trading with other planets while her own is currently arresting and enslaving all female Sec employees. Upon arrival, Tedra meets Challen and after some misunderstanding and laughable "combat" Tedra becomes Challen's servant (but only in places where he sleeps) for one month. Tedra learns that Challen's world and rules are basically females are second class citizens and she just needs to learn her place.

Honestly this book was not good for many reasons.

The most glaringly obvious one was the misogyny. Tedra is from a futuristic life where women are equal and she's actually, supposedly, a bad ass that can beat any man who has tried to fight her. You would think she wouldn't just agree with, and go along with, the idea of "punishment" for doing things Challen doesn't like and would demand a lot more independence. No, the justifications for the rules for women are constantly brought up and Tedra AGREES with them.

For instance, Challen says women can't go anywhere without a male escort. No shopping, no walking, no hunting, nothing. We are home bound unless we have a male escort. (The Taliban have this rule too for reference). The justification is its for female safety. Poor helpless little women can't possibly defend ourselves. OH! And it's illegal for women to have any weapons. So, if we leave our homes without a male, we are responsible when any males decides to attack, claim, or hurt us. That's right, this book justifies victim blaming (your fault you got attacked!), doesn't hold men accountable for their actions (Challen even mentions women must behave and not irritate men or the men would hit them. And... well.. it's really women's fault if a man hits them! That's why she needs to behave herself!). Tedra is either too dim to make a decent counter argument for the whole "can't leave on your own" or she just agrees with the logic. And since she keeps going "Oh! That makes sense" you get the impression that she agrees that women really do need protectors or else whatever happens to us is just deserved. Men certainly can't be held accountable for hurting us.

Seriously, this book is awful for women's rights activists everywhere. Tedra kept getting upset over the rules. She kept bringing up the injustice of it, and instead of ever making a point, getting Challen to agree with her, or just standing her ground on her own rights she kept giving in, agreeing to Challen's sexist logic, or she just gets kissed stupid. I wanted to enter the world of Challen to give him a real piece of my mind. I flipped off my tablet many times (Can't throw the tablets, so we resort to flipping them off).

Now, straight up, I can read books that make me want to revoke all claims to being a feminist. I can ENJOY books that make me feel ashamed for liking them and maybe hide my pink ear hat as I no longer have the right to wear it. But this book spent so much time JUSTIFYING the actions of Challen and his barbarians that it almost felt like Taliban propaganda. Women have to wear certain clothing (though, a lot skimpier than burkas), they get punished by the men, they get chores, they have to have men escort them everywhere, they can't carry weapons, they are basically kids in this world and the book constantly justifies it all.

I mean Challen "has to" punish Tedra for leaving his home without an escort. And he "over does it" and it's all ok that he over did it because he feels REALLY guilty about it and gets her a pet and a crafting room (everyone woman needs a crafting room, yo). First, he didn't need to punish her. Second, this is classic domestic violence behavior. The abuser punishes the spouse for some sleight, they justify it for reasons that don't matter, and they feel guilty and act all sorry the next day. The spouse then decides "they love them" and stick around. It's not a good cycle. And this book makes it normal and fine.

I know some people will say "but the punishment isn't to HIT women!" No, but so what? Manipulation, emotional violence, or in this books case, sexual torture is all abuse. Hitting isn't necessary.

Yes, you read that right. The punishment is sexual torture. Make a girl get really horny and deny her orgasms. It's totally ok and way better than beating or spanking your female. Not at all rapey, not at all abusive, and totally hawt. *rolls eyes* Someone needs to teach Tedra how to stimulate her own clit to satisfaction. That would seriously help her.

I think I'm beating the sexism with a stick at this point. Now, if you are cool with sexism in books, don't think any of the above would bug you, or, like me, read crap like Captive in the Dark because you are twisted, you might want to read on in spite of the above. But there are MANY reasons this book sucks.

1) Tedra is annoying as fuck, babe. She is a total bad ass though, babe. Believe her! She says she's a total bad ass, sweet cakes. She can totally fight men and never lose, babe. She's a super good Sec officer, babe. She totally doesn't monologue for long periods, babe. She doesn't spend paragraphs answering simple questions, babe. Did I mention she's a total bad ass, babe? She also totally doesn't call everyone 'babe' all the farden time, ok, babe?

Seriously, Tedra is Barberella. Only more annoying. She is a dumb idiot on a weird planet and just fucks all the time. She constantly talks about her skills and basically never delivers. She is not smart at all, and I have no idea why she would be put in charge of anything. I don't like the word "bimbo" but Tedra is a bimbo, ok babe?

2) Challen. Basically Challen is just there. No personality. No intrigue. He's your friends husband that you know nothing about, seems ok, but you later find out he beat your friend for your last ladies night and he doesn't think marital rape is a thing. That pretty much sums him up.

3) The writing. It's bad. Worse than my yammering in this review. If you think I'm long winded, don't read this book.

4) The logic. Tedra's planet was overtaken by a dictator using warriors. Women are being enslaved, raped, and taken from their homes. Tedra discovers Challen's planet and thinks she can get warriors from his planet to fight the ones that attacked hers. Moments on the planet surface, she meets Challen and gets into an altercation over her "warriors" clothes. He decides because she is a lone female without her male, he can claim her. She fights him on this. He takes this as a "Challenge" and states that if they fight and she loses, she is honor bound, as a warrior, to serve him in a specific way for one month. She, of course loses, and is now honor bound to spend a month with him.

Now, here's my issue. Fuck honor. You have women, by the thousands, that are being ENSLAVED. You found a possible solution. An entire PLANET that could help people being attacked, raped, hurt. Why the fuck would you spend a month servicing a barbarian ass hole instead of just zapping back to your ship and trying out a different city? You have a whole planet to chose from.

Or better yet, you can monitor the surface. You know the language the species is speaking. Why wouldn't you do some basic recon before landing on the surface? You would know you need a male escort, and lo-and behold! You have a male robot that would pass easily on this planet as humanoid. You would have never been in this altercation to begin with.

Or even better yet, drag Challen up to your ship and go "dude...…. I'm not from your planet so I don't have to follow your rules and this is why I don't know them. Here are some shiney things your planet doesn't have. Want some? Then I want an army." I mean, at one point Tedra gets Challen on her ship (because our stupid woman made a mine collapse on top of him) and instead of letting him wake on the ship to prove her point she decides its far more important for him to just believe her. So she takes him back to the planet and swears the witnesses to secrecy. Really Tedra? While you are orgasaming all over the place, women are being raped from your own culture and you decide you would rather just have some primitive being believe you are from space?

Dumbest Heroine Ever.

5) Ok, here's the real issue. This book isn't meant to be a critique on female oppression. It's not meant to be some profound read that we all discuss at book club. You got the book because it had sexy looking people on the cover and it screamed "barbarian romance" which means high-handed males claiming their woman and sexiness abound. It's basically got all the ingredients for crack for people like me. And, it didn't so much as make me pause to fantasize about a single thing. Not once was I inspired to hunt my husband down to relieve some sexual tension from reading its pages. It was not at all titillating. It did not get me where books like this are suppose to get me. It fails the ONE THING you read these books for. And it couldn't even make up for it with a good plot, good world building, or good writing, or even good characters.

I will admit that I got to 80%, almost threw the tablet, and then skimmed my way to the finish not caring how it ended and secretly hoping Tedra would die.

So that's my long winded review.

TL;DR
This book sucks and it doesn't even pass as book porn.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book club read, August, 2025.
This is not a romance. This is an averagely written lustmance with mostly fade to black sex scenes. There is no real communication other than I see you, you see me and let's bang. Without any smut to make it actually enjoyable...
I do bear in mind that this book was originally written before my parents had even met, but there were at least some basic knowledge snippets available back then as well, right? Such as what a woman's hymen looks or does not look like. Or if a woman has never had sex before, it is quite improbable for her to have sex like 7 times in a row, daily, for a week. ... Or the existence of an action called masturbation... oh the times...

[Mara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lost me at: 65%

I don't know if the author wanted to be ironical. Sure as hell she should have stuck with the bodice-rippers. At least in a so called historical setting some things do have a (warped) sense.

Why writing about a warrior woman, a woman in the secret service, good enough to defend presidents and the like and then, a few chapters later, transform her in to a useless, weak, dumb "prisoner". If strength was all that jazz, martial arts wouldn't exist. She is supposed to be expert in them, but alas, she can't defeat anyone else. She is really goofy, clumsy. And I hated the Martha. Is she supposed to be witty or fun? It was absolutely awful the way she is supposed to know the heroine better than herself. This books oozes misogyny. And Martha is the epitome of a woman enforcing another to conform.

Yes, the heroine has sarcasm (which I like) honed to a blade. But I really dislike the idea that women are nothing but walking hormones. They simply can't think, can't control their sexual urge because a man is with them. Sorry, pure, unadultrated trash.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Ok, so the beginning was kind of slow and bland. I wasn’t really caring for it. But Johanna Lindsey has a way with her writing that makes me want to continue reading even when I’m not enjoying myself. But then the story picked up and I just ended up really loving our main leads and the path to their HEA.

[Kit Sinatra · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Couldn’t stand the heroine saying “babe” in every sentence and I’m never a fan of masculine heroines, but this was still a cute sci fi read. I could not believe that Johanna Lindsey had written something that wasn’t a historical romance until I read this. She actually had some pretty decent world building for someone that rarely strayed outside her comfort zone.

[Monica **can't read fast enough** · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as enjoyable this time around. Fantasy romance that isn't dark, just a fun sexy story with good world building and a bit of humor.