Wow. I didn’t think too highly of book three in the Gorean saga because I didn’t think there was much plot, but compared to this volume, book three is an absolute epic. If there’s a story here other than the taming of a shrew, it’s pretty well hidden.
So, Tarl Cabot, once of Earth, now a well-known warrior of Gor (a counter-Earth) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the Priest-Kings. But there’s a tribe of savages standing in his way so Tarl infiltrates the nomadic Wagon People to try and learn their ways and makes friends with Kamchak.
In the course of their friendship, Kamchak gives to Tarl the Earth female slave Elizabeth. It’s not much of gift because Elizabeth is sassy and doesn’t act the way female slaves are supposed to act.
Too much of the book is about Elizabeth and Tarl and their “you’re a slave/I’m free/you’re free/I’m a slave” arguments. Though we do also get to learn about the game of Love War:
Judges were now circulating, each with lists (…) not just any girl, any more than just any warrior, could participate in the games of Love War. Only the most beautiful were eligible, and only the most beautiful of these could be chosen.
But for all Elizabeth’s fighting her new station in life, she’s clearly so attracted to Tarl that she’s willing … hoping … that he’ll take her after all:
“It seems – Master -” she said, “that for the hour I am yours.”
“It would appear so,” I said.
(…)
She stood up and faced me. “What are you going to do with me?” she asked. She smiled. “-Master?”
I smiled. “Nothing,” I told her. “Do not fear.”
“Oh? she asked, one eyebrow rising skeptically. Then she dropped her head. “Am I truly so ugly?” she asked.
“No,” I said, “you are not ugly.”
“But you do not want me?”
We are not yet half way through the book and the last half is full … FULL … of this kind of dialog:
“You are trying to get me drunk,” she said.
“The thought did cross my mind,” I admitted.
She laughed. “After I am drunk,” she asked, “what are you going to do with me?”
(…)
“What do you suggest?” I asked.“I am in your wagon,” she sniffed. “I am alone, quite defenseless, completely at your mercy. (…) If you wished, ” she pointed out, “I could in an instant be returned to slave steel – simple be re-enslaved – and would then again be yours to with precisely as you pleased.
The pair actually get in to a philosophical argument about the Gorean ways compared to Earth ways.
“But what,” I asked, “if the laws of nature and of human blood were more basic, more primitive and essential than the conventions and teachings of society –
(…)
“Women,” said Miss Cardwell, “do not wish to submit to men, to be dominated, to be brutalized.”
“We are speaking of different things,” I said.
“Perhaps,” she admitted.
“There is no freer nor higher nor more beautiful woman,” I said, “than the Gorean Free Companion. Compare her with your average wife of Earth.”
(…)
“I have never known a woman who was a Fee Companion,” said Elizabeth.
(…)
“The Goreans recognize,” I said, “that this truth is hard for women to understand, that they will reject it, that they will fear it and fight it.”
“Because,” said Elizabeth, “it is not true.”
“You think,” I said, “that I am saying that a woman is nothing – that is not it – I am saying she is marvelous, but that she becomes truly herself and magnificent only after the surrenders of love. (…) That is why (…) upon this barbaric world the woman who cannot surrender herself is upon occasion simply conquered.”
Oh, my. But when he gets frustrated with the conversation he starts to walk away and tells her he’s going to the slave wagon because he wants a woman. And she teases/tempts him again saying she’s a woman, and is she not as beautiful as the slave girls.
This grew tedious. Easily half the book was about this back and forth and Tarl trying to justify the ways of Gor. And as strong as we think Elizabeth might be, she keeps giving in to him, proving his point, ultimately declaring her love for him and willing to do whatever he asks.
“Kneel,” I said.
She complied.
“Lie back now, on the rug,” I said.
She arranged herself, and smiled up at me.
I wondered what Miss Cardwell would like like, helpless, squirming and thrashing, gasping, kicking, tears in her eyes, hot tears running on her body, streaming about her enslaved flesh, begging for a man’s touch.
It did not seem likely that I would learn.
She was of Earth.
Oh, and we’re not done! As long as there are pages in the book, there is Misogyny with a capital M.
“One may in an instant show a woman who is master, but I did not wish, though I was tempted, to do so.
(…)
“It is said by Goreans,” remarked the girl, very seriously, “that every woman, whether she knows it or not, longs to be a slave – the utter slave of a man – if but for an hour.”
There were hints of this behavior in the first three books. Maybe even more than hints, but it was never plastered so obviously in our faces before this.
It’s not hard to find books of S&M and bondage stories. I suppose it was more difficult in the late 70’s than today, and some sex in our fiction is fine (Steve Almond thinks it’s practically required [read his Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow: A DIY Manual for the Construction of Stories book]). But when this becomes the most important part of a book, it’s no longer a fantasy novel with slaves – it’s a dominating sex novel with a fantasy element.
I had hoped to read as much of this series as I could, but having never gotten this far before, I definitely didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. I am at least reading the fifth volume. We’ll see how I feel after that. I’m going to need some time to cleanse my reading palate.
Looking for a good book? Nomads of Gor, the fourth book in the Gor series by John Norman leans heavily into the nature of female slaves for men’s pleasure.
* * * * * *
Nomads of Gor
author: John Norman
series: Gor #4
publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 9780345251824
paperback, 344 pages
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