This is the sequel to the 1994 book, The Far Kingdoms, which I have not read. I didn't even realize that there was a prequel until I started to put this review together, so it stands alone well.The Warrior's Tale is set in a world similar to Classical Greece crossed with standard fantasy themes. The protagonist is Captain Rali Emilie Antero, commander of the Maranon Guards of the city of Orissa. This is a unit of elite warrior women, who are required to swear never to sleep with men. There might be some celibate guardswomen, but the ones we encounter all seem to be lesbians.The sexual orientation of the women is rather rammed down the reader's throat. The first chapter is almost a caricature of "why men suck", describing the culture as basically misogynistic. Despite how the city views women, the Maranon Guards are the city's most elite warriors, usually kept close to home as a showpiece. I contend that you can't have this both ways: if they're elite troops, they have to have been in combat somewhere. And if the culture is so misogynistic, why would they even allow women soldiers, much less require them to swear off heterosexuality? Captain Rali herself is a caricature of a swaggering, misandrist, butch lesbian. *I'm* a lesbian and a feminist, and this was offending me, I can hardly imagine what male readers will think.The city is at war with a rival town, Lycanth. Everyone gets to go fight, except the wimmyn warriors. Rali bitches about this a lot. However, the Maranon Guards disembowel a raging demon in front of the entire city, and are they are awarded a "place of honor" in the upcoming battle with Lycanth. Them mean ol' men still don't let the girls play, and Rali's unit has a good idea for how to breach the city. The local commander won't approve it, and Rali threatens to go over his head and smear the general's name. He grudgingly allows them to assault the city. The Maranon Guards swing into action (literally, on ropes) and voilá! Lycanon is defeated.There's a hitch, of course. One of the big nasty magic users (known as Archons) has fled the fall of the city and has a doomsday weapon. Since Rali pissed in the general's Post Toasties, guess who gets sent after the missing magic worker and told not to return until he's dead? More bitching and whining about how them men have it in for the girls.If you can get to this point, the rest of the book is a fairly standard fantasy novel with an Odyssey-like episodic journey in which the guardswomen and the ship's crew meet and overcome various enemies and fail wandering monster checks. As we're getting to the high point of the tale, Rali manages to get involved in a sweaty romance with a local princess, with no chemistry between them, and no real reason explaining this sticky passion except "lesbians".The book isn't good enough for me to want to buy the prequel or to read it again.
