Tarnsman of Gor

Rating:
Summary: Tarnsman Sets a Strange Tone for the Gor Saga
Review: The Gor series is renown and extremely popular as an alternate dominance/submissive fantasy landscape. As someone who has read the entire (25 book) series I would like to warn newcomers to the world of Gor that the first novel in the series, Tarnsman, sets a strange and contrary tone to the rest of the series. Norman doesn't really hit his stride until the fifth book in the series (Assasin of Gor). That would be a good starting place to begin the series (you'll have to find it used, though, and Gor goes fast in used bookstores). Or an even better place to begin would be with Slave Girl of Gor, Dancer of Gor or Kajira of Gor-- these books get at the essence of Norman's Gorean sexuality and are separate from the Tarl Cabot saga that provides the meat for the rest of the series. These books are self contained stories about three earth women who come to Gor, and you won't get bogged down with Gorean politics. There is also a three part series in the middle of the series (Fighting Slave of Gor starts the three-parter, I believe) about an Earth man named Jason who is brought to Gor by slavers and is assimilated much faster into the culture than Tarl Cabot is in Tarnsman. Norman is just beginning to get his ideas in focus in Tarnsman and the book is startlingly out of place when viewed with its companion novels. Plainly put, it is bad. So don't read Tarnsman and think "I've done Gor and it wasn't much." Read the later books. The ones I have pointed out all serve as better points of entry into a series that has as much to offer in the way of intricate and interesting world-building as it has in the way of cheap thrills

Rating:
Summary: Tarl Cabot first arrives on Gor, the Counter-Earth
Review: I abandoned the Gor series when it got to the high teens, mainly because Tarl Cabot was being replaced more and more often as the main character in the novels, although I was never a fan of the Gorean philosophy regarding sex, which is essentially that women can only enjoy true sexual freedom by totally submitting to the strong will of a male master. John Norman's series has certainly achieved much notoriety because of this philosophy and I have had a few encounters with true believers on the internet who try to live out the Gorean lifestyle as much as possible. However, I came to the series as a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels about John Carter of Mars, and cleary "A Princess of Mars" is the template for "Tarnsman of Gor." Both novels tell of someone who is transported to a more primitive planet where fights are resolved with swords and our hero falls for a beautiful woman whose station rises high above his own. Yet Norman's novel clearly creates its own world, which is what attracted it to me in the first place.

Gor is also known as Counter-Earth because it is on the far side of the sun always blocked from view. Gor is slightly smaller than Earth, which works in Tarl Cabot's favor when he accedes to a cryptic message from the father he has not seen for decades and enters a space ship in the woods of New England, bringing with him a handful of earth. After all, Cabot is a college professor (like John Lange, the professor of philosophy who wrote these novels under the John Norman name), and has not been living the life of a warrior. But on Gor he is trained to be a Tarnsman, a rider of the great war birds. His mission is to capture the Home Stone of Ar, the great city-state that is the "Rome" of the Gorean world. The effort is an attempt to end the power of Marlenus, who had been given the power of "Ubar" (essentially the war chief) to handle an emergency, but who refused to give up power afterwards and is building an empire.

This 1966 novel is relative short, a little over 200 pages long, but it becomes an important prologue to the rest of the series. In the first half of the book the reader, like Tarl Cabot, is introduced to many key concepts that are developed in the future novels, from the practice of slavery and the joys of paga to caste-bound Gorean society and the technological restrictions imposed on the people of Gor by the mysterious Priest-Kings. When you go back and reread "Tarnsman of Gor," after you have gotten deeper into the series (i.e., "Slave Girl of Gor"), you will recognize the embryonic form of the Gorean philosophy as well: the concept of honor, the independence of men, the respect for the environment, the dangers of technology, and the great "truth" of female slavery." However, at first glance, the sword and sorcery elements are what hook the reader into this opening novel. The parallels between Marlenus of Ar and Julius Caesar of Rome are obvious, but Gor is a much more barbaric world than that of the Roman Empire and one of the fun aspects of reading these books is recognizing the bits and pieces of different warrior cultures Norman has brought to his creation.

"Tarnsman of Gor" ends in the same manner as "A Princess of Mars," which means the series effectively offers a second beginning in the next novel, "Outlaw of Gor," which is the first novel in what I think of as the Priest-Kings trilogy. I think that the fifth novel, "Assassins of Gor," is the high point of the series, after which it starts transforming itself into something significantly different. But those first five novels are certainly worth reading for those who like the Burroughs school of grand adventure and Norman improves greatly as a writer, creating memorable supporting characters and unique actions scenes.

Rating:
Summary: Read only if you have Aspirin
Review: First off, let me start by saying that I am a fantasy story/ sci fi fan. The ideas and plot in this story I found okay but a tad formulaic. But the thing that really bothers me is the way John Norman writes. Good Gods, it's horrible! The paragraphs are broken, choppy lacking any sense of proper gramatical structure and is MASSIVELY repetitive. To say that he repeats words cannot fully explain his "style". He has an annoying habit of writing things like....I, too, understood this.....they, too, saw this.......we, too, fought..... And descriptions? Boring, drab and again, repetitive. This man would benefit greatly from the use of a thesaurus! He takes 2 pages to say what could be said descriptively and thoroughly in a paragraph.

Another annoying habit that he has used on some occassions is creating words. Louis Carrol did this, as did some other authors too, but they had and have a command of the English language. Norman shouldn't be allowed to make up words from joining two or more every day words together. He is teetering on not being allowed to write at all...not even his name.

It saddens me to learn that John Norman is a college professor. It's no wonder that he teaches philosophy. Half the time you have to ponder hard trying to figure out how he is describing things such as big rocks.

I have read several of Norman's books. Each time I got a massive headache from reading it and had to quit or have my girlfriend translate the story from Norman-ese to English. Even then, we are wondering if that has anything to do with my girlfriend's sudden resurgence of migraines.

In short, Norman's stories are okay, by no means great, but his writing should make us all sorrowfull knowing that these were supposedly written by an educated man.

After reading how he writes his work, I wonder where the publisher's editors were. If anyone handed in a story like this to an English teacher or creative writing teacher, they would surely return it with an F emblazoned on the front.

Gor is a book series that people should read if there are no other books in existance and they really are in DESPERATE need bathroom material.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best but one of the best Gor books.
Review: It's funny how many people who read the Gor books disagree on when the books were good. I belong to those who prefer the first 5 books and consider the later books to be nightmares of repetitious drivel pontificating on the merits of subjugation women and how females all need it, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

This book reminds me a lot of the old Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series, John Carter and all that swords and heros and vicious wenches and gentle maidens and all that great rot. I love the stuff, but a lot of people think it's tripe - What I do know is that I was given the first 3 books by my father to read when I was in grade school and no one thot anything of it - the first 3 books are lower in the bondage and sadism content, about typical for a science fiction novel with a little pulp style thrown in. I'd say about a PG-13 for the first 2 would be a good rating.

Tarl is still a hero in this book and while there aren't any strong female protagonists (sorry, folks, I don't consider slaves strong female protagonists) there are some keen critters - giant hawks and dinosaur like animals used as mounts, a talking spider who's nicer than most of the humans, and of course Tarl Cabot, the keenest critter in the book - a big redheaded Englishman with a sword and a soft spot for the underdog.
Remember! Megera says first 5, good, after the Assasin of Gor, the reek starts to set in of a writer who bought a new word processor and getting is paid by the word. This one is spare and a little tighter than some of the later books. Enjoy! and take it with a grain of salt... it's fiction!

Rating:
Summary: Great Start
Review: This slightly shorter work sets the stage well for the world of Gor. It doesn't have the detail/philosophy of some of the later books but enough to give you a sense of a fascinating barbaric world.

The action is fast, the slave girls are few, notably this is perhaps one of the few books with a strong female character. And the thought of Talena follows us and Tarl Cabot himself throughout the books. It is a pity they do not meet again within the first twenty books.

In this book, as in the first 5, Tarl, though probably the mightiest and bravest swordsman on the planet, is still deep down an earth man, which makes the first person writing more palatable. In the later books he is much harsher- ie. a true Gorean male, though his cleverness and exploits are no less brave and amazing.

Rating:
Summary: To Tame
Review: I enjoyed reading norman's books as far as easy reading is concerned. But after a while their message gets to sound the same: women are captured, sold and used (but they really want it) yawn, BORING, throw in a few monsters and equally boring sword fights and there you have it. Actually his books are to tame, lets have some hard hitting whippings and eroticism; and how about the market places where these girls are displayed, what happended to abit of erotic torture and pain...

Rating:
Summary: Ladies, go read Jordan's Wheel of time. Or any post 1990...
Review: The GOR series is uninhibited by the laws of political correctness injected into post 1990 fantasy fiction. If you were brought up watching the muppet babies, go shoot up your high school or whatever it is your generation does these days. Tarl Cabot may be the last true fantasy hero, and this is likely to be way too much for you.
I noticed the cover art has been neutered, I suspect the insides would not make it past todays censors.. er.. I mean "editors". Get the original series, or as old a copy of this series as you can find.
By the way, to the person with the mail-order Associates of Applied Feminism; 5 stars means good, 1 star means bad. Let me know if you need anything else explained to you. Might I also suggest you go read an Elaine Cunningham, bubble gum novellette, Eternal Champion ripoff next time. Arilyn Moonblade ::snicker:: is probably more to suited to your mentality.

Rating:
Summary: Early books are the best in Gor Series
Review: I read the Gor series as a boy in the 70's and early 80's. IMHO the series is most appealing to teenage boys. I recently pulled "Assassins of Gor" off the shelf one night while bored, and re-read it. I was shocked that there was no real sex, and only a handful of pages of philosophy and psychology that I had to skip over. The book was really excellent, although in a straight forward, uncomplicated sort of way. These are escapist novels, richly detailed, which immerse you in an exotic world, not real thinkers. My enduring memories were of the later books in the series, which were almost unreadable because whole chapters were devoted to philosophy and psychology.

I am not offended by the idea that it is natural and enjoyable for women to be submissive to men. Although I recognize it as wish fulfillment fantasy, still I consider it harmless, especially in such an obviously fictitious setting. I even found it mildly interesting the first time it was mentioned. It is the umpteenth repetition that I find boring. I just turn those pages, skipping ahead to the next action sequence. Speaking of wish fulfillment, I wish someone would edit the series, and re-publish it without these parts. Maybe Eric Flint could do it? He likes to edit, according to his afterword to "1633" and he's good at it. Of course, if you take the sex out of Gor you get Barsoom, and that story has already been written.

I looked on Amazon to see if there was anything new going on with the series, and there was. It is being reprinted, starting at the beginning, and at least 2 new books seem to be published, or at least in the works. I was disappointed though that Amazon didn't have the whole series listed under one easy to find heading. I guess there are, after all, millions of books and only so many Amazon employees. So I'm listing the series, in order, along with some brief info. Some of these books I haven't read, as noted.

1.) Tarnsman of Gor - 1966. Earthman, Tarl Cabot, goes to another planet, hidden on the opposite side of our sun, and becomes a master swordsman and Warrior. This is the book that is most like "Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which I highly recommend. Note - in my copy, a 1975 reprint, the 1966 copyright is held by John Lange. Makes me wonder if Norman isn't a pen name.

2.) Outlaw... - 1967. Tarl Cabot returns to Gor, to find he's been outlawed.

3.) Priest-Kings... - 1968. Tarl Cabot goes to lair of Priest-Kings to clear his name.

4.) Nomads... - 1969. Tarl Cabot goes to Southern Plains, and meets Mongol type nomads.

5.) Assassin... - 1970. Tarl Cabot returns to Ar, greatest city-state on Gor. Note - this is the first copy I have by Del Rey books, and it has cover art by Boris. I may not like reading about the Gorean philosophy on sexual roles for men and women, but I can't get enough of Boris' artwork depicting it.

6.) Raiders... - 1971. Tarl Cabot goes to Port Kar, pirate capitol of scum and villainy, and learns the meaning of shame. More Boris art on the cover of the Del Rey edition.

7.) Captive... - 1972. A new character, Elinor Brinton, is captured on Earth and becomes a slave girl on Gor. The first time this is done, it may be slightly creative and a little interesting, but it is a radical departure from the earlier books and I consider it to be the beginning of the end. At least Tarl Cabot has a few pages at the end, which sort of tie this book into the rest of the series. This is also the last book published by Ballantine books, which I think is significant in the content and direction of the rest of the series.

8.) Hunters... - 1974. Tarl Cabot goes to the Northern Forest and meets amazon type women. This seems to be the first time there was a break in John Norman's writing, undoubtedly related to his switch to Daw books as a publisher.

9.) Marauders... - 1975. Tarl Cabot goes to the land of the Norsemen and meets Viking type Marauders.

10.) Tribesmen... - 1976. Tarl Cabot goes to the Tahari desert.

11.) Slave Girl... - 1977. Earth girl Judy Thornton enslaved on Gor. Again. No Tarl Cabot at all.

12.) Beasts... - 1978. Tarl Cabot goes to the Arctic ice pack and meets Eskimo type people.

13.) Explorers... - 1979. Tarl Cabot goes to the equatorial rain forests.

14.) Fighting Slave... - 1980. Earthman John Marshall is enslaved and forced to fight in a pit on Gor.

15.) Rogue... - 1981. John Marshall wanders free on Gor.

16.) Guardsman... - 1981. John Marshall earns a homeland.

17.) Savages... - 1982. Tarl Cabot goes to the great plains and meets American Indian type savages. Note - If you like this, John Norman also wrote "Ghost Dance" in 1970, a similar type story about real American Indians. I'm impressed that he kept the writing schedule he did on the Gor novels, and still wrote other books on the side. He also wrote "Time Slave" in 1975.

18.) Blood Brothers... - unread. Savages and Blood Brothers are a two-part set. I read Savages and was bored when it just petered out at the end with no dramatic climax. So I didn't buy Blood Brothers. Now I hear that this book has all that and more, oh well.

19.) Kajira... - unread. Another Slave girl story.

20.) Players... - 1984. Tarl Cabot joins the Carnival.

21.) Mercenaries... - 1985. Tarl Cabot returns to Ar again.

22.) Dancer... - unread. Another Slave Girl novel? This is where I stopped even looking in the bookstore.

23.) Vagabonds... - unread.

24.) Magicians... - 1988, unread.

25.) Witness... - 2002, unread. I read on amazon that this is a story about Marlenus (or possibly Tarl?) with amnesia, told by a slave girl.

26.) Prize... - unread. It seems that this is not yet published, but forthcoming.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, Just Not Great
Review: Tarl Cabot is an Englishman who has recently moved to America to teach British History at a small US University. When he goes camping one weekend, he has no idea that his adventure is going to be more than he could ever imagine. It all starts with an unusual envelope that magically appears at Tarl's campfire. When Tarl opens it, he finds a letter from his father, whom he never knew, asking him to bring a handful of earth with him when he comes. Tarl is not sure what is going on, but he knows that he wants no part of it. He tries to run away, but soon finds himself back at his campsite where he started. Resigned to the inevitable, he boards the ship that comes for him and awakens on a hard table in some kind of tower.

His father tells him that he is on Gor, a counter-Earth that is ruled by the mysterious Priest-Kings who bring Earthlings to their planet from time to time. Tarl is quickly thrown into training to become a tarnsman, one of the world's warriors who ride the tarns - great winged birds who can be deadly to anyone, even their own riders. After several weeks of intense training, his father informs him that his mission is to travel to the city of Ar, the enemy of his father's city, and steal the home stone, or symbol of the city so that the citizens of Ar will overthrown Marlenus, the ruler of Ar. Tarl manages to do so, though in an unusual way and accidentally kidnaps one of Marlenus' daughters, Talena, who is a real shrew. Tarl manages to lose his tarn and all he has is his wits and Talena, who won't leave him. It is here that Tarl's adventure really begins as he is forced to fight his fellow men, find a way to rescue Talena, recapture his tarn who has gone feral, try to keep Marlenus from killing him, and keep the deaths down to as small a number as possible...

As a rule, I usually enjoy books where someone from earth is transported to an alternate dimension where they are called upon to accomplish some great feat or quest, but this one seemed pretty lackluster to me. I know that it is important for the reader to have some background into Gor, but I felt that that author threw it all at the reader in the first couple of chapters and then the action started. I also found the idea that women are happiest when they are slaves to a strong man to be really distasteful and cannot imagine a woman as proud and as strong willed as Talena buying into the philosophy either. Still, it was an okay read, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to others.

Rating:
Summary: Something Awful
Review: The whole "World of Gor" thing began in 1967 when John Norman, a distinguished filthy old man who purchased a mail-order Ph. D. in the respectable field of Philosophy from Columbia University on Mars, wrote the groundbreaking novel "The Tarnsman of Gor," which was groundbreaking in the fact that it contained 1,452 pages and weighed nearly 700 pounds, buckling concrete and requiring a government permit to legally own. "The Tarnsman of Gor" was a revolutionary book at the time, encouraging men to break free from the shackles of society and its rigid "rules" that suggested males should not use women as large paperweights and jacks to hoist up their monster truck when changing tires. The universe of Gor is a place where men are men, boys are smaller men, and women serve the same function as Christmas tree decorations except the neighbors won't give you weird looks when you f#ck them repeatedly.