Kajira of Gor

Gor #19

by John Norman

Kajira means slave-girl in Gorean. But when Tiffany Collins was kidnapped from Earth and brought to that orbital counter-world, she found herself on the throne of a mighty city as its "queen." Power seemingly was hers, and she did not realize that her true role was that of a slave puppet of a conniving woman agent of the monstrous Kurii.

But a chained slave she was destined to be, and in the course of the complex, visible and invisible, struggles between warriors and cities, between Kurii and Priest-Kings, she would play a pivotal role.

Kajira of Gor is one of the most excitingly vivid novels John Norman has written. Here is all the color and terror of Gor. Here, between crown and fetters, between adulation and total submission, is the full-scale panorama of that wonderful, barbaric world as only Tarl Cabot knew it.

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

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

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

[Johnny Hazelnut · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is another Gorean novel, this time number 19 in the Chronicles of Gor series by John Norman.

Ohhhhh boy. You thought that the Gorean series had plumbed the depths with Slave Girl of Gor, volume 11, didn't you. And the author clearly thought so; the next few volumes included "Beasts of Gor," which was thud and blunder and swiving chained naked slave girls amongst Inuits, "Explorers of Gor," which was the same but in a tribal African / Zulu setting, and the Jason Marshall sub-trilogy, which left Tarl Cabot, the big Mary Sue studmuffin, and focused on some other man of Earth who ended up on Gor and rose from a gladiator to a big noise in one locality.

Well, actually, the author clearly didn't think so, because then he penned this (after some fribbling adventures with American Indians, chained naked slave girls, and thud and blunder.) This... book... makes "Slave Girl of Gor" look positively classy.

Executive Summary

"Lie there and juice. Waste no time about it."

A bit more detail, if you don't mind?

ISN'T THAT ENOUGH?!?!?!?!?!?

No, it isn't enough, clearly, or you wouldn't be still reading. I get it. You want me to goodbye more brain cells reading this horrific unpleasantness. Because that executive summary - that's an actual quote said by one of the men of Gor to the protagonist, Tiffany Collins, before giving her a right seeing to, which makes her squeak like an un-oiled hinge. Her choice of being seen to is precisely none. Care, she does not about this, because, well, she's used to it by now.

So how does she end up in this lamentable situation, used as - literally - part of the furniture by abject creephats and singular perverts?

Well. I'll tell you. She's given an unusual coin by a numismatist, which turns out to be a coin of Gor, and is sent to an address on Long Island. There, two creepy men get her to assume a submissive and nude position which causes her to "tremble with arousal." After a lot of slight creephattery, which any sane person would run a mile from, she - voluntarily - gets into a large metal crate which one of them leaves in her flat, and it's locked, and the two creephats then take it out her flat.

Next thing she knows, she's the queen of the city of Corcyrus on Gor. She's pampered, and has slave girls of her own to tend to her every whim, several of whom take it upon themselves to instruct her in the language and customs of Gor (Gor has customs?!?! I thought the only custom of Gor was to have chained naked slave girls in your local pub for the pouring of wine and other servies, and that other than that it was standard sword-and-sandal setting.) and who insist that she is in fact named Sheila and that her old life is behind her, starting again, as if she were a slave.

This has to be the most obvious example of Chekhov's Riding Crop in existence. Although she isn't, rather, she's the Tatrix of Corcyrus and as such, like many free women, especially noble free women of Gor, she's currently in a palace and wearing a burka - sorry, robes of concealment. Along comes an envoy from a rival city-state who insults her noble station and explains that she belongs in a golden cage and to serve the pleasure of the warriors of Gor who are exactly 9000% more manly than the men of Earth. Of course. He then explains that she's really a secret slave and all that, and she dismisses him in a haughty manner, revelling in her exalted status as a ruling queen in her own right. Though she does wonder what slave chains would feel like on her.

You can tell she's going to come to regret this conduct, can't you.

Well, you know what's happening next, don't you? She's subsequently cast down from her high seat and put in a few strategically placed bits of silk and a metal collar. Or rather, she puts them on herself, being assured all along by one Drusius Rensius that as the queen she can order him to unbind her at any time. Which turns out to be slightly false. Oh no! Shock horror! She's just a chained naked slave girl now! And not even a particularly attractive one (though by the standards of Earth she's a great beauty and aspiring model.) There's then many toings and froings in which she is paraded round like a highborn lady but is secretly just another slave girl (of which there are very many). This concludes, following the above "lie there and juice" scene in an abandoned mill, which I'm sure fails sexuality forever but can't exactly work out how, never having had a chained naked slave girl at my feet to command to so do, and never thus having been able to measure her moistness following such an order, with her being "proven a natural slave before Drusius Rencius, whom I love."

You're right - this is as ominous as it sounds.

In another fit of creepiness, Mr Norman introduces us to the concept of the "slave orgasm." This is where the chained naked slave girl is so turbochargedly orgasmic that she's having what in gentler days was called a "crisis" as soon as her master or any other man of Gor touches her, even innocuously. This surely fails sex forever (insert gittish joke about how in my experience, this actually happens.) But... fucking hell! This is ridiculous, surely! I know it's a fantasy, but this is up there with the dreadful "mommy porn" novels where the heroine is reduced to a quivering wreck upon seeing the rich, hawt male lead. Head. Hit. Keyboard. Slave orgasm. Christ on a bike.

There's some sort of subplot about a war between the city-states of Corcyrus and Argentum but it's slightly irrelevant. The novel ends with an afterword, which attempts to convey how all in Tiffany Collins or Sheila of Corcyrus or whatever she's named this week's life is a life of blissful pampering and suchlike but comes over as really rather ominous. It goes thus: "I must conclude this narrative now. I have been summoned to my master's couch. I hasten to obey."

Cue music.

(Sorry.)

First up, the thing with this novel is that it's just totally nonsensical beyond belief. Why would two blokes of Gor make an interplanetary round trip to Earth to kidnap Tiffany Collins just to subject her to an abusively mark-overstepping TPE arrangement, for no gain in any way to them? How much would this cost? What is the bloody point? Besides, if you're going to grab a woman of Earth to enslave and you have the means to abduct across planetary boundaries same, why not grab a supermodel so you can be sure of a decent return on investment? In fact, why not grab Naomi Campbell so she's 192 million miles away from anyone she might throw a phone at, and we can then have lots of visceral satisfaction at the disproportionate retribution thus inflicted upon her. But I digress.

The other problem is that the novel is abjectly dull. We don't need to know what she gets up to while pretending to be Tatrix of Corcyrus. It's totally unimportant. We know she's going to find herself knelt in the position of the Pleasure Slave, we don't need a blow by blow account of the different positions, moves, walks, and rituals that a Gorean slave ought to know about. We don't need to suffer Mr Norman's tin ear for dialogue (it didn't used to be like this) or his insistence of having Tiffany Collins exclaim, "How I hated him!" at every turn when she encounters someone objectionable. Can't we just get to the shagging already? Actually, on second thoughts, given the idea that the touch of Longinus of the house of Longinus can reduce her, twice, to a "quivering slave," let's not. I read that bit and... RIP My Boner, that's all I have to say about that.

But the cardinal sin with this novel is that Mr Norman has already done it before, and better too. No, not "Slave Girl of Gor." That was almost as awful as this. I'm talking about "Captive of Gor" which is the seventh one. In that one, not only does the plot make more sense (Elinor Brinton is abducted by the Priest Kings who, we already know, can, and do, abduct people of Earth in order to populate or repopulate Gor and is dragged into the wider mytharc in which she plays a main part) but also she, as a character, actually is more believable and plays an active role in the plot, her slavery being secondary to this, unlike Tiffany Collins who's just some person, and the way that the Gorean institution of slavery is presented makes more sense (back then, a suitably attractive Pleasure Slave would set a Gorean of modest means back a significant amount, whereas in the later novels, they're basically so common as to be utterly worthless - indeed, in volume five, "Assassins of Gor," the female lead Elizabeth Cardwell nets a price in the thousands and thousands of goldpieces.) Furthermore, the men of Gor in "Captive" aren't just well built studmuffins, but come in all shapes and sizes and have their reasons for doing what they do.

Then again, to be equally fair, while I'm not the sort of person who dismissed the Gorean novels out of hand, "Kajira of Gor" makes me really, really, want to. Which is a pity, because the first 10 or so are fairly enjoyable thud and blunder and have lots of anthropology porn in them and (especially the early one) lots of stony 1960s silliness. However, once you get past "Slave Girl of Gor" they take a serious turn for the worse (excepting the Jason Marshall sub-trilogy, which is from the viewpoint of a male slave who wins his freedom through success as a gladiator then becomes a minor Gorean power in his own right). And by this one, well, don't bother, is all I have to say. It's stuff like this that is the reason that Gor went out of print in the late 1980s, because it had just become a horrible, awful parody of itself, that lived down to every last criticism people made of it, justifiable or no.

Right. I think I'll end this there. I have Louisa Freemantle chained to the foot of my couch, who I bought of a passer by for two pounds twenty. I have just told her to lie there and juice, and I'm now going to reduce her to a quivering slave. Twice.

(originally written for everything2.com)

[Michael Havens · Rating 2 out of 5]

The nineteenth installment of John Norman's Gor series can be summed up like the previous eighteen books. As science fiction, it makes it into my bid for UHV (Unintentional Humour Value). Onve more, this sophomoric, adolescent, sexually and misogenic driven work has all the cliches needed to send the feminist on a screaming rampage. Norman has his barbarians, those masculine men of Gor who out macho us earthmen, with our preconceptions (misconceptions according to the standards of Goreans) in regards to women and how men and women relate to each other; with hte men subverting their birthright as the masters, while confused women secretly wanteing to be dominated by a "true" man, struggle to conform to an unatural comprimise of nature. All this is revealed through the experiences of one Tiffany Collins, later to be given her slave name Lita, as she is abducted from her home world of Earth to that most masculine of planets, Gor. A planet that inexplicably in perfect parallel orbit with the Earth on the other side of the Sun, and therefore always hidden (which cannot happen).
I've noticed that when Norman uses women to tell their story about life on Gor, and/or their kidnapping and subsequent submission to slavery, which by the ned of the books realize that it is slavery that a woman secretly aspires to, that the books have a thin veneer of science ficton which is overshadowed buy a sort of semi-sexual/sexual-innuendo emphasis for much of the book, with occasional slippage of the scince fiction plot sprinkled here and there.
For our heroine (can she even be one in this workd?) is a Kajira (Gorean:Female Slave), destined to be pulled by the hair, slapped, have monsterous beasts set after her (Sleen), smacked upsite the head, and elsewhere, whipped, branded, collard with her other female friends who are slaves themselves, and whom find in the end that this is all very "natural", as this is the biologiac norm and course of all male and female species (Norman fails to explain the other animals in the kingdom like black widow spiders and preying mantises who eat or kill the male, or the sea horse who interestingly gives birth through the male...that's right, it is the female who impregnates the male! And so forth...).
If the Gor novels were something of the type of SM/Bondage erotica that was written like a fantasy, one could hardly have a problem with it, except that the writing here is so bad it could be used in several cases of what not to do in fiction. But the way it is written it sounds more like a manifesto pretending to be a novel. I wish that it would be amanifesto, so that I would not have to try so hard to read it as anything but as such.
Here is something else that is humourous to me. These Goreans are strong and willful in their absolute authoity over women. Several times we hear of Kajira being so bad in their duties or their traitorious acts against Gor (there is a subplot of alien invasion I won't get into here) that they are punished with death, wither by impalement, being feed to Sleen (a large lizard-like creature, and quite carnivorous), or other such nasty fate. However, so far such females, and they do appear in a few of the books, are in the end, spared this fate for the opportunity to serve men forever more as slaves. And oh! How they do love this turn of events, when as in the novels they, "learn their collar".
Seven more books? Eight? More mush ahead! Stay tuned...

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

If anyone gets this far in the Gor series and reads word for word, then you must be a true, die-hard Gorean. For anyone else, it's like pulling teeth out.

At this point in the Gor series, it goes from a hybrid of Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced fantasy and sci-fi planetary romance to straight up BDSM. The only difference between Kajira of Gor and your regular S&M story, is the scenery.

Mind you, I'm not offended by male dominance and female submission. I know plenty of women who would be offended by this, but it doesn't upset me. From my viewpoint, I'm reading it as kinky erotica. Don't expect to find pornographic chit-chat here. All the acts of sex are purely hinted. When the kajira speaks of having sex, or rather intercourse, it's referred in Gorean terms as 'yielding.' FYI, other words used for having sex in Gorean is 'furring' 'serving' and 'pleasure.' When a woman is aroused in Gor, she is 'juicing.' Of course, a good slave is usually in 'heat.' In other words, she's constantly horny. Although towards the end of the book, the kajira, who was once an earth woman who taunted men for with her feminine wiles, brought to rule a village of Gor as a strong Free Woman, now reduced to being a whimpering slave to one of the men she once served under her, she begs this master to 'fuck her.'

I'm not hating on the book. John Norman, aka Professor Lange, teaches at Queens College. Yes, he's a CUNY professor. A public university professor. Not everyone who works under CUNY is a bleeding PC liberal. Surprise. As a former CUNY student myself, it sure surprised me. Professor Lange has the right to publish whatever he wants under John Norman. I do believe in freedom of speech, regardless of material. It's not the concept that all women are naturally submissive that offends me (Not all women are naturally submissive, however.)

What really offends me is the CONSTANT REPETITION. Due to this, I had to skip over many passages. Various paragraphs just repeated the same thing, only in different wording. It's like you wear an outfit. You may style it in various ways, but underneath the accesorities, its still the same outfit. That, is what the later Gor books are. Different scenes, creative wording, but still the same plot. This is good for the loyal Gorean. For the average person just randomly picking up this book, he or she will be bored to tears.

I also suspect that with the constant repetition within the text, one wonders if John Norman is a bit obsessed with the whole power exchange between dominant men and submissive women. Then again, many successful creatives can be a bit on the obsessed side. It's one of those odd little things that make creatives tick. Still, better to put it in book form than to be an outright stalker, for example.

This just makes me curious about the real life John Lange. I wonder how his family life must be like. None of business, I suppose. He still has an international cult following, which is more than what most people have. With that, I wish him well.

[Alienne Laval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is the "Dominion of Corcyrus" BtB? How much did the slave girl Suzan really understand?

“I am Tiffany,” I said. “Tiffany Collins.”
“Yes, Mistress,” she said.
“Where I am,” I asked.
“In the city of Corcyrus,” she said.
I had never heard of this city. I did not even know what country it was in.
I did not even know in what continent it might be.
“In what country is this?” I asked.
“In the country of Corcyrus,” she said.
“That is the city,” I said.
You are then in the dominions of Corcyrus, Mistress,” she said.
“Where is Corcyrus?” I asked.
“Mistress?” asked the girl, puzzled.
“Where is Corcyrus?” I asked.
“It is here,” she said, puzzled. “We are in Corcyrus.”
“I see that I am to be kept in ignorance,” I said, angrily, clutching the
coverlet about my neck.
“Corcyrus,” said the girl, “is south of the Vosk. It is. south-west of the city
of Ar. It lies to the east and somewhat north of Argentum.”
“Where is New York City?” I asked. “Where are the United States?”
“They are not here, Mistress,” smiled the girl.
“Where is the ocean?” I asked.
“It is more than a thousand pasangs to the west, Mistress,” said the girl.
“Is it the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean?” I asked.
“No, Mistress,” said the girl.
“It is the Indian Ocean?” I asked.
“No, Mistress,” said the girl.
I looked at her, puzzled.
“It is Thassa, the Sea, Mistress,” said the girl.
“What sea is it?” I asked.
“That is how we think of her,” said the girl, “as the sea, Thassa.”
“Oh” I said, bitterly

[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.

[Ann Stenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

love this series

[Craig Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

From time to time, very occasionally, one comes across a novel that makes the world a slightly worse place just by existing. I had heard a very little about this series, that there was a certain degree of misogyny, but nothing to prepare me for the reality. The author's motivating idea here is that women find fulfilment in being beaten and raped, and that any who deny that have been deceived by our society's false values. Men who do not treat women accordingly are not real men. In this novel, we follow a young woman named Tiffany, as she is kidnapped and taken to the planet Gor, and as she comes - surprisingly easily - to embrace her true nature as a born sex-slave.

To an extent, the book reminds me of the fiction of de Sade. Each is the product of a depraved mind, so shameless that it is content to flaunt its perversion publicly, and perhaps to drag others down as well. At least, though, de Sade's work had the doubtful mitigation of having some literary merit. Even that is absent here. Indeed, the book is so poorly written that I did wonder whether the author was not a native speaker of English, and the name "John Norman" a pseudonym. John Norman is indeed a pseudonym but, astonishingly, the author does indeed appear to be a native speaker and an educated man. It is frankly baffling how this series ever found a publisher. The book has surely never been in the hands of a careful editor. The characters have no psychological depth, and the author has an irritating habit of sudden, jarring flashbacks. The book is repetitive in the extreme. The author also has a peculiar and irritating habit of beginning sentences with the word "too" (in the sense of "also"), which is hardly standard usage.

In short, this is a book with no redeeming features whatsoever. As literature, it may be the worst book I have ever read, rising not even to the level of basic competence in written expression. It is also deeply immoral, giving us rather more of an insight into the author's mind than is entirely comfortable. Incels and the 50 Shades crowd will love it. Everyone else should avoid at all costs.

[George Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tarnsman of Gor - John Frederick Lange Jr. as John Norman - Two Star ☆☆
Priest-Kings of Gor - Two Star ☆☆
Slave Girl of Gor - Two Star ☆☆
Kajira of Gor - Two Star ☆☆

Two Stars - I read them but I don't think I will ever reread them.

There are 37 titles in John Norman's Gor Series. I've listed these four together as I feel they all work at the same level. And I figure all thirty-seven titles would fit in this category. There's a thin overarching interplanetary plot in each title. Then an individual protagonist plot provides the grist of the title. There are large areas of Gorian factoids (How the boats are designed. Where the metal in the slave's collar was obtained. What letters in the Gorian language mean. And on and on and on.) And then there are the female slaves and how they find their freedom in their slavery.

I found the interplanetary plot interesting. Mostly the individual protagonist was fun and action-oriented. My eyes glazed over while reading the Gorian factoids until I just started skimming them. What should I say about the female slaves? (Have you seen the Megan Fox SI swimsuit photographs? All her poses look like they were lifted from the pleasure slaves of Gor.) Sex sells. That's why there are 37 titles in the series.

George W. Parker

[Thom Roads · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started reading with the intent of researching how men write from a female perspective. Didn't make it past chapter two. At the point where our protagonist was ordered to get on all fours on the floor of a limousine only to have a blanket put over her for the sole purpose of dominance, I gave up. The whole thing made me feel super gross.

[Alan Standsalone Bryant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh!!! Finally got it read after reading several books in between to get through the repetitious psychology of Male masters to female slave. So repetitious through each and every book but the main story is what I find intriguing. Great characters ters and some great twist within the main story.

[Meek Bottom · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome

[David Mann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts out more promising than some of the other female character centered Gor books, but eventually descends to Slave Girl of Gor depths.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#19 in the Gor series. Misogyny aside, there is some great world-building in the Gor series. In this novel there is even a fun Gorean courtroom drama.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another one of those Gor books told from the point of view of a slave girl. It's slightly better than some of the others of that ilk but not nearly up to the more adventure focused earlier books. By this time in the series I was getting seriously tired of the "women love their chains" stuff. The world of Gor was wonderfully realized in the early books but the creativity really fell off, in my opinion, after book 10.

[AmbushPredator · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another deviation from the main storyline, and another look at slavery from a woman's point of view, allied to a tale of political intrigue and imposters. It's not one of his best. In fact, it's a by-the-numbers book with yet more characters we never hear from again.

But next, we rejoin the main storyline once more. With a most curious premise - the Gorean travelling show!

[Marichee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually, this book was a little interesting. If you can get past the badly written prose and see the main character underneath, you might even be amused.

But really, don't expect much from this book. Not if you're used to good writing.

[Christoph Chesnavich · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, this is far better written than the rest.

[Summer Sterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really repetitive style, and very stilted dialogue. Somehow, however, I still enjoyed this book!

[Evie Vane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really, really wanted to like this, but it was so repetitive and unimaginative that even with skimming, I couldn't make it through to the end.