Tarnsman of Gor

Gor #1

by John Norman

Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of Earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first twenty-odd years of his life. One frosty winter night in the New England woods, he finds himself transported to the planet of Gor, also known as Counter-Earth, where everything is dramatically different from anything he has ever experienced. It emerges that Tarl is to be trained as a Tarnsman, one of the most honored positions in the rigid, caste-bound Gorean society. He is disciplined by the best teachers and warriors that Gor has to offer…but to what end?

This is the first book of John Norman's popular and controversial Gorean Saga, a series of novels the author began in 1967 with Tarnsman of Gor and are now considered cult classics.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Erotica, Adventure, BDSM, Audiobook

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

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

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

[…. The following was discovered by investigators at the scene of the Tarnsman Incident in late April, 2011. The narrative report is reproduced in its entirety and a transcription of the audio recording made by Officer Honcho is reproduced to the extent possible...]

GOODREADS LITERARY POLICE REPORT
CASE No. TBD
OFFICER: Mike Honcho
DATE: April 29, 2011

NARRATIVE REPORT (Draft only....not for official release)

At approximately 06:15 am, I was shaking down hookers on routine patrol on Robert E. Howard Blvd. when I noticed what appeared to be a white male lying in front of Giganta's Bookstore. After cursing at the prospect of having to waste my night doing paperwork because some Fucktard got jacked, I proceeded on Segway after finishing my beer to the victim’s location and found a white male, age 35-45, lying face down and immobile in pool of his own sick. After donning a hazard suit because there is just no way I was touching him, I proceeded to roll the victim over and determined that he was alive. However he was non-responsive to both visual and audible stimuli and appeared to be in a state of severe shock (see artist sketch of victim below)

I performed a casual inspection of his person looking for money signs of injury and found $175 $75 none. The only item found on the victim besides a flask of Huckleberry Vodka was what appeared to be old copy of paperback novel. I picked up the book and began to inspect it.

As I touched it and stared at the cover, I began to feel very strange. It is difficult to describe.I felt ....sort of...dirty and...soiled... like I needed a shower to wash some unseen filth away… I realize this does not make sense, but it is the most accurate description of the feeling that I can report.

Title on the cover was Tarnsman of Gor and as a read the words a second wave of emotion, more intense than the first, washed over me. Extreme and powerful feelings of intense...stupidity...as if my brain was shrinking...Also, even stronger feelings of dirtiness returned as well as sharp pangs of severe shame and an almost uncontrollable urge to call my parents and apologize for letting them down...though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

After taking a moment to compose myself, I continued to inspect the cover of the paperback and noticed the cover art…..severe wave of...of…sliminess invaded body and I staggered back. The picture on the cover showed a greased up hunky man in a loincloth holding a large sword out from his waist like a big penis, while a half-naked woman was bound with head down on her knees…(See Photo below)

I staggered.......

Next thing I knew I had lost consciousness and dropped the book. As I recovered, I noticed that my self-respect was noticeably less than it had been mere moments before. I felt smaller...emptier.... I felt like I wanted to disappear inside myself and run away from the world. I knew I needed to inspect the inside of the book and thought about waiting for back-up. However, I think the book was already affecting me as I decided to proceed alone... I just did not want anyone else to see me feeling like I did.

[……at this point, the written narrative report stopped and Officer Honcho proceeded to dictate...]

[Partial Transcript of Dictated Report]

I’m picking up the book again trying my best to avoid looking at the demented bondage/fellatio porn cover...oh God, I saw it again...shit.I am closing my eyes...funny, with my eyes closed the book feels warm and, uh, cheesy, almost, um, like soft Velveeta. I’m beginning to suspect what has happened to the victim and I know I should wait for back-up, but the book has affected me enough that I feel like such a cheap, stupid piece of shit. I just no longer care about life...I just want it to be over…

I will open the book and attempt to read passages from it….Page 93***…it says:

‘Then, to my astonishment, the daughter of the Ubar Marlenus, daughter of the Ubar of Ar, knelt before me, a simple warrior of Ko-ro-ba, and lowered her head, lifting and extending her arms, wrists crossed. It was the submission of the captive female.’

...Oh God…..THE HORROR….THE HORROR. I must continue...

***Note that at this point, Officer Honcho became extremely agitated while reading but the transcript has been altered to attempt to quote the words without the gasps, vomiting and screams of pain uttered during Officer Honcho's reading....also it should be noted that the accuracy of the quotes has not yet been ascertained as no one is willing to examine the inside of the book to verify.

Page 109…

`I can force you to take me,' she said. `How?' I asked. `Like this,' she responded, kneeling before me, lowering her head and lifting her arms, the wrists crossed. She laughed

...HOLY FUCK…ALMOST THE SAME…ONLY WORSE….HOW CAN.....WORLD.... TOLERATE SUCH EVIL AS THIS...Have to go on...it must end here…

Page 191…

A golden tarn disk was a small fortune. It would buy one of the great birds themselves, or as many as five slave girls

...Reading these words I have now lost all desire to live among my fellow man and feel my grip on reality slipping....what is that...am seeing...HUMAN CENTIPEDE..coming towards me....

Page 216…

That night, that glorious night, was a night of flowers, torches, and Ka-la-na wine, and late, after sweet hours of love, we fell asleep in each other's arms….

[From here, Officer Honcho appears to have lost control and the rest of the transcript was gibberish...the following is a sample]…..PETER PETER, PUMPKIN EATER, HAD A WIFE AND COULDN’T KEEP HER, PUT HE IN A SHOTGUN SHELL, AND SHOT HER STRAIGHT TO...THERE ONCE WAS A MAN FROM NANTUCKET, WHOSE.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT...I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN...SHAKE AND BAKE...TALK TO ME GOOSE....ICEMAN, I AM DANGEROUS...I WILL GLADLY PAY YOU TUESDAY FOR A HAMBURGER TODAY...BADGES, BADGES, WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING BADGES...I’LL BE BACK...THEY TOOK THE BAR, THE WHOLE FUCKING BAR...YIPPY KI AYE MOTHER FUCKER...I’M OUT OF ORDER…YOUR OUT OF ORDER…THIS WHOLE GODDAM COURTROOM IS OUT OF ORDER...NEVER ASK ME ABOUT MY BUSINESS....YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH...YOU HAD ME AT HELLO...KEVIN!!!...IT'S A SHARK...ET PHONE HOME...THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE...NEVER RAT ON YOUR FRIENDS AND ALWAYS KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT....SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND...ROSEBUD, ROSEBUD....

[Transcript continued on for another 30 minutes like that and then ends abruptly...]

...Officer Honcho was found lying next to the victim, later identified as George McFly, in a state of intense shock and non-responsive to external stimuli. Both victims have since been hospitalized and are in stable condition. Hospital personnel are reading to them works by Tolstoy, Austen and Mieville in the hopes that they can be reached and given a reason to come back to the world.

If you, or anyone you love, has a copy of this book in your possession…DO NOT APPROACH IT….do not open it...do not look at it…leave the area immediately and call the Goodreads Literary Police.

[Paul Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There seems to be 2 types of people reviewing this book:

1) Those who have read it many years ago as a teenager but are afraid to give an honest review as they have teenage kids now and spouses who may not like what they really thought about it at the time.

2) Those with an agenda - as this book was a controversy back in the bra burning days...

It seems as though women can read historical romance novels full of sex scenes and tight corsets and restrictive clothing that was nothing less than a lacey form of female bondage - that involve women being bought and sold through arranged marriages under a very dominant male society, but God forbid it if guys want to read the same thing under their own genre, whether or not they actually take that stuff seriously!

I really liked it and I think it would be less controversial for first time readers today as people have grown up a little bit since the bra burning era of the late 60's and 70's. Taken for what it is, it is just a fantasy...

I found it a refreshing change from the constant stream of politically correct nonsense coming out of publishing houses today.

Yes, girls in this book are bought and sold like property and there isn't a single female in this book who isn't wearing a dog collar or a pair of shackles or isn't being led about on a leash. Though if you actually read the book, the main character wants to stop all that, though the girls (probably thanks to Stockholm syndrome) appear to not want it to stop.

It is an exciting and easy read with plenty of sword action. The story is simple, Beowulfian, bad guy fights evil, saves a princess, becomes a hero, type storyline, but it's a fascinating world that Norman has pained and is well worth the couple of afternoons it will take you to read this short novel.

Many have compared this writer's style to the Edgar Rice Borroughs "Mars" novels, yet in the same breath berate this book for it's obvious bondage streak, yet Edgar Rice Burroughs' books had an openly pro-nudist stance. Mars could have been considered a nudist planet - by his writings. I see nothing wrong with writing about a planet of slave girls if it is a fantasy and is viewed as such by the reader.

Yes... You might want to talk with your son/daughter if you find this book tucked under his/her mattress. Though it's probably not as bad as some of the stuff teenage kids are reading today. I would think it would be far less of an influence on your teen than perhaps "Twilight" (aka: politically correct and wussified vampires)...

It's pretty tame book by today's standards.

In your imagination while you read, there will be:
Brief nudity
Adult situations
Female bondage and female submission
Mild sexual content
Torture
Graphic Violence

[J.G. Keely · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first of the infamous S&M fantasy series of the world of Gor is a rather unremarkable adventure book. Taking cue from Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, Norman gives us an Earthling sent to survive on savage, alien world. However, instead of John Carter, a cowboy and Civil War vet right out of Wister's 'The Virginian', Norman's hero is a mild-mannered British professor.

His transformation from comical figure to unrivaled warrior is swift and inexplicable. Such a man might learn to become a soldier, to wield a sword, but that isn't good enough for Norman. His hero becomes literally the greatest soldier and swordsmen on his new, savage home.

However, Norman does not want us to question his plot or characters. He gives us a wild, melodramatic, unbelievable adventure without a hint of lightheartedness. Indeed, Norman seems to take every moment seriously, and with a swaggering machismo that dares us to laugh at it.

When Terb son of Terb (trained by Terb the viking to be a Terb-rider) defeats a dozen armed men with his arms literally tied behind his back, we are supposed to soberly marvel at his manliness. We are also meant to maintain this awe through a whole book-full of similarly unbelievable battles. This isn't to say that the fight scenes aren't fun, just that the author doesn't think they should be.

There is also the training of the giant death-birds that the protagonist learns to ride. The birds are vicious and prone to attacking and even eating their riders. To combat this, the riders use handheld tasers to discipline the birds. There are two problems with this.

Firstly, we can imagine that training these birds would be akin to training a large predator, that is, a predator large enough to consider us prey. We can train cats and dogs pretty easily, since they don't consider us to be 'on the menu', but training these birds would be more like training a tiger. This can be done, but its an imprecise science, as even after years of familiarity and training, even a hand-raised tiger can turn on its handler.

Beyond that, we don't train them by taser, since this would tend to provoke a fear reaction in the animal. This means the animal is either going to run or fight you. This brings us to the second problem: these are birds.

If you threaten a bird, it will just fly away from you and that's the end. Training falcons requires them to see you as the primary source of food, and this training is difficult to maintain. Even well-trained falcons will sometimes just fly off when released to hunt, and then you have to chase the thing down, isolate it, and net it. Now imagine that you're trying to chase and net an escaped tiger.

The training should have looked like a combination between how we train large predators like tigers and how we train animals which could easily evade us at any moment, like falcons or dolphins. Norman fails to do the work necessary to present animal training properly, but in this failure, we get an insight into his character.

The book, like many others of the genre, shows a very simplistic view of power dynamic. Animals, enemies, and women can only be dominated. He has no sense of politics, machination, friendship, or any other subtle form of human interaction. He treats all things with an iron fist, and it always works out. It is the inescapable fantasy of the powerless man: that if he were only mighty enough, he could punch anything into submission, be it pet, friend, rival, or romantic interest. Which brings us back to sex slavery:

The first book only lightly enters into the recurring theme of female sex slavery which comes to define the series. That every woman in the book is a slave at one point or another, and is helplessly in need of a man despite her strong will comes only as a minor annoyance in this book rather than the overpowering obsession parodied in the classic Houseplants of Gor.

The insecurities of the author become all-too-blatant as one reads on. Firstly, Norman requires the fantastical escapism of a hero who is a simple, bookish man (with mommy issues) who becomes an unstoppable killing force (and lover) beholden to no man or god. Beyond this, he also feels a need to conduct himself with a no-nonsense, manly rationalism worthy of Hemingway. Either one alone might be workable, but the schizophrenic conflict between realism and hyperbole becomes a constant strain on the book's tone.

The plot is also so circular and serendipitous that it's painful. Constant coincidence moves things along at a clip, with little draughtsmanship to redeem it. Like a Victorian Romance, every character returns at the climax, everyone ends up married and happy, and all the bad guys get defeated. Everything is neatly accounted for in an avalanche of detailed explanations, so much so that the ever-piling climax had me laughing aloud with each new addition.

It is not only his plots but his romanticism which resembles Victorian dime novels: his hero is an ideal in honesty, love, and purity, as well as swordsmanship and will. Not only will his somber superman enact a master-slave relationship with his chosen mate, but that relationship will be a pure and courtly love, undying and perfect. Tarb (Tarb-riding son of Tarb) frees every enslaved woman he finds only to make conspicuous that he the then enslaves them utterly with the purity of his heart's love.

It's not enough to enslave a woman, or even to do so against her histrionic strong will, she must also be enslaved by her own desires and emotions, since the chain will never be strong enough. Of course, it shouldn't surprise us that Norman sees love as slavery, because only complete emotional control of a woman can overcome his personal insecurities.

Of course, in that, Norman follows the unbalanced ideals of many marriages and relationships: one need not live on far-off Gor to think that romance may be secured by the simple application of a jeweled band of gold. Nor is this unbalanced sexual dynamic uncommon in the fantasy genre.

The writing isn't bad, and can even be evocative and exciting when not stuck in repetitive digressions on the world and Norman's philosophies (As amusingly parodied here). Sad to say, Norman's prose often shows more talent than most modern fantasy authors, even as his insecurities grow increasingly awkward.

It's like a guy who acts big and tough, except once you were hanging out and he tore his pants on a fence and you saw that he has a tattoo of a cartoon poodle on his thigh. If he showed it off and proudly admitted liking cartoon poodles, that would be one thing, but he's never mentioned it, and he always wears long pants, and you just remembered when he declined to go skinny dipping and just stood on the beach skipping rocks.

But now you've seen it, and you can't unsee it. Did he notice you looking? It doesn't matter, because you'll never buy the macho-man routine again, if you ever really did. The illusion is broken.

Don't Miss Terb 2: Terb vs. the Blood Lesbians!

My Fantasy Book Suggestions

[Mark Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these in the early 1980s as a young teen. I have very little memory of them but I do recall that although the series is infamous for being a misogynist S&M epic, that's something that develops over the course of the first 8 or so volumes. This first book, as I recall, has almost none of that, other than the fact that many men and women in this society are enslaved.

My memory is that the writing delivered the story in an engaging manner and it was a decent swords & technology (but mainly swords) yarn.

The tarns of the title are huge eagle-like birds that are ridden to do battle in the skies. And sci-fi interest is delivered in the fact that the Priest-Kings, the secret overlords of this world are in fact giant ants with space-age technology!

As the series continues the business of enslaving attractive young women (the society is kept eternally youthful with serums so we don't have to worry about old people) comes to dominate, finally to an obsessive level and it truly is a S&M soft porn series from then on. And frankly it gets boring. Even as a sex-starved teen I wasn't interested in reading 100s of pages about chaining, training, and branding women, mixed with psychobabble about how this is what women really want/need.

I'm guessing if I were to read even the first one now I would have many more objections than I did as a boy 40 years ago, but I'm rating it 3* on the basis of my memory of an exciting sword-fest with worldbuilding that didn't get noticeably creepy for several books.




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[Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember these books very well other than they were horribly sexist and I had to hide from my Mom when I read them. I think if I went back to read them again I'd be shocked and horrified, so I will leave it to my teenage affection and not sully the memory of enjoying the smut.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fifty shades of looking at things from the flip side!
Ok this was just a bit of a joke review. My fifteen year old self gave this five stars. I mean look at the hottie on the cover! What more does a boy need? Now thirty years later, it's only four and half stars. Now that's a little something I like to call maturing.

If you enjoyed this review you'll probably like my Youtube reviews--be warned, I enjoy some good snark! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ6D...

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, yes... the Gor series. At first it was just sort of Nietzchean-Burroughsian sword-and-sandal escapism with an overtone of sexist-pigotry, but then he spun off into porno world-building. Not that I don't like porn (I do), but the series became increasingly bizarre and the author's sexual obsessions got more and more obvious as the series progressed. It is kind of like watching a slow-motion train wreck.

If he'd written them as porn, he would have been long since forgotten; I'm still pretty amazed that a mainstream publisher ever published these. It's all astonishingly Burroughsian and kinky at the same time.

Truth be told, I love these books -- I think Norman's writing is pulpy and effective and the stories cook along at a brisk pace. I think the action sequences work and the politics and world-building are WAY less clunky and boneheaded than that of ERB -- in fact, I think Norman's universe is actually pretty fun even taking the SM out of the equation. I find them enjoyable and fun. And Tarnsman of Gor is my favorite among them.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time (1994 to be exact) an adolescent boy and his brother, both fond of reading, were taken to a second hand store by their mother and pointed to the used book shelf where paperbacks were sold for only .25 cents a piece. The youngest of the two boys, who was eleven at the time, searched through the books until he found one that snagged his eye... "Tarnsman of Gor." When he presented his choice of reading material to his mother he was promptly scolded and told that that book was positively demonic and would brainwash him into a sexist, male-chauvinist, drooling maniac. Needless to say the boy went home with a much better book by his mother's estimation, Peter Benchley's "Jaws."

Ok, so that is the true story of everything I knew about the Gor series up until recently. I had heard the usual horror stories of sexism, BDSM, ect., and figured I'd stay away. But a few days ago, with my heart pounding out of fear I'd be caught, I gave into that same curiosity I had as a kid and finally read this book and its companion volume "Outlaw of Gor."

What we have is a Sword and Planet adventure of the highest magnitude. Yes its highly derivative of John Carter of Mars, but that's the whole point of the Sword and Planet genre, all efforts at making it "fresh" just don't work, what can I say? You can't reinvent the wheel, so stick with what works. And work it does! This book captivated me so much I read it through in one sitting with only a short break in the middle. I really can't see where any of the criticism leveled against this book has its basis, other than people who take a look at the already exaggerated cover art and exaggerate it even further.

I think that social activists thrive on controlling what other people do, whether its what I feed my kids, to what I watch on tv, or what kind of car I drive. The goal of transforming the world into a "utopia" of hybrid driving, granola munching, medicinal marijuana-smoking, hackysack playing, emasculated hippies and clip haired feministas proceeds with gusto. And, sadly, imaginative entertainment that extols the virtues of honor, integrity, and valor must be swept away because the author has chosen to lace his novels with an indictment of feminism and liberalism in the form of unique Gorean cultural element: female slavery. Maybe someday I'll become a convert to the cause of the New Humanity and climb up an Ivory Tower and bloviate about believability, plot development ect, when really I'm just pissed that John Norman has the audacity to criticize the sacred Social Change that I have dedicated my life to.

All in all this book was amazing, and the informal censorship that this series has faced is ridiculous. I certainly don't agree with what some of the more obsessed fans of the series do (ie try to live out the Gorean society in real life), but if the hard core "Trekkies" don't keep one from occasionally enjoying a Star Trek movie or TV show, why should the hard core "Goreans" keep one from occasionally enjoying a Gor novel?

"Tarnsman of Gor" introduces the reader to an imaginative, well crafted, and savage world that pulsates with romance and adventure. I heartily recommend this book to any fans of the Sword and Planet genre and to anyone who wants to read something that is truly unique and inspiring.

[Clint Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slave girls, strange beasts, swashbuckling violence . . . what's not to like? Unfortunately, much.

The story starts off interestingly enough, although completely lacking anything resembling a hook. From there, the main character is whisked away to Counter-Earth, or Gor, where he gets a full chapter of exposition on the ways of Gor. After that, with the grandest of stoicism, he's all-in on this new world. He soon meets a slave girl who used to be a princess, but she embraces her servitude whole-heartedly. There are some interesting scenes with the main character taming the Tarn bird, but the sword fighting is vague and boring.

The plot is flimsy; the world-building is interesting, but rushed, and the characters' feelings/desires/motivations are very suspect. The beginning of the book is dull, the ending is unsatisfying. It reads like a fan of the John Carter books said "I can do that," then grabbed a pencil. But, no, he could not do that.

This was, somehow, a reasonably popular series of books a few decades ago. Perhaps the later books bring something to the table I'm not currently seeing, but this first one was rough. Tarnsman of Gor is a faded facsimile of brilliant works that preceded it. If you are into adult adventure books that feature sex, violence, and strange creatures, find yourself a Conan, or a Richard Blade, or pretty much anything else.

Sucked in by excellent cover art again! Damn you, Boris Vallejo! Just kidding--still love ya.

[Somormujo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5
Parece ser que fue todo un éxito allá por los años ochenta, lo que hace que su prosa esté poco adaptada a los estándares actuales de corrección social. La saga consta de bastantes novelas, del orden de 15 hasta donde he visto.
Teniendo esto en cuenta, a mi me ha parecido una historia muy entretenida. De aventuras de ciencia ficción, con la trama en otro planeta, la Contratierra, de costumbres y desarrollo muy diferentes a La Tierra, y un ritmo algo atropellado a veces.
He visto también la película que se hizo sobre esta novela y esta sí que ha envejecido mal en mi opinión, además de ser de bajo presupuesto para la época y creo que nada buena en verdad.
Lo dicho, una novela de aventuras sin mayores complicaciones, al más puro estilo de las novelas de Estefanía, que tanto furor hicieron, aunque por supuesto de diferente temática. Creo que leeré más de la saga …

[Slip! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok...this one was surprisingly good.
Like. GOOD.
Yes there's a lack of real description, character emotions, and the pace was fast. But dammit, I LIKED it. It was short and refreshing.

I know lots of readers are like "boo slavery of woman", etc, and I can't agree. We're comparing our own morals to that of the counter earth, where it's morals are much countered to ours. And Tarl admitted it was unseemly, and pret-ty sure that he didn't keep a slave himself, if not only faking it for the woman he loved and his own self preservation.

So I saw nothing wrong with it. Besides...decades ago, us Earthlings weren't so different, hm?

This does NOT mean I condone slavery, or woman sexism. Hells to the no. But for the book, it was appropriate. Hate me if you wish, I'll send my sable tarn at you.

Overall, I was left pleasantly impressed, and desiring my own tarn now.

Time to play some Ark. Close as it gets.

[TAP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tarnsman of Gor is not good fiction. It’s not the worst thing I have read, but it’s not even good on a pulpy level.

The second half of the book is far better than the first half, but it’s all rather bland. Even the action scenes are over in one or two paragraphs.

The biggest flaw of the book is the major lack of worldbuilding and explanation. Nothing is explained. Why is Tarl Cabot brought to the Counter-Earth? No clue other than he is supposed to change the course of the planet. So why is his missing father living on this planet? No clue. Why are all the women enslaved? No clue. Why is there so much homoerotic bro love in this heteronormative wannabe-macho book? No clue.

The romance element is ridiculous: Tarl steals Talena away; she tries to kill him several times; he decides to rape her after one of her attacks but then decides that she’s too gorg to assault; she gets stolen away by someone else; oh no, he’s in love now and she loves him; he sets out on a mission to save his gorgeous lover that he has not had a single caring/intimate/getting-to-know-you-moment with—nothing about this romance makes sense other than to give Tarl a reason to go save the city of Ar.

Bad writing and bad use of deus ex machina.

Nothing is explained, thus there are no consequences, thus it is all pointless.

But I like the spider.

[J.M. (Joe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my secret indulgence and, boy-oh-boy, how my fantasy consumption had suddenly gone wayward, from Tolkien to Lloyd Alexander to John Norman? Indeed! It's like a well-bred Catholic schoolboy (which I was) was suddenly found loitering outside the local canteen bumming smokes.

Anyhow... there it was. TARNSMAN OF GOR. Sitting on the bookshelf, beckoning me to pick it up. Earth man Tarl Cabot is transported to a fantasy world where he rides flying tarns, duels with swords, and protects beautiful slave women! Too much for my 14-year-old brain to resist.

As stated, up until then, fantasy consisted purely of Tolkien's Middle-Earth and Alexander's Prydain. Now I was beginning to branch out and discover the more lurid side of the genre. My adolescent attentions were captured by the striking Vallejo cover, then my mind was affixed by Norman's subject matter as I stood in the aisle at the Little Professor bookstore (RIP) and devoured passages. I plunked down some crumpled cash, unwilling to meet the cashier's gaze, took it home, and kept it hidden away from my parents. I went on reading several of Norman's Gor series, spending allowance and lawn-mowing money to purchase one on a nigh-weekly basis. Adding to the fun was the fact that I managed to get the girl-next-door interested (she was 14, too) and so after I read each book I'd give them to her and we'd eventually have our own little private summertime book club on her porch swing, discussing the adventures of Tarl Cabot, his menagerie of slave girls, and his constant struggles against the grotesque and relentless Priest-Kings of Gor.

What a fun and surreptitious bit of nostalgia. I suspect if I read this series now it would lose a star, maybe two, but my high rating is based not just on the book itself, but the youthful and buddingly pubescent memories it evokes.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

While walking in a New Hampshire forest, college professor Tarl Cabot unexpectedly receives a strange communication from his long-lost father. Suddenly he is whisked away by spaceship to Gor, the Counter-Earth, a planet which we never see because it lives on the other side of the sun. Its powerful priest-kings have been able to shield it from even our theoretical view and, though the society seems primitive, its aloof rulers seem to be hoarding and selectively doling out secret knowledge and technological advances (such as spaceships and advanced medical and communication techniques).

After Tarl Cabot meets his father, he is thoroughly educated in the Gorean language, history, and customs, and trained as a Tarnsman (a warrior who rides the huge carnivorous flying Tarns). Gor’s caste system doesn’t sit well with Professor Cabot’s 20th century Earth ideas and, at least at first, he’s especially appalled that Goreans keep slaves and even have them branded, collared, and leashed. Though not prevalent in this first book, there is a caste of pleasure slaves whose prominence in future books have given the Gorean Saga its reputation and made it a cult classic. But when Tarl is given a dangerous mission, he finds out that not all women on Gor are weak and submissive!

Tarnsman of Gor (originally published in 1967) is quintessential male-oriented sword & sorcery fantasy: intelligent but modest Earth man goes to another planet where he’s suddenly courageous, powerful, and important and he whoops up on all male challengers. He meets women who are a lot more exotic and exciting than any Earth women he knows and they may be wearing collars and leashes and it’s acceptable to drag them around by their hair. I couldn’t help but chuckle when one feisty woman who was wearing a veil and heavy voluminous robes gets muddy and ends up stripped to her silk slip which has to have a couple of inches removed at the bottom when a bandage is needed. Oh, yeah, and against his original ethics, Tarl occasionally has to tie her up (but she definitely deserves it, and maybe she even likes it).

So far (I have not read further in this series), I find John Norman’s treatment of the male-master/female-slave theme much more palatable than that which I recently encountered in Christine Feehan’s Dark Prince. Norman’s women (so far) are not only beautiful, but intelligent, strong, and brave. Some of them are forced to be slaves because of their circumstances and their society. That is, they wouldn’t actually choose to be submissive unless it were temporary and on their terms which, of course, doesn’t really make sense (that we can choose when to be slaves), but is how we want it nonetheless.

I listened to Tarnsman of Gor on audio, narrated by the very pleasant Ralph Lister who has a lively energetic tone appropriate for this action-packed novel. The story is told in first person by Tarl Cabot as if he’s relating his adventure to his friends at the dinner table. So we only know he’s astounded, afraid, enraged, in love, etc. because he tells us he’s astounded, afraid, enraged, in love, etc. We don’t really feel it. Thus, there’s not much emotional depth (or any other kind of depth) to Tarnsman of Gor, but it’s fast and fun and most likely appealing to young men and to women who find it amusing to discover what entertains (or what we assume entertains) young men.
www.fantasyliterature.com

[Garden Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 estrellas en realidad.

Primer libro de la criticada saga Gor y el peor de todos en cuanto a calidad de escritura -aunque al ser el primero es entendible-.

El argumento no está mal; el profesor Tarl Cabot es transportado el planeta Gor, donde es entrenado para llevar a cabo la importante misión de robar "la piedra del hogar" de la ciudad de Ar, un poderoso imperio en expansión, lo que lo meterá en más de un lio y aventura, haciendolo conocer una serie de otros personajes y tambien a su infaltable interés amoroso.

Como verás el argumento sigue el camino tipico de aventuras fantasticas de corte clasico, sin embargo, pese al rescatable argumento, la escritura amateur de la obra te hace sentir que lees el primer borrador de un chico adolescente. Hay un par de situaciones ilógicas y otras en las que el personaje principal se salva de manera tan milagrosa que le quita toda emoción a la lectura. Por suerte, en futuras entregas el autor mejora bastante.

El desarrollo de personajes es nulo, Norman se limita a narrar un hecho tras otro de manera casi frenética, lo que hace del libro una lectura ágil, pero a cambio no interioriza en pensamientos, puntos de vista, emociones y otros detalles del mundo qué te harían empatizar mucho más con los protagonistas. Lo bueno es que al estar escrito de esta manera en ningún momento llegas a aburrirte lo suficientemente como para querer abandonar la lectura. Eso sí, desde un inicio sabes cómo va a terminar, lo que tampoco te motiva los suficiente como para querer llegar pronto a su final.

En fin, una lectura amena que está lejos de ser una gran obra y aunque casi todo lo que leerás aquí lo puedes encontrar en cualquier otro libro de fantasía destacó la imaginación del autor.

Cómo punto aparte dejo el excesivo machismo del que han sido criticados los libros de Gor, acá al menos, como primera novela, está casi ausente, por lo que si eres de los que como yo le gusta leer estos libros por la aventura, te llevaras una experiencia masmenos grata.

Novela introductoria para pasar el rato. Nada más, nada menos.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Good:
The setting is detailed and quite interesting. Action and adventure abound. There were some cool ideas but this book is over fifty years old, and I’m sure they’ve all been done either before or since.

The Bad:
I’m not one to jump on the latest fashions in political ideas but the portrayal of women here is indeed cringeworthy. There is a frustrating amount of simplistic philosophy, and the implausible protagonist lacks charisma.

'Friends' character the protagonist is most like:
Tarl Cabot is the best at everything, plus more moral and rational than anyone else. Chandler got caught once masturbating, so that’s the obvious comparison.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before George R R Martin had lifted a pen was The Gor books now classed as Bondage fantasy sexist books but back when I was 13ys old I never heard Master & Slave these highly sexist books were good fun & don't care what anyone says they were just the thing after Conan or Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I have not seen any floating around since 1990s but I am sure if look around they be available. As for been erotic it's no worse Than 50shades but if it's to sexist you can always not read it.
Over 34books in this series but the first 1-12 are the best

[Danielius Goriunovas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Parašyta lyg dvylikamečio.

Siužetas: „patekau į kitą planetą, tapau stiprus, daviau į snukį, laimėjau, pana krito po kojom ir pasisiūlė patenkinti mane“.

(Neperdedu. Aišku, daugiau nuotykių aprašyta, bet rašymo stilius tiesiog prastas - nei ritmo, nei aprašymų, nei kūrybiškos minties, net siužetinė struktūra bloga. Lyg sumesti sakiniai į katilą ir laikyk tai siužetu.)

Tai, jei esi dvylikametis/ė ir mėgsti dročint į barbarų ir vergių žanrą - gali skaityti.
Jei nesi - nėra verta net „sci-fi klasikos“ tikslais, nes knygos (šiame leidime jos dvi) parašytos tiesiog prastai.

Dabar vidutinis wattpado autorius rašo penkis kartus geriau. Net ChatGPT parašo geriau.
Amžius įveikė šią klasiką.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

All right, I admit it; I read these books (the first few, anyway) when I was a teenager. John Norman's "alternate-Earth" is one of those series that every SF/fantasy fan (or at least, every guy) has probably read, but no one wants to admit it, or else you have to layer lots of disclaimers, like I'm doing. Yes, they're horribly misogynistic, cheesy, and just badly written, for the most part, and the most memorable thing about them is the Frazetta covers.

That said, the first three or four books were fairly typical swords-and-sorcery* in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars. There was slavery, yes (and it wasn't just women being enslaved), but the naked slavegirls were an almost incidental part of the world; there was just enough mention of them to be titillating to the teen boys this series mostly appeals to. Most of the story was about Norman's self-insert Gary Stu hero fighting evil warlords, riding giant birds, and eventually, discovering the true masters of Gor.

Somewhere around book five or six, maybe (I don't know exactly; I never got that far into the series and have only skimmed later books), Norman seemed to abandon plot entirely in most of his books, and every new Gor novel became an extended S&M fantasy in which the author rants about how feminism has emasculated Earth society and every woman's true heart's desire is to be a man's possession. And he goes on for page after tiring page in this vein.

I maintain the first few Gor novels are readable if you're really into the genre. But the series goes off the rails pretty quickly, so if you're caught reading the later books, you deserve all the sneers you'll get.

* Strictly speaking, there is no sorcery: there's no actual magic on Gor, and later on we find out about advanced alien races, so technically, this is a sci-fi series, not fantasy. However, the tone and the setting is much more S&S fantasy than sci-fi.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo leí en el 2012 y, a ver, que es del 1967, no pidáis mucho (mejor nada) en cuanto a estilo.

Si os suena John Carter os podéis hacer una idea de qué vais a encontrar: al profesor Tark Cabot que se trasladado a una especie de Tierra en contra-órbita solar a la nuestra y donde hay ciudades-estado, Reyes-sacerdotes, bellas mujeres (pero que muy bellas y con no mucha ropa, oye), esclavos y unas aves de guerra...y ¡oh, casualidad!, nuestro profesor resulta ser un guerrero de la ostia.

Esto fue una serie de mucha popularidad en su momento, fantasía pulp, erótica, épica y bizarra. Toma, que lo tenía todo para que la juventud anduviese loca. Y eso que, según he leído, el contenido erótico iba aumentando según avanzaba la serie (en este solo pinceladitas).

Entretenido, pero un rato machista si lo vemos con nuestros ojos del XXI.

Copio/pego para el segundo, más de lo mismo una vez leído la introducción al worldbuilding que podría considerarse este.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never intended to revisit the Gor series--there are certain things that shouldn't leave one's awkward adolescence--but the copy brazenly offering itself at the library book sale (that flesh-pit of wayward pages) got me wondering. Is it apparent from the onset what direction the later books would be going? Is Norman's freak flag flying here, or is he still busy toiling away on it in his basement?

These are questions that utterly ruin a reading of escapist, possibly disposable, literature. The reader lingers over statements where, when the narrator handles money, he makes mention of the amount's purchasing power in slave girls, or the reader happens to notice that for all the talk of slave girls being here, there, and everywhere, dressed such-and-such with the following submission ritual and market and whatnot, the subject of _male_ slaves seems relegated to ownership by the state, for industrial labor, not-right-here, in fairly general statements. Best not thought of, because that's icky.

It's an undercurrent that I found kind of ugly, but may not have considered or noticed without knowing the unpleasant reputation of the later series.

There's one passage where Talena, Cabot's future love interest, is actually contemptuous of him because he did not, in fact, rape her when he first captured her, as would any typical warrior of Gor. It was the same twisted thought processes that turned me off of Ardor on Aros, and is, I think, this setting and Norman in a nutshell.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okej moram da priznam knjiga je bolja nego sto sam ocekivao, a sobzirom kolko su mi mala bila ocekivanja i ova ocena je odlicna. Samo delo po meni predstavlja manje vise kopiju John Cartera (tronsportovan na drugi svet gde postaje heroj, osvaja zenu svog zivota, bude vracen na zemlju itd) i kao takvo fino se poigrava sa takvim temama ali na kraju ipak dosta slabije delo pa samim tim sumnjam da cu nastaviti sa serijalom.

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third time reading this book.

Tarnsman of Gor is everything a high fantasy book should be. Much along the lines of Conan, Death Dealer and such, Norman captures high fantasy extremely well in this novel. Men are men, lots of swords and action, and beautiful women are everywhere for the taking. This is one of the tales that young boys cut their teeth on when they want to get away from reality, and older men read to escape their boring existence pushing paper.

Norman does a good job telling the story or Tarl Cabot. He glosses over things he should (such as his training to become a warrior) and pays attention to what the reader wants to read (such as the sword fights, war, and such. This helps the flow of the story which moves easily from scene to scene, never truly getting bogged down in any particular moment. Like most action and high fantasy novels, the story moves from action scene to action scene, which happen very quickly and very often. This keeps the story moving at a quick pace and keeps the reader engaged and wanting to keep reading to find out what happens.

The characters themselves are interesting and help to keep the story moving as well. Their interactions drive the action almost as much as the action does, and often the characters themselves are the cause of much of that said action. Norman has done a good job capturing the nuance of people's interactions and does well showing how two people who hate each other (or are at least frustrated) can slowly fall in love.

Norman's issues when it comes to stories are aspects of the world of Gor. Here you have a world filled with high technology (except for weapons) yet the population lives in a state of barbarianism for the most part. They even have electrical lights that last longer than our current technology and yet they still have primitive tech in other regards. This creates a weird mental image for readers as they are travelling through a wonderful barbarian/fantasy world and yet suddenly come across high technology that seems to be implanted willy nilly throughout the tale. This can get distracting and pull the reader out of the story.

But in the end, the story in Tarnsman of Gor is a good read and one I have recommended to more than one person.

One last thing:
This is the book that my parents took my name from. I have a love/hate relationship of this book because of this. I love it because of the books and the tale they tell of Tarl. I hate it because of the hardcore fans that have created such a negative view of the novels in their obsession with Norman's philosophy. More than once I have been approached by 'Gorians' who think that simply because of my name, I am part of their subculture. Some have even ignored my denial that I am a 'Gorian' and continued to push and pry in their attempt to prove that I am indeed one of them simply because of my name. (even going as far as saying my parents were 'Gorians') In the end, I can only say that you should ignore the fandom that obsesses over this series of books and enjoy them for what they are, a well written high fantasy tale.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gor books have a bad rep for being horribly sexist, and many of them are. However, the entire series doesn't deserve to be slammed with that label, and some of the books are quite good heroic fantasy.

Tarnsman of Gor is the first one in the series and has very little in it about slavery, certainly no more than is mentioned in other Sword & Planet novels. This book gets Tarl Cabot transported to Gor, the Counter-Earth, which rotates around the sun exactly opposite of Earth and is therefore never detected by us. I won't give any spoilers. This is a good Sword & Planet novel with a fresh take on the genre.

Not overtly sexist.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Когато свърши в нищото, осъзнах, че е поредната първа част на поредица, която няма да се преведе на български. Но през 90-те много издателства за фентъзи и фантастика здраво го закъсаха, за съжаление, а после издателите изобщо не припариха до тия симпатични развлекателни книжчици, гаче щяха да ги ухапят.

Това нещо конкретно е сладурско фентъзи с битки, чудовища, псевдосредновековие и яки мъжаги, мятащи главната героиня на гръб овързана и протестираща, което си има чара.

Продълженията ще се търсят на английски.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Gor if you can't handle it, stay on Earth and keep your Prozac filled.
JN is a philosophy PhD who combines many themes; many of which people rail against.
I say try to be as tolerant of others' views as you demand they be of yours. This is the first in the series less controversial than later entries, sort of a Gor for dummies.

[Wing Kee · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Asylum version of the Barsoom series.

Okay so I could not help myself. I know there are issues nowadays with the Barsoom series that range from gender, race and a boat load of other issues. But growing up, I loved this series, it was a pulpy rip roaring adventure (as was Tarzan). So Sword and Sorcery and it's adjacent SF stuff comes around it's my guilty pleasure (just like Lovecraft...who was INSANELY racist). So this Gor series by Howard has been on my radar for a while not because it was in a genre I liked, but I also read a lot of negative information about it's dealing with gender and race and repeated depiction of sexual fantasies involving men abducting and physically and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state. Hey I am okay with BDSM, if you have two consenting people enjoying it, go for it. But yeah this worried me a bit and made me curious and not wanting to read it at the same time. I did read it, I had to know what the hubbub was about. This is not going to be a discussion on that aspect of the book, I am not going to go down that rabbit hole as I try not to go down that same rabbit hole when I read Lovecraft, Burroughs, Card and even Dickens for their personal standpoint on these matters, what I am going to talk about is what I usually talk about when I read a book: The World Building, The Story, and The Characters...and wow...

World: The world building here is solid for what it is, it's self contained, internally thought out well and the entire cast and economic and biology is presented as much as the story needs it to be. That being said this book is clearly a copy, not a homage, but a copy of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. There is so much of it that is taken directly from it, from the warrior system to the government and slave system and so on so forth. You can say this is the trope of the genre but it's so clearly Barsoom that I felt like I was watching an The Asylum version of 'Pacific Rim'...Atlantic Rim. There is nothing really new and creative about this world, it's obviously all been done before in the Barsoom series and that's much better written.

Story: The story is here is a direct copy of 'A Princess of Mars', our hero is transported to a new world, given new powers, saves a princess who doesn't get along with him in the beginning, they are separated, hero changes the pre-existing sociopolitical system of the world, the princess loves him, he gets transported back to Earth, he hopes to see the princess again one day. That is essentially what happens in Tarsman of Gor, instead of a John Carters faithful Martian Hound, we get a Tarn (a Alien Eagle). So yeah the story isn't original at all, the world isn't original at all so. So...how's the writing? Janky as heck and full of choppy time jumps and locale changes and info dumps that takes away any true and earned progress of characters and the plot. One moment our hero is training, next moment he suddenly decides to do his own thing, then suddenly characters disappear from the story and show up again later, then he's caught by an alien eagle, then he saves a friend who suddenly disappears...so yeah...choppy.

Characters: Oh boy, so the BDSM stuff I was dreading which I'm not going to talk about? Well this is book one so honestly it is in line with that genre and Barsoom at the moment. I heard it gets way worse and Norman pretty much forgoes the thin veil of writing and just goes all 50 shades in the later books, but here not so much. Why do I say this in the Character section? Cause that's the entire point of our Princess and her struggle with our hero. That's her entire arc, to learn from the white savior Englishman with a civilized upbringing that slavery is bad and that she should not want to be a slave. That's her arc, to learn to love the person who destroyed your city and love him because he's bringing change like 'THE VOTE' to your city. Then there's our hero whose infatuation for said Princess is insane and completely undeveloped and unearned at all. His love and infatuation for her drives the entire plot of the book and it's fairly unbelievable even for a sword and sorcery book. At least John Carter and Dejah Thoris didn't suddenly fall into each others arms (to be fair they don't do that here...but man our man Thal pretty much loses his brain the moment he sees her). These characters are carbon empty ghost copies of better characters from a better book.

So the final message is pretty much exactly the opposite of what I was expecting from Norman. I thought it would be super Dom and Sub and the hero would be like "I am master, hear me!!!!" but his message in the end was actually not that at all and not inline with what people told me about the book...strange...maybe he also loses that in other books cause at this moment he's all like "I am the master but you are free and I love that your are free and choose to love me!!!"

Not a good book, not because of the controversial stuff, but simply because it's a poorly written rip off of better books in the genre. It is as I said 'A Princess of Mars' verbatim.

Onward to the next book!

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

These last three months of 2016, now that CCLaP is finally caught up with all the outstanding books from others we've promised to review, I've decided to take some time to do nothing but some extremely self-indulgent personal pleasure reading before we start accepting submissions again in 2017; and among this self-indulgent reading, I've decided to finally tackle John Norman's infamously sexist series of "Gor" S&M erotic fantasy novels, which I first developed a fascination for in 2006 when I spent a year playing Second Life, and met a group of literally hundreds of people (men and women, young and old) who were there specifically to persistently roleplay in a Gorean setting 24 hours a day, in some cases to supplement a quasi-Gorean lifestyle they were living in real life as well. I'm basically going to be reading as many of the books as I can stand before I get sick of it all (I doubt I will make it through all 34 of them). then will replace this writeup at Goodreads with one big essay that covers them all; but for now I'm leaving notes on each individual book's page as I finish each novel, both to help myself remember the details and so they'll count towards my 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge.

I've been told that the crazy weirdo S&M stuff (the specific thing people get so obsessed by with this series) doesn't really kick in seriously until book 7 or 8, and this very first book of the series so far reflects that; written in 1966, right when the feminist women's movement was starting to kick into high gear, this is essentially a critical response by Norman (in reality Dr. John Lange, an English professor at Queens College in New York) to everything that movement stood for, told through the filter of a pretty obvious Edgar Rice Burroughs "Barsoom" ripoff. It's the story of a misunderstood professor (what a surprise) who finds himself magically transported one day to a world much like Earth's but that has been deliberately and permanently frozen in "Conan the Barbarian" times by a race of space aliens for mysterious reasons; and the majority of this first book is simply about our hero Tarl Cabot learning the ropes of this new world, and engaging in a series of Burroughs-like adventures involving swordfights, quests for honor, feats of manliness, and riding around on what are basically flying meat-eating horses.

I mean, the sexism and the slaves are already here in book 1, don't get me wrong, but they're depicted here more like the way that sexism has been gotten away with in these kinds of books since time immemorial; as we watch some king's daughter run around screaming at everyone, "How DARE you presume to speak back to me!" until some man's man finally shows up to knock some sense into her, at which point she realizes how much she actually likes that red sting of his slap against her cheek, and that really what she's been waiting for this whole time was a sufficiently masculine-enough man to finally understand what her own femininity is all about. It'll still be maddening to most, but at least here it's the kind of maddening you find in most other Golden Age fantasy novels that Norman is unapologetically ripping off (not to mention badly written cable television shows to this very day); it's not until later books that we get to the crazy ritualized torture stuff that have made these books so controversial for so long. Those will hopefully be coming soon, so stay tuned!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Look for me hereafter in the streets and on the bridges," he said, "on the walls and in the hidden rooms of the highest cylinders. Wherever the free men of Ar retain their weapons, there you will find Marlenus."

Many years ago (it was 1969 to be exact - sort of like the Bryan Adams song), I sat in my parents' car at a Drive-in theater (does anyone remember those days?) and watched a movie about a duplicate Earth that was positioned in the same orbit as our Earth but on the opposite side of the sun (is that counterpoised?). The movie was called Journey to the Far Side of the Sun and starred Roy Thinnes, a popular TV star at that time who was the main protagonist from the TV series The Invaders. In that year of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, this movie sends an astronaut to the opposite side of the sun to land on a planet that is a mirror image of our own earth. It was an interesting concept and one that I still remember today. In many aspects, this is the primary premise of Norman's Gor novels which takes an ordinary individual from our Earth, and fantastically transports him (you need to get the hero to the other planet in some way!) to a planet on the opposite side of the Sun of which (of course) the rest of the human race is ignorant.

Now I realize that many people are obsessed with the carnal nature of philosophy professor John Norman's Gor series, but The Tarnsman of Gor which is the first novel of this series published in 1966 really has little or none of that, and is simply a story patterned after some of the old Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels such as his John Carter on Mars and Carson of Venus series. After the hero, Tarl Cabot, magically arrives on planet Gor he finds his father, and with some kind of superhuman ability, learns how to use a sword and ride a very carnivorous hawk-like creature called a Tarn. Cabot has adventures, saves scantily clad ladies in distress (thank you Boris Vallejo), and, in general, becomes a hero for some Gorian residents and a sizable nuisance for others (depending on what side you're on).

I must admit the book was very entertaining and hard to put down. In many ways, I devoured it in the same manner as I did Carson of Venus and the Land that Time Forgot (two of Burroughs' offerings) when I was a teenager. There was no bad language, and the story was simply a sword and sorcery adventure with a patriotic tone. It contained some subtle suggestiveness, but nothing I would consider lewd. In reality, it was completely inoffensive, particularly compared to today's standards.

Consequently, if you're looking for something titillating from that time period, you'd probably be better off checking out some of the hard boiled detectives such as Mike Hammer. The first volume of Norman's Gor series is about as racy as an old nag. On the other hand, if you want a fun fantasy and adventure novel that follows the spirit of Burroughs, this might be for you.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes I read all of the Gor books as they came out, back when I was a teenager. My older brother and his friends who were in High School at the time passed them around and made a lot of Gor-related inside jokes among themselves. I really liked this first one, having already read quite a bit of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and found the plot similar. The first Gor books were pretty interesting for me, especially the political landscape that the author developed. Of course most people concentrate on the female bondage thing but that just didn't bother me much back then. I guess I just looked at it like another alien culture.

But later on, the series deteriorated significantly, the author choosing to devote more and more pages to his sexual philosophy and less to the action of the story and the world. I kept going though, hoping for a return to the better stuff, making it all the way through book 20 or so before giving up.