Review — WARRIOR LOVE: Silas Loves Lili, Weirdly Lili Loves Silas

Warrior Love: Silas Loves Lili Weirdly Lili Loves Silas
by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1964-66)
Published by Stephen Foehr
373 pages
July 2021
$6.99 (Kindle); $10.98 (Paperback

Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974-76)

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I am not the ideal person to review this book. I am approximately three times the age of the average member of the book’s target demographic. Also, I have never in my life gone into a bar (much less a biker bar) with the expressed purpose of starting a fight to test my bravery and courage. The one time I did step between two would-be combatants trying to prevent a fight, I was extremely grateful that neither of them decided to attack me!

In the opening scene, Silas walks into a biker bar named the Knotty Hole wearing a kilt, no shirt, and a black leather vest with a rhinestone eagle on the back. And attempts to pick a fight.

I would describe Silas as an anarchist, though the author uses other more colorful language. One of the most entertaining things about this book is that the author uses such wonderfully descriptive language . . . paragraphs of it!

The novel’s four main characters, Lili, Boo and Roby along with Silas, take turns narrating the story. Each of them has a distinct point of view and world view. Each is self-assured and self-confident in the extreme. The confidence of youth? Therefore, it is a bit of a struggle for an older person like me to strongly identify with any of them. Perhaps the most sympathetic is Lili, the lead guitar in an all-female heavy metal band. “She deems herself as a self-appointed sheriff whose duty is to neuter bad guys.”

Boo is an opportunist who owns an investigative agency and is primarily interested in her own profit and welfare. Roby is a homicide detective, a gamer, and primarily interested in self- promotion including building his reputation as an investigator.

If these characters sound like they belong in an adult comic book or a video game, I believe that is the author’s intention. Much of the action occurs in the minds of the main characters as they narrate what their intentions are and what they are thinking as well as what happens in their interactions with others.

The book’s title, “Warrior Love” refers to the relationship between Silas and Lili.

“Their love is the fierce purity of warriors engaged in combat to save humankind, starting with each other, even if against their will.”

The novel includes a murder mystery, though the victim is not at all a sympathetic character, and the eventual reveal of ‘who done it’ almost seems like an afterthought.

This is an entertaining read, even for an old coot like me who is not into either bar fights or video games! I’m confident you will enjoy it.

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D.W. Jefferson was a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer in El Salvador (1974-76) and Costa Rica (1976-77). A blog about his Peace Corps years is at: http://dwjefferson.blogspot.com  He is currently retired from a career in computer software engineering.