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Summary: The Gor Ethos--Not just a Male Trip
Review: I began reading the Gor series about six months ago and have so far collected 22 of the orginal 27 books. The bondage and S/M themes that gain strength in each book made me wonder as a male if Norman were simply presenting a kinky and overly masculine perspective.So I began to examine female writers beginning with Janet E. Morris' Silistra. And whaddayaknow? Norman has talented female counterparts praising bondage from a female standpoint! Amazing! So women do want sex as badly as men! "Slavegirl of Gor" is the most provocative of Gor's novels up to this point, and is the first to be devoted to the experience of bondage per se from a woman's point ov view. I actually found the depictions of a woman "in her need" unbelievable until compared the same experiences as related by female writers. They described the very same things, down to scratching their nails in the dirt or against walls when their sexual needs could not be fulfilled! While I am not prepared to follow Norman down the road of male-doiminance/female-submission and S/M, he is able to bring alive every violent, sweating, bleeding, painful sensual moment of the narrative in a way that no other writer does. Norman also has first-rate character-development, even if his punctuation needs correction. The wealth of historical, cultural and linguistic research that stands behind these books is fantastic, and I say this as a published scholar of ancient and biblical history and languages. It's a shame that the later books in the series are so hard to get.
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Summary: Is j. Norman Dead ?
Review: I have read all of John normans work including this one but I can not find any more titles by him. I was told that he had sadly passed away is this true? He is a fine writer and the characters he portrays are believable. We can learn about ourselves and our relationships with others by reading his novels. I personally feel that we have lost a vital part of ourselves in the wheels of the machine. In this day and age of political correctness where men and women fear to talk to each other in case of offense it is good to break away to a more natural barbarous epoch.Ta-sardar-gor
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Summary: Love Story, a la Gor
Review: If you ever wondered what a love story set on the planet Gor would be like, here's your answer. If you were expecting hearts and flowers and violin music, you just don't know Gor! Try instead whips, chains, cages, humiliation, degradation, brutality, and rape. Nevertheless, as hard as he tries,... Clitus Vitellius is unable to suppress his tender feelings, so unbecoming to a Master of the Warrior Caste, toward pretty little Judy. This is the second of the Gor novels to be told from the perspective of an abducted Earth girl enslaved on Gor. Judy aka Dina aka Yata is nowhere near the nasty piece of work that Elinor Brinton of Captive of Gor was. Also, she accepts her slavery much more readily than EB so you would think that her experiences on Gor would not be as harsh. Wrong! This book differs from Captive in several other ways. For one thing it actually has a plot. Unbeknownst to Judy she carries an implanted message to a Cosian agent of the Kurii that has bearing on the interplanetary struggle for control of both Gor and Earth. Of course, after an initial taste of this plot it stops for the next 300 pages or so in order to give the reader a look at what life is like for a slave girl on Gor. If your interest is Gorean lifestyle, you'll like this part. Otherwise, it can be slow going. Another difference from Captive is that there is a fair amount of action especially in the last 150 pages when Tarl Cabot again shows up as Bosk of Port Kar. (Rask of Treve briefly shows up again as well.) The revelation of Judy's hidden message sets up the next novel; however, there is nothing here that seems crucial to understanding subsequent volumes in the series. This is clearly a better novel than Captives but not as good as the action-oriented books.
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Summary: Love it or hate it, Gor is Gor
Review: Someday a literary study of sex slave books is going to be written, and this one is going to stand out as a milestone. This is not to say that "Slave Girl of Gor" is great literature, because it isn't. The writing alternates between tight and clumsy, often wandering into misogynist philosophical rants, and some of these can be downright irrational. But it is one of a group of books that have become both a part of the social canon of BDSM and perhaps the most reviled series in the history of science fiction and fantasy fandom. Yes, it's John Norman's "Gor", and "Slave Girl of Gor" might well be its most sexual and most provocative title. Getting past the rhetoric surrounding the series, this book is actually not that different from a traditional erotic romance novel, except for the more intense bondage elements and the philosophical ramblings that sometimes get in the way of the story. The sex scenes are not extremely explicit but are hot nonetheless: young, beautiful Judy Thorton wakes up one morning to find herself naked and chained on the planet Gor, and she has a variety of erotic and not-so-erotic adventures as she is trained as a pleasure slave and discovers her love for her "true master" and he gets it through his thick skull that he loves her too. It's all rich material for sex slave fantasies, as the widespread internet subculture based on the Gor books testifies. The extent that this series has influenced newer sex slave science fiction books like Susan Wright's "Slave Trade" or Karen Anne Mitchell's "The Usahar" remains to be seen, but it would be hard to imagine that such an influence isn't there, since Gorean words like "kajira" (slave girl) have become normal parts of the fetish community's vocabulary. But be warned as well: "Slave Girl of Gor" is at times appalling in its misguided assumptions about men, women, and human nature, which it reduces to a simplistic sociobiology that even with (or perhaps especially with) recent advances in the field, is completely untenable. This would be a stronger book without such asides, but Norman must be given some credit for at least tackling a subject that even today makes so many people uncomfortable. In short, if male dominant/female submissive sexual fantasies are your thing, this is a book to own.
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Summary: A refreshing femine view of life on Gor
Review: The Slave Girl of Gor is a refreshing change in the usually male dominated worlf of Gor. Imagine a wakening confused alone and naked on an unknown world and being faced with death in the first few moments. This is the tale of the slave girl similar to Captive of Gor with a healthy dose of the joys of bondage and slavery, but that is the hallmark of the Gor books after the first 4 or so. It is a tale of love for both the slave girl and the man who claims her body heart and soul. There is action and high seas battles all from the point of view of the slave girl. The best part of this book is the continuing discovery of the slave girl supposed to reside in every woman. She travels the path of being lost and confused to recognizing the value of feminity as it exsists on Gor. She unfolds as the flower revealing more and more of her thoughts and actions as she moves through the savage landscape of Gor. We see also more of the different subcultures from the rough peasants to the opulent lifestyle of the Turian's and the seedy paga taverns. We are also given more insight to the role of the FreeWoman on Gor and the depths of cunning and skill she must posess to stay free of the chains of slavery. Like the romance novel this book does end happily in the slave girls eyes at least. There are some flaws early on in the book which may distract the reader from the story but these are easily overlooked to those who have read the other books in the series. I strongly recomend this book as it reads both as a romance and adventure.
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Summary: A good addition to the Gorean Saga
Review: This book details the experiences of an intelligent college girl who is taken from earth to the planet gor and there transformed into a gorean slave girl. The book for the most part is written from her perspective. As a submissive female myself, I was able to understand her fears and then joy at finding her personnal freedom in being allowed for the first time to be totally female. John Norman brings depth and understanding in this book as he explores the feelings of many women world wide who feel that todays society does not allow us to be the total creatures we were created to be. It is one of the better Gorean novels.
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Summary: excellant writtings
Review: this one has read most of John Norman's books on Gor. Also this one has been a part of IRC gor for over a year. The 3 books that is told from the slaves point of view is very well done, after reading the books from the male point of view it is remarkable how Mr. Norman brings out the feelings and emotions that a women goes through as they realize that her place is not as an equal of the men. It is hard to put across feelings of what she goes through as she realizes that she has no choice but be pleasing to her Master, but he does portray it extremely well. Try it read it, read all of the books :)
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Summary: With each book I find greater inner streight than before
Review: Upon the completion of each book, I find even more inner streight within my-self..I being a woman take these books as a learning tool and the lessons are greater in each new book I read.The streigth is very appealing & but the releationship is devine.. just call be BRANDY
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Summary: more he-man woman-hating
Review: With every installment of this perhaps neverending series author Norman departs further and further from his original fine premise, digging himself ever deeper into he-man woman-hating testosterone poisoning
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Summary: The middle volume of the Captive/Slave Girl?Kajira Trilogy
Review: Writing as John Norman in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth series, Professor John Lange repeatedly developed the idea that only in sexual bondage, in which a woman submitted to the dominance of a strong master, could she find sexual fulfillment. Scenes in which Tarl Cabot, or another Gorean male, puts a slave collar around a young girl's neck, has her chained by his sleeping furs, and proceeds to teach her this lesson abound. "Slave Girl of Gor" is the second of three novels in the series that explore this in, ah, someone greater detail from the perspective of the female of the species (as opposed to from Cabot's perspective with Elizabeth Caldwell in "Nomads of Gor"). The first of this "trilogy" would have been "Captive of Gor" and the third is "Kajira of Gor" ("kajira" being Gorean for slave girl, or, if you will, captive). On one level the plot deals with the next chapter in the battle between the Others and the Priest-Kings for control of Gor. Tarl Cabot has resumed serving the latter and is trying to learn the battle plans of the Kurri, the beastlike Others who are ready to launch their invasion. Meanwhile, Judy Thornton of Earth, is found wandering in the wildnerness and is captured and enslaved. As we follow her training as a slave girl we also learn that she is carrying a secret message that has grave implications for the future of Gor. Consequently, there is something of a race going on to see who can be the first to conquer not just her body but her mind and learn the big bad secret. However, this synopsis gives you a sense of the best parts of the novel, at least from a perspective that emphasizes action and adventure. Most of "Slave Girl of Gor" has to do with Judy learning how to be a slave girl of Gor, although, to be fair, there is also an object lesson involved for Clitus Vitellius of the Warrior Caste, who has feelings for the pretty slave girl and has to remember what it means to be a real master. From the perspective of the so-called Gorean philosophy, "Slave Girl of Gor" is clearly a major treatise from Lange/Norman. There are those who take this philosophy as gospel, while others use it as a model for role-playing. All I can tell you in that regard is that copies of "Slave Girl," along with "Kajira" and "Magician of Gor," bringing the highest prices for used copies of Norman's novels. I am obviously lousy master material because I tend to skip over such scenes and discussions to get back to the swording and flying giant birds around in the sky.
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