Renegades of Gor

Gor #23

by John Norman

The maritime ubarate of Cos, with her allies, is mounting an attack on Ar on two fronts, from the south with a major invasion force and in the north with an expeditionary force besieging Ar's Station, Ar's base of power in the vast arable basin of Gor's mightiest river, the Vosk. Dietrich of Tarnburg, a mercenary, has seized Torcodino in the south, with its stores of military supplies, to temporarily halt the march of Cos on Ar, to buy Ar time to organize for her defense. Cabot has delivered letters from Dietrich to the regent of Ar, Gnieus Lelius, apprising him of the city's danger and the situation at Torcodino, and he has, in turn, been entrusted with letters from the regent to be delivered to the besieged Ar's Station. In virtue of treason in Ar, her main forces have been drawn away from the city and are now are wintering at Holmesk. Thus Ar is substantially defenseless and Ar's Station is abandoned. At Ar's Station Cabot, betrayed by the very missives he conveyed, is arrested as a spy. In the destruction wrought in Ar's Station by siege engines Cabot escapes his imprisonment. Shall he then flee Ar's Station, making his way to freedom through its miseries and desolations, its ruins and flames, or shall he remain, to defend, as he can, to the death, if need be, her weakened, betrayed, starving defenders, those who had been his very captors?

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Adventure, Erotica, Adult

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Norman, real name John Lange, was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1931. His best known works, the Gor series, currently span 36 books written 1966 (Tarnsman of Gor) to 2021 (Avengers of Gor). Three installments of the Telnarian Histories, plus three other fiction works and a non-fiction paperback. Mr. Norman is married and has three children.

Reviews

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to give it a 4 for a Gor book - it actual had a story line and action!!! Less than half of the pages were about training a woman to be a slave! Shocking! SO, because it advanced the story and because it was a throw-back to the first several books, I was pleased:) However, let's not forget it is a Gor book and the stile of writing is still terribly atrocious, but I am chugging along with the series and getting close to the end!

[AmbushPredator · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cabot gets himself mixed up even further in the Ar/Cos conflict, and helps out (after a scene worthy of a French farce entailing identity theft plus the Gor equivalent of grand theft auto) with the defence of Ar's Station.

Along the way, he of course finds time to make some slaves and when last we see him, he is intent on a spot of spying on Cosian forces.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even know why I read this one. I'd had so many disappointments with a series that started out so well. Probably put it down to inertia. This was the last one I picked up, although I think there were a couple more published.

[David Mann · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a torture to read. The sad thing is that the author is capable of good descriptions--there is a battle scene halfway through the book that is well done--but the plot is so weighted down by interminable meanderings that literally hundreds of pages could have been omitted without any consequence save the betterment of the narrative. The general theme in these later books is the war between Ar and Cos, but this book hardly advances the narrative at all. Despite my vow to plow through this whole series, I am losing my nerve...

[Tabitha Ormiston-Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this book were edited to remove all of the sleazy semi-porn, and all of the author's ranting about his sick sexual fantasies, and the spelling and grammar mistakes and egregious blunders of style, such as referring to a person's mouth as her 'oral orifice', and beginning every second sentence with 'Too', it might make a decent short story.

[Lynn Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

meh 😕😑

[Christopher Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this whole series in a marathon session, while stationed in England. The depth and volume of the stories is humbling for any writer and I consider this series very influential in my own approach to writing and world building in general; generic post for all the books in this series as I am finally getting around to recording my reading list in Goodreads.

[Robert]

one of the better John Norman novels I have read, thoroughly enjoyed it!