Sequel of Gor

I am ashamed to admit, and also amused at my own expense, that I read John Norman’s Gor books when I was young.

To be truthful, I actually thought the first six books or so were perfectly fine Burroughs-style sword and planet  romance when I read them as a youth. At the moment when Ballentine dropped him and Daw picked him up, I assume the author got obsessed with his message and stopped trying to spin a yarn. But I was too young, or too undiscriminating, or too perverted in my early teen geekhood to notice what was really going on in those books, or perhaps I did know but I did not have the mental or moral vocabulary needed to disapprove of them, or the character.

After the seventh book or so, the quality diminished sharply, the writing became ever more mechanistic, and the action and adventure took a backseat to the sex fantasy, and then was dropped entirely. The same stubborn and misguided loyalty that made me read each and every sequel and prequel to Sherri S Tippers TRUE GAME  trilogy that came out, or each and every trilogy or subseries in the tales of the Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion did not serve me well in this case. Yes, I sought out and read every single stinking wretched hollow-eyed and soulless sequel to what once had promised to be a perfectly serviceable Sword and Planet yarn. Woe is me. I would not wish this upon my foes. I read all the way from the HUNTERS OF GOR to WITNESS OF GOR, and I cannot tell you what pain it causes me to realize that I have spend some of my limited supply of brain cells to memorize the names of those books.

Would I actually recommend the first three to six book? Reluctantly, I would. Let us give credit where credit is due. As Sword and Planet Romances go, John Norman’s conceit is as good or better than, not to pick on anyone, Michael Moorcock’s Burrough’s pastiche WARRIORS OF MARS and BLADES OF MARS. Norman could write an exciting fight scene, and knew how to keep the action moving.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.