Looking For a Good Book

It looks like Tarl Cabot is dead and a deadly assassin by the name of Kuurus has made his presence known – he is out to avenge Tarl and he is fearsome.

Meanwhile there is some political intrigue going on in the city of Ar. The Priest-Kings have told our hero (ah … but who IS our hero?) of the ‘Others.’ The Others are rivals to the Priest-Kings from outer space who destroy everything in their wake. Because the Priest-Kings are now weaker (thanks, Tarl) the Others have found their way into communities of Gor and threaten the Gorean way of life.  The Priest-Kings seek our hero’s help to spy on them.

Oh, okay … our hero is Tarl Cabot in disguise. Surprise! (It’s not, really.) And if the take-over of Gor by the Others wasn’t dangerous enough, The Others are putting technology in place that will allow access to Tarl’s home planet of Earth. Yikes!

Of the now five books I’ve read in the Gor series, This is probably the best. This one is not all about making Earth women into Gorean sex slaves and convincing the women (and the reader) that this is really what they want all along anyway.  That’s not to say there’s no sex – oh, there’s plenty of it, and most of the women are still sex slaves, including some hapless Earth women who found their way to Gor, it’s just not all about this.

Part of what makes this the most enjoyable of the first five is that Cabot – who has been a bit of a superhero on Gor – is in over his head and gets knocked down a peg or two. He proves himself by picking himself up and soldiering on. Now THAT’S heroic.

There’s also some exciting action – a giant flying bird race. Of course Cabot is going to prove that even though he’s a newcomer, he’s going to do well. There’s not a lot of purpose for this scene, and it covers a good chapter, but it is exciting and a bit of a nail-biter. Think of it like the pod race scene in the the ‘first’ Star Wars movie.

There are moments when this feels like it was written and edited in a rush to get it to print. For instance, at one point the women were told they would not be wearing the slave collars when they were taken to the slave auction block because the collars could be hiding damage. And they they are brought forward, chained by the neck. I’d expect something like in self-published fiction today, not in this series.

Overall, this has action, story, AND sex. It was fun. It’s too bad the sex is still so misogynistic and the women have to be submitting sex slaves. I don’t think this would do well on the market as new today, but of the first five books, this is definitely my favorite (which isn’t really saying much). There’s a lot more to read but I need a lengthy break before I tackle the next five.

Looking for a good book? Assassin of Gor, the fifth book in the Gor series by John Norman is better than its predecessors, but still mostly geared to pubescent male readers.

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Assassin of Gor

author: John Norman

series: Gor #5

publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780345024893

paperback, 409 pages