Guardsman of Gor (Gor)

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.

Rating:
Summary: Split Personality
Review: Volume 3 of the Jason Marshall trilogy is a book with a split personality. The first 136 pages is nearly nonstop action and the last 162 pages is nearly nonstop bondage play. When I started reading it, I thought that John Norman had gone back to the good old days of emphasizing the adventure aspects of his creation. It even took about 60 pages before a slave girl showed up, surely a record for all but the earliest volumes in the Gor series. That said, the action in this volume is not up to the level of the Tarl Cabot books. Basically it consists of a protracted battle between pirates and the forces of the defending towns on the Vosk River. As such, it somewhat lacks variety compared to Cabot's adventures but has scenes which are just as ludicrous, such as the one where Jason finds himself bound to the ram of an enemy ship but escapes by inducing eels to bite off his bonds. Yeah, right! I've discovered that you can pretty much tell when you are in for a dissertation on the glories of bondage. Just count the pages in the chapter. The chapters in the first part of the book range from 2 to 19 pages. Those in the second part range from 16 to 58 pages. Figure it out. It's not like he has something new to say that he hasn't already said far too often. Enough already! Give it a rest! It's really a shame. The Gor books could have been one of the all-time great action-adventure fantasy series. If only John Norman hadn't ruined it with his obsession with bondage...