Looking For a Good Book

GOR WEEK

In this second book in John Norman’s “Gor” series, university history professor Tarl Cabot finds himself transported back to the alternate-Earth known as Gor. He can’t deny that he’s glad to be back in this land where he is recognized as a hero and powerful warrior and where his one true love resides.

But as Tarl travels toward his home on Gor, he discovers that his name no longer brings about awe and respect, but instead he and all those loyal to him have been declared outlaws. Has he been brought back to Gor by the Priest-Kings only to be captured and punished? Or is he meant to restore the name of Tarl Cabot and that of his city (which has been decimated)?

Tarl is captured and taken to Tharna, a city ruled by women, where he is sentenced to death.  He manages to escape, taking the Tantrix (the ruler of Tharna) with him.  She is used to ruling over subservient men and must now learn what it means to be a slave herself.  But of course Tarl, ever chivalrous, treats her with respect, but she responds best to his firm hand.

I cannot remember how many of the Gor books I read back in the early 70’s, but surely I read at least the first two, but I didn’t remember a single bit of this.

There is a lot of comment about the Gor books being not much more than softcore porn focusing on S&M and I really didn’t get much of this. Yes, there’s clearly the slave/master relationships between Tarl and the Tantrix (that name, itself!) which goes back and forth between who is the master, but it is SO softcore that one might miss it (especially if that one were 13 years old).  I’ve heard that the books get much more intense later on.

Author John Norman has an easy-to-read style which is probably one of the main reasons this series continues to find new readers.  There’s plenty of swordplay action to really appeal to the young fantasy reader (I first read these books at the same time as I was reading Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars books and Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories) but ultimately there’s little-to-no story here.  This is a short story that’s been padded with repeating action and constant, veiled sexual attraction.

I’m definitely curious about the next book because this one feels like a waste of time. It feels like what should have been the first two chapters of a larger story.

My goal is to read through as many of these old Gor books as I can, just for kicks and reminiscing, but we’ll see how many I can actually get through before I get completely disillusioned with the books.

Looking for a good book?  You might need to be a twelve year old boy to enjoy the suggestions of sex and the master/slave relationships found in John Norman’s Outlaw of Gor.

2 stars

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Outlaw of Gor

author: John Norman

series: Gor #2

publisher: Del Rey Books

ISBN: 9780345271365

paperback, 254 pages