This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 4, 2014.

The Toughest Mile

By William Meikle – January 1, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This old school sword & sorcery tale is about a gladiator attempting to escape a life of servitude to a cruel but alluring witch queen. Having defeated 100 beasts in the arena, Garn is now allowed to leave, provided he can survive a ten mile run through a tunnel linking the arena to the city's outskirts. Not only does he have to make this run immediately after his final battle (you'd think a break and a drink of water would be warranted), he has to avoid death at the hands of the Witch's pursuers. The story that follows is simple and mostly a series of brief combat encounters while on the run. There aren't many surprises here, but as an S&S short story it works and the idea is interesting.

However, one thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was that all of Garn's opponents were women, who are treated in a somewhat problematic manner. It took me a moment to notice at first, because they're described as “bitches” sitting at the Witch's feet (Garn also expresses a desire to “cut off their tails” and present them to the Witch), so the first image that came to mind was of a pack of hounds. I imagine the author's intent was to conjure images of a cadre of Amazon-style women warriors, but Garn is so dismissive of them—constantly calling them “bitches” and scalping them to collect their identical braids (the a fore-mentioned “tails”)—that the story comes off slightly ugly, like a brutal guy carving up a string of inferior women rather than a rousing adventure tale. I'm willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume the semi-misogynist undertones were unintentional, but other readers might not be as charitable.

★★★☆☆

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