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Terrilian #1

The Warrior Within

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Terrilian Reya is a Prime XenoMediator who is assigned to help a barbarian leader convince the people of his planet to allow a political complex to be built on their world. Terry goes with Tammad and works to get the job done, but there are misunderstandings and problems before they find success.

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1982

17 people are currently reading
237 people want to read

About the author

Sharon Green

148 books109 followers
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Attended New York University and graduated with a B.A. in 1963. Married in 1963, had three sons, divorced in 1976. Raised the sons, Andy, Brian and Curtis, alone in New Jersey. Worked for AT&T as a shareowner correspondent, then as an all-around assistant in a construction company, then sold bar steel for an import firm. Left that job as assistant sales manager. I've been writing full time since 1984.

Hobbies: knitting, crocheting, Tae Kwon Do, fencing, archery, shooting, jigsaw puzzles, logic problems, math problems, not cooking.

Don't do my own research, since if I did I'd stay with that and never get any writing done. I usually can finish a novel of about 120,000 words in about three months.

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5 stars
90 (38%)
4 stars
52 (22%)
3 stars
55 (23%)
2 stars
15 (6%)
1 star
24 (10%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for April-lyn.
124 reviews9 followers
July 25, 2009
Oh my. I'm almost ashamed to admit to having read this book voluntarily. But it looked so delightfully bad that for $1.25 at Raven Books, I couldn't resist. Against my better judgment, and despite the awful purple prose, I was drawn into the story. And now I'm going to have to read the rest of the series, because book one didn't end with enough resolution. Sharon Green's story follows the standard romance novel plot-line: guy and girl meet, guy and girl have conflict, guy and girl fall in love, guy and girl are separated, and just when all hope appears to be lost, guy and girl end up back together for their happily ever after. Except that she stops with guy and girl splitting up, and with the heroine feeling bitter and displaced.

Let me just say how disturbed I am by the idea that for women to be truly happy, they should learn to humble themselves before men and be kept as possessions, rather than having the choice of who they bed and love. But she's not a slave! because masters can beat slaves for no good reason at their will, and she only gets beaten when she disobeys! As a feminist, I'm upset with myself for not throwing this across the room in disgust from the beginning. Now I'm sucked in despite the disturbing moral code. Please don't judge me too harshly.
Profile Image for Michael Dunellen.
202 reviews74 followers
September 10, 2012
Note to science fiction fans who read this review: The first time I read this book I read it because of the John Norman style cover when it was published in paperback in the 1980's. This time I read it from the perspective of whether it qualified as a BDSM Romance. A little different, I know. If that idea offends you, you might want to skip this review.

Terrilian Reya is a Prime XenoMediator of the Centran Algamation. (Translation: Terry has empathic abilities - she is ability to interpret and influence the emotional state of others - that she utilizes on behalf of a sort of a federation of planets).

Tammad is a l'lenda and Denday on the planet Rimilia. (Translation: Tammad is a warrior and leads a sizable clan on a planet with bronze age technology).

It turns out that Rimilia is central located within the Algamation and would serve as a fantastic meeting place. The problem is that up until now, only a single embassy has been allowed by the natives. Central Leadership has been negotiating with Tammad to put him into position to get them permission, a mutually beneficially arrangement.

When Tammad deliberately chooses to misunderstand a misstatement by one of his hosts, he finds himself in possession of a new house-gift: a beautiful young brown-haired green-eyed woman named Terrilian. And he does what any l'lenda gifted in such a fine fashion: he makes use of her. And when she proves willful, he does what any l'lenda would do a willful wenda: he takes up a switch and punishes her.

In the BDSM terminology of today, you can call this one Non-Consensual Domestic Discipline. Tammad has some definite views on slavery and can argue quite eloquently why Terry is not his slave. And there is a actually a subplot involving a virtual reality simulation that also explores the difference a bit more. One of the Amazon reviews thinks there is a bit of Stockholm Syndrome involved - I am not totally convinced on that but I think you can make a case for it.

It is also a bit tame in a way - Tammad would seem to be a quite vigorous lover as well as the two l'lenda who end up spending the night with Terril but most of it is left to the imagination.

As I had read this before, I remembered the beginning and the end but had forgotten most of the middle. Definitely not a happy ending in this one, but you really need to read all 5 to get the complete story. I actually thought this held up pretty well and wanted to go read the others when I get the time.

Profile Image for Lotta Z.
158 reviews17 followers
September 2, 2025
Yeah ... soooooo ... I read this in like a couple of hours. It has been on my TBR pile since the 90s soooooo, yep I did it finally!

I don't know what I thought this book was in the 90s ... but yeah it is a book. AND I have read this book ...

Against all my better judgement, I have been drawn into this and have now purchased the rest of the series as I need to know what happens to the FMC.

I am upset and invested in this book in equal measure. I don't know how to feel!

It's kinda like a sci-fi 50 Shades. It's definitely a book and it is read so that is good.
Profile Image for BookAddict  ✒ La Crimson Femme.
6,917 reviews1,440 followers
January 8, 2011
This was the first time I'd read a book with this much slavery for a clearly independent woman. I wrestled with this book quite a bit because I was angry at what was done to the psychic yet it turned me on. This 24/7 type of slavery was a bit much for me at the time. Now, I'm fine with it.
2,047 reviews20 followers
July 17, 2014
I picked this up because I was a huge fan of the early Gor novels by John Norman indeed this first book is a very nice companion it reads like a Gor novel but from a female perspective. We follow empath Terril as she is taken from her world by barbarian Tammad and forced to be his in every way.

It's like a bodice ripper in space, trashy but you can't put it down. Tammad is a VERY dominant hero but Terry is far from weak and you can't help but admire her. This begins an epic war of the sexes battle for true love that spans 5 books. It's not going to be to everyone's taste and feminists are going to want to burn every copy of the series they come across, but its great escapism and being from the woman's POV far less misogynistic than the later Gor books.
Profile Image for Cheesecake.
2,800 reviews510 followers
August 20, 2017
I ate these books up in the early 80's 'cause of the smut factor. ( I was a teenager)
Set in the 'future' the h is a spoiled twit who meets the H, a barbarian warlord with psychic powers (I think... it's been a while) and it's insta lust...
One of the books had the h getting raped by a huge alien to 'save' her barbarian lover or some such crap.
entertaining but even by my current 'pseudo sci fi' smut standards, I couldn't recommend it.
Profile Image for Nicola Pike.
171 reviews3 followers
June 2, 2014
I only gave it a low review because it seriously screwed with my mind. well written and easy to read but I almost threw up over some the scenes like when her husband has a friend rape her. told you screw with your mind because by the end of the series you wonder if it was all that bad.

so be warned.
Profile Image for Anne.
3,058 reviews35 followers
June 13, 2013
This book is distasteful in the extreme. It goes beyond non-consensual and can in no way be considered BDSM. this story is full of rape, abuse, and "Stockholm syndrome". I do not recommend it, nor will I be reading any more of the series.
Profile Image for Thomas Van Boening.
87 reviews1 follower
September 2, 2018
The worst of the bodice rippers meets the most mediocre of the planetary fantasy pulps.

The main girl Terrilian is an interplanetary ambassador and travels to a savage world with her “chosen” barbarian, Tammad, who enjoys beating and raping any chance he gets.

This book had so much potential early on. They have VR movies which you can take the role of a character within a story, and Terrilian has Tammad see a VR film in the perspective of a raped woman.

If the story had given Tammad some depth and empathy after that, I would have found it more compelling. But he just shrugs off the experience and the story lost me from there.

Not a fan of Stockholm Syndrome “romance” plots, so I won’t be picking up the remainder of this series.

Got it at a library book sale, so I can’t say it was that much of a waste of money.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Adrian.
600 reviews25 followers
May 28, 2017
If you liked the John Norman books then, firstly, what the hell were you thinking? And secondly, this is even worse. You will throw this book to the floor in disgust at least twice. Fascinatingly awful - has to be experienced to be believed.
Profile Image for Kieran Westphal.
214 reviews3 followers
January 17, 2024
deconstructionist as often as it is distasteful—utterly fascinating throughout. sharon green begins the book with perhaps the coolest author bio of all time, leading you into her tale of sexual space savagery with the knowledge that, hey, the lady that dreamed this up was just having fun. she fantasized about barbarian conquest between her many pursuits of belly dancing and fencing and metallurgy, and who can begrudge her that? good for her. i’m gonna read all five of these.
Profile Image for Anushka.
53 reviews4 followers
April 30, 2025
(DNF)
TRASH, a book with slave porn, justifying sexual abuse and disgusting effort to write power dynamics under the guise of "ooh the mc is a liberated woman who knows she is being abused" yet her body is "enjoying it even though she knows its sexual assault." absolutely trash, couldn't get to even 50 pages. DNF'd.
I bought this for like £2 off a street because the cover just looked so fucking badass. such a disappointing end to months of being excited to read a book that looks so cool.
Profile Image for Janet.
11 reviews
September 4, 2017
The book that started Terry's travels, troubles and emotional torture. She's high tech & high maintenance and he's just a bullying backward barbarian.
Profile Image for Nick.
Author 4 books21 followers
August 24, 2023
I gave up on page 70; skimming ahead I see it is more of the same as it goes on and I have to much selfrespect to keep on torturing myself with this.

Going in I knew it was erotica so that is not what set me off on itself; but rather what kind it is and how it is written. As I read it, I see a bad mangled attempt at turning Conan the barbarian on its head. As a long time fan of conan the barbarian, one of the key elements of that titular barbarian is that he is fond of women, is masculine as hell and never forces himself on women or use violence to make them submit to his will often in contrast with soldiers, thugs and sorcerers whose treatment of women is used as a contrast not just with Conan as a person but the whole supposedly barbaric background of Conan and the civilization the others are representing.

The barbarian in this story though..... casual rape is, at least in the part I read, the only form of sex this brute knows. As is use of violence as is weak justifications of both often going back to "he is a barbarian thus this is to be expected" although the whole civilization turns men into degenerates trope so common in Conan is not absent here but this too takes on a vile tone for the sake of vile tone. Again it's not that erotica or darkness of it that rubs me the wrong way, its the way it is written. Because the sex in this book is almost absent, even if you were into rape fantasies, there is little for you here as the writer neglects going into detail on any of it. So this awful for both persons, a person like me who was amused by the idea of an erotic version of the barbarian man with civilized woman plot, or one who wants abusive erotica. Neither gets what they would want.

I am more shocked by the realization that there is a whole series of this book and as I read the comments on it, the whole casual rape, stockholm syndrome and even worse just keeps on going. What I hoped would have been the plot, was a story of a woman finding pleasure and excitement while in companionship with a man who is so unlike her societal equals, not this violence and self worth shattering trash. I'll have to contend myself with the fantasy of Conan coming across this Tammad character and just beating the snot out of him.
Profile Image for Alice.
1,189 reviews39 followers
December 19, 2015
Book One: A Prime Goes to Rimilia

Set in a Sci-fi future with a Amalgamation of world's ruled by Central, there are empaths called Primes who function as mediators between people, corporations and world governments. Terrillian is one of the strongest and while supposedly on her vacation she meets Tammad, a warrior from Rimilia. He is staying with her neighbour who unwittingly gives her, according to Rimilian culture, as a gift to Tammad. This is further supported by her government department heads as they wish to open a spaceport center on Rimilia. Modern day Terry is thrown into Rimilia, a barbarian level culture where men protect, own and punish with a good spanking any wayward women. Surprise!

This is the beginning of a series that I would compare to Conan the Barbarian, John Carter Warlord of Mars, or the Tarzan series. The world building and establishment of cultures is immersive and complete. The focus is on the female lead, who fights against intolerable cultural restrictions yet is tempted by the hero. Although it is not the main focus, there is some non-consentual sex, spanking and a barbarian view of women that some people would like and others should avoid. This series also deepens and becomes more complex as it continues. After this series comes another Mind Warrior Series with a different heroine, Jilin who also ends up on Rimilia.
59 reviews
July 14, 2020
I only give one star when I don't finish.

I didn't pass the first page. The very first sentence is a bit awkward, to say the least: "The infernal banging had no trouble breaking through my sleep." The third paragraph has the cliché of a character describing themselves as they look in the mirror. I didn't feel a was in the hands of a writer I could trust.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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