Looking For a Good Book

GOR WEEK

There are very few books that I re-read, and generally I’ve only reread a book that I really liked (ie Roger Zelazny’s Amber series). But I was interested in exploring the Gor series. This was one of the first books I remember reading specifically because of the nearly-naked woman on the cover (thanks, Boris!) when I was a young teen. Our hero, Tarl Cabot, seemed like the ideal hero to this, then 14 year old boy … he was smart, and strong, incredibly lucky, and very respectful. Even though slaves were common on this planet, Gor, Tarl would look to free them. And when women threw themselves at him (and they did), he wouldn’t take advantage of them if they were only doing so because they were ordered to do it. And despite Tarl’s seemingly gentleman-like behavior, there isn’t a single woman in the book who isn’t either a slave, or treated like slave and wearing a slave collar.

The story: Tarl Cabot is a British man who goes out for a hike in New England and is somehow transported to Gor – an Earth-like planet that harkens back to a more barbarian era.  Warriors fly on the backs of large birds called Tarns, and Cabot is quickly quite adept at this and becomes a Tarnsman with great skill. He meets his father who disappeared from Earth many years ago, and his father fills him in on the hierarchy of the planet.

Tarl goes off to try to steal a special icon (a stone) recognized as belonging to the leader of a ruling clan, but after a series of events, he instead comes away with the ruler’s daughter. Misadventure after misadventure, Tarl is often sentenced to death, but manages to survive through dumb luck or divine intervention.

In the final battle, Tarl believes the evil bad guy is killed (though they never find the body) and he (Tarl) is set to marry the beautiful princess when he is whisked back to Earth where he spends his time back in New England trying to find whatever it was that magicked him off in the first place.

It was fun to read this again after 45+ years, especially since it’s gotten to be of some cult status. It wasn’t as bad as a I was expecting, given all the negative talk about the book, but it’s certainly not high literature.

I was surprised at how often Tarl was about to die (for various reasons) and was then saved from almost certain death.  It almost became comical it happened so often.

I also never realized how much it was a cheap knock-off of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. Chances are I hadn’t yet read Burroughs when I first read this and by the time I did read the John Carter books, I’d forgotten all but the sex (such as it is) in this Gor book, but the similarities are obvious enough – a man from Earth magically, wondrously, transported to a different world.  Plenty of unique aliens.  Plenty of fighting, and of course our hero has some skill at this. Hooking up with a princess. Somehow sent back to his own world/time just as he was getting used to the new world.

This was a quick read (I remembered it being longer) and not nearly as hardcore as YA books today, but it was definitely a book you didn’t want your parents to know you were reading back in the 1970’s.

If I read any more of the series back in my youth, I don’t remember them at all, but I will be looking forward to checking out a few.

Looking for a good book? Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman isn’t a good book, but it did kick off a popular (and popular to hate), long-running series.

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Tarnsman of Gor

author: John Norman

series: Gor #1

publisher: Del Rey

ISBN: 9780345320346

paperback, 219 pages