Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Yesterday, appomattoxco mentioned the 2002 novel by Rosemary Edghill (who also writes under the name "Eluki Bes Shahar" according to one reference I found), The Warslayer, to me in a comment, noting that it's now available free from Baen's free e-book library:

I was thinking of you yesterday as I read,"Warslayer" by Rosemary Edgehill. It's about an actress in a Xena/Buffy like role kidnapped "Galaxy Quest" style to save a fantasy universe. The kidnappers read a Greg Cox [hee!] penned tie- in to "The Incredibly True Adventures of Vixen the Slayer" (TITAoVtS for short.) They decide that Aussie ex-gymnast turned SF TV star is what they need to save their world from the Warmother.

DO check this book out, if you've never read it but are a fan of genre TV shows about women warriors or of what-happens-when-our-fantasy-becomes-reality fiction in general. (And thanks, appomattoxco, for the welcome reminder and recommendation!)

In case anyone wants more information about The Warslayer, I went looking through my old e-mail archives for the review I'd written after gleefully devouring this book, on June 18, 2002, now reprinted below:( my 2002 review of WARSLAYER by Rosemary Edghill with no actual spoilers )

I'd been looking through my bookshelves (now that I have most of my paperback sci-fi, at least, ON bookshelves again, following my move), trying to find a poem I remember reading years ago in the dedication of a collection of short stories, and only today did it finally occur to me to Google the words that I remembered from this poem.

Here's the entire text (more or less -- still haven't found my copy of the book, so this is from another helpful fan online and may not be exactly right), reprinted from the dedication in the book Did You Say CHICKS? Smile When You Say That!, edited by Esther Friesner (1998):( poem in tribute to 'Xena' and its star )