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2.95 AVERAGE
2.95 AVERAGE
From all of the talk these books get, I was expecting something a lot worse. Not to say this was good, it just wasn't as bad as its reputation (although they apparently get worse the farther you get into the series).
I'm kind of feeling like a glutton for punishment. I will press on.
I'm kind of feeling like a glutton for punishment. I will press on.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was really a disappointment. Aside from the fact that it wasn't exactly the fantasy I thought it was going to be, it also didn't satisfy the "set in a primitive world" setting that I was craving for after reading the translations of 'Chronicles of Primordial Wars'.
My main problem was mostly the characters, and the author's writing style-- it was bland and lacklustre. Maybe it's because I just prefer longer books with more vivid and flowery descriptions rather than this journal-esque report of what happened to the main character, Tarl Cabot, while he was in the planet Gor, or Counter-Earth. Primarily because of this, it was honestly a chore to plough through this even though it's a short book. It took me two days to finish it when it would normally take me three or so hours with a book as thin as this.
And the characters, they're flatter than cardboard. Other than Tarl himself and the female ones, the other characters' (the one from his side) personalities were like imitations of themselves, only with the slightest of variations, their positions or their "parts" in the novel the only thing setting them apart from each other. Tarl's father, Kazrak, Marlenus seemed to me one and the same.
The female characters and the way they're treated-- as slaves and objects of pleasure, mostly-- is quite problematic. Obviously. They also seemed to portray only the qualities that men seemed to see them as, either gentle or hysterical. I also find it weird how the author seemed to be obsessed with putting women under their power and only with reading some of the reviews for this book have I realized why. I honestly thought that the story was basically a wish-fulfillment and really reminded me of 'Re: Monster' in that sense.
The main reason why I didn't like this book though, is the main character himself Tarl Cabot. He really seems to me like a disgustingly spineless guy who is quite indecisive with what he actually wants and it's annoying how he constantly dilly-dally and shilly-shally with his thoughts and decisions. Yes, it's admirable how he didn't let himself be swallowed by the Gorean mindset from the get-go, even rejecting some of the customs and habits that he didn't quite agree with, but it's also quite obvious that he's actually not as resistant to them as he seems ti think so himself.
The insta-relationships-- from instant acknowledgement of a father he hasn't seen from when he's practically a baby, to "falling in love" with a two-faced woman just because she's beautiful and has a great body, to instant best friends with a guy he's crossed swords with just BECAUSE-- was irritating as heck. He's even embracing with someone who's had him tortured, humiliated him, and just about killed him only a few pages before. It's ridiculous.
Other than that, I gotta say that he's a lucky bastard. Coincidences after coincidences save him over and over, getting him out of predicament after predicament with hardly any difficulty. It's basically like pie falling from the sky for him, or just the protagonist-halo working. His OP-ness (overpowered) was so eye-roll worthy-- I mean he's just learned weapon play, swordsmanship (*scoff*), but he can already *overpower* someone who's clearly experienced in fighting than him. I mean, if I want that kind of sillyness, I'd go read some wuxia and xianxia or any other Chinese novel with martial arts and fighting, or some semblance of it, instead.
This book probably has its own merits that I just couldn't see right now but I gotta admit that it's still interesting enough to continue with the next book. My curiosity was triggered by the reviews of the whole series that I've read. I'm quite intrigued with how it goes.
Also, I didn't realize that this is a pretty long series, I mean, 34 BOOKS?!
Also, my favorite character is Tarl's tarn, a giant bird mount of warriors in Gor.
My main problem was mostly the characters, and the author's writing style-- it was bland and lacklustre. Maybe it's because I just prefer longer books with more vivid and flowery descriptions rather than this journal-esque report of what happened to the main character, Tarl Cabot, while he was in the planet Gor, or Counter-Earth. Primarily because of this, it was honestly a chore to plough through this even though it's a short book. It took me two days to finish it when it would normally take me three or so hours with a book as thin as this.
And the characters, they're flatter than cardboard. Other than Tarl himself and the female ones, the other characters' (the one from his side) personalities were like imitations of themselves, only with the slightest of variations, their positions or their "parts" in the novel the only thing setting them apart from each other. Tarl's father, Kazrak, Marlenus seemed to me one and the same.
The female characters and the way they're treated-- as slaves and objects of pleasure, mostly-- is quite problematic. Obviously. They also seemed to portray only the qualities that men seemed to see them as, either gentle or hysterical. I also find it weird how the author seemed to be obsessed with putting women under their power and only with reading some of the reviews for this book have I realized why. I honestly thought that the story was basically a wish-fulfillment and really reminded me of 'Re: Monster' in that sense.
The main reason why I didn't like this book though, is the main character himself Tarl Cabot. He really seems to me like a disgustingly spineless guy who is quite indecisive with what he actually wants and it's annoying how he constantly dilly-dally and shilly-shally with his thoughts and decisions. Yes, it's admirable how he didn't let himself be swallowed by the Gorean mindset from the get-go, even rejecting some of the customs and habits that he didn't quite agree with, but it's also quite obvious that he's actually not as resistant to them as he seems ti think so himself.
The insta-relationships-- from instant acknowledgement of a father he hasn't seen from when he's practically a baby, to "falling in love" with a two-faced woman just because she's beautiful and has a great body, to instant best friends with a guy he's crossed swords with just BECAUSE-- was irritating as heck. He's even embracing with someone who's had him tortured, humiliated him, and just about killed him only a few pages before. It's ridiculous.
Other than that, I gotta say that he's a lucky bastard. Coincidences after coincidences save him over and over, getting him out of predicament after predicament with hardly any difficulty. It's basically like pie falling from the sky for him, or just the protagonist-halo working. His OP-ness (overpowered) was so eye-roll worthy-- I mean he's just learned weapon play, swordsmanship (*scoff*), but he can already *overpower* someone who's clearly experienced in fighting than him. I mean, if I want that kind of sillyness, I'd go read some wuxia and xianxia or any other Chinese novel with martial arts and fighting, or some semblance of it, instead.
This book probably has its own merits that I just couldn't see right now but I gotta admit that it's still interesting enough to continue with the next book. My curiosity was triggered by the reviews of the whole series that I've read. I'm quite intrigued with how it goes.
Also, I didn't realize that this is a pretty long series, I mean, 34 BOOKS?!
Also, my favorite character is Tarl's tarn, a giant bird mount of warriors in Gor.
The first of the infamous S&M fantasy series of the world of Gor is a rather unremarkable adventure book. Taking cue from Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, Norman gives us an Earthling sent to survive on savage, alien world. However, instead of John Carter, a cowboy and Civil War vet right out of Wister's 'The Virginian', Norman's hero is a mild-mannered British professor.
His transformation from comical figure to unrivaled warrior is swift and inexplicable. Such a man might learn to become a soldier, to wield a sword, but that isn't good enough for Norman. His hero becomes literally the greatest soldier and swordsmen on his new, savage home.
However, Norman does not want us to question his plot or characters. He gives us a wild, melodramatic, unbelievable adventure without a hint of lightheartedness. Indeed, Norman seems to take every moment seriously, and with a swaggering machismo that dares us to laugh at it.
When Terb son of Terb (trained by Terb the viking to be a Terb-rider) defeats a dozen armed men with his arms literally tied behind his back, we are supposed to soberly marvel at his manliness. We are also meant to maintain this awe through a whole book-full of similarly unbelievable battles. This isn't to say that the fight scenes aren't fun, just that the author doesn't think they should be.
There is also the training of the giant death-birds that the protagonist learns to ride. The birds are vicious and prone to attacking and even eating their riders. To combat this, the riders use handheld tasers to discipline the birds. There are two problems with this.
Firstly, we can imagine that training these birds would be akin to training a large predator, that is, a predator large enough to consider us prey. We can train cats and dogs pretty easily, since they don't consider us to be 'on the menu', but training these birds would be more like training a tiger. This can be done, but its an imprecise science, as even after years of familiarity and training, even a hand-raised tiger can turn on its handler.
Beyond that, we don't train them by taser, since this would tend to provoke a fear reaction in the animal. This means the animal is either going to run or fight you. This brings us to the second problem: these are birds.
If you threaten a bird, it will just fly away from you and that's the end. Training falcons requires them to see you as the primary source of food, and this training is difficult to maintain. Even well-trained falcons will sometimes just fly off when released to hunt, and then you have to chase the thing down, isolate it, and net it. Now imagine that you're trying to chase and net an escaped tiger.
The training should have looked like a combination between how we train large predators like tigers and how we train animals which could easily evade us at any moment, like falcons or dolphins. Norman fails to do the work necessary to present animal training properly, but in this failure, we get an insight into his character.
The book, like many others of the genre, shows a very simplistic view of power dynamic. Animals, enemies, and women can only be dominated. He has no sense of politics, machination, friendship, or any other subtle form of human interaction. He treats all things with an iron fist, and it always works out. It is the inescapable fantasy of the powerless man: that if he were only mighty enough, he could punch anything into submission, be it pet, friend, rival, or romantic interest. Which brings us back to sex slavery:
The first book only lightly enters into the recurring theme of female sex slavery which comes to define the series. That every woman in the book is a slave at one point or another, and is helplessly in need of a man despite her strong will comes only as a minor annoyance in this book rather than the overpowering obsession parodied in the classic Houseplants of Gor.
The insecurities of the author become all-too-blatant as one reads on. Firstly, Norman requires the fantastical escapism of a hero who is a simple, bookish man (with mommy issues) who becomes an unstoppable killing force (and lover) beholden to no man or god. Beyond this, he also feels a need to conduct himself with a no-nonsense, manly rationalism worthy of Hemingway. Either one alone might be workable, but the schizophrenic conflict between realism and hyperbole becomes a constant strain on the book's tone.
The plot is also so circular and serendipitous that it's painful. Constant coincidence moves things along at a clip, with little draughtsmanship to redeem it. Like a Victorian Romance, every character returns at the climax, everyone ends up married and happy, and all the bad guys get defeated. Everything is neatly accounted for in an avalanche of detailed explanations, so much so that the ever-piling climax had me laughing aloud with each new addition.
It is not only his plots but his romanticism which resembles Victorian dime novels: his hero is an ideal in honesty, love, and purity, as well as swordsmanship and will. Not only will his somber superman enact a master-slave relationship with his chosen mate, but that relationship will be a pure and courtly love, undying and perfect. Tarb (Tarb-riding son of Tarb) frees every enslaved woman he finds only to make conspicuous that he the then enslaves them utterly with the purity of his heart's love.
It's not enough to enslave a woman, or even to do so against her histrionic strong will, she must also be enslaved by her own desires and emotions, since the chain will never be strong enough. Of course, it shouldn't surprise us that Norman sees love as slavery, because only complete emotional control of a woman can overcome his personal insecurities.
Of course, in that, Norman follows the unbalanced ideals of many marriages and relationships: one need not live on far-off Gor to think that romance may be secured by the simple application of a jeweled band of gold. Nor is this unbalanced sexual dynamic uncommon in the fantasy genre.
The writing isn't bad, and can even be evocative and exciting when not stuck in repetitive digressions on the world and Norman's philosophies (As amusingly parodied here). Sad to say, Norman's prose often shows more talent than most modern fantasy authors, even as his insecurities grow increasingly awkward.
It's like a guy who acts big and tough, except once you were hanging out and he tore his pants on a fence and you saw that he has a tattoo of a cartoon poodle on his thigh. If he showed it off and proudly admitted liking cartoon poodles, that would be one thing, but he's never mentioned it, and he always wears long pants, and you just remembered when he declined to go skinny dipping and just stood on the beach skipping rocks.
But now you've seen it, and you can't unsee it. Did he notice you looking? It doesn't matter, because you'll never buy the macho-man routine again, if you ever really did. The illusion is broken.
Don't Miss Terb 2: Terb vs. the Blood Lesbians!
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
His transformation from comical figure to unrivaled warrior is swift and inexplicable. Such a man might learn to become a soldier, to wield a sword, but that isn't good enough for Norman. His hero becomes literally the greatest soldier and swordsmen on his new, savage home.
However, Norman does not want us to question his plot or characters. He gives us a wild, melodramatic, unbelievable adventure without a hint of lightheartedness. Indeed, Norman seems to take every moment seriously, and with a swaggering machismo that dares us to laugh at it.
When Terb son of Terb (trained by Terb the viking to be a Terb-rider) defeats a dozen armed men with his arms literally tied behind his back, we are supposed to soberly marvel at his manliness. We are also meant to maintain this awe through a whole book-full of similarly unbelievable battles. This isn't to say that the fight scenes aren't fun, just that the author doesn't think they should be.
There is also the training of the giant death-birds that the protagonist learns to ride. The birds are vicious and prone to attacking and even eating their riders. To combat this, the riders use handheld tasers to discipline the birds. There are two problems with this.
Firstly, we can imagine that training these birds would be akin to training a large predator, that is, a predator large enough to consider us prey. We can train cats and dogs pretty easily, since they don't consider us to be 'on the menu', but training these birds would be more like training a tiger. This can be done, but its an imprecise science, as even after years of familiarity and training, even a hand-raised tiger can turn on its handler.
Beyond that, we don't train them by taser, since this would tend to provoke a fear reaction in the animal. This means the animal is either going to run or fight you. This brings us to the second problem: these are birds.
If you threaten a bird, it will just fly away from you and that's the end. Training falcons requires them to see you as the primary source of food, and this training is difficult to maintain. Even well-trained falcons will sometimes just fly off when released to hunt, and then you have to chase the thing down, isolate it, and net it. Now imagine that you're trying to chase and net an escaped tiger.
The training should have looked like a combination between how we train large predators like tigers and how we train animals which could easily evade us at any moment, like falcons or dolphins. Norman fails to do the work necessary to present animal training properly, but in this failure, we get an insight into his character.
The book, like many others of the genre, shows a very simplistic view of power dynamic. Animals, enemies, and women can only be dominated. He has no sense of politics, machination, friendship, or any other subtle form of human interaction. He treats all things with an iron fist, and it always works out. It is the inescapable fantasy of the powerless man: that if he were only mighty enough, he could punch anything into submission, be it pet, friend, rival, or romantic interest. Which brings us back to sex slavery:
The first book only lightly enters into the recurring theme of female sex slavery which comes to define the series. That every woman in the book is a slave at one point or another, and is helplessly in need of a man despite her strong will comes only as a minor annoyance in this book rather than the overpowering obsession parodied in the classic Houseplants of Gor.
The insecurities of the author become all-too-blatant as one reads on. Firstly, Norman requires the fantastical escapism of a hero who is a simple, bookish man (with mommy issues) who becomes an unstoppable killing force (and lover) beholden to no man or god. Beyond this, he also feels a need to conduct himself with a no-nonsense, manly rationalism worthy of Hemingway. Either one alone might be workable, but the schizophrenic conflict between realism and hyperbole becomes a constant strain on the book's tone.
The plot is also so circular and serendipitous that it's painful. Constant coincidence moves things along at a clip, with little draughtsmanship to redeem it. Like a Victorian Romance, every character returns at the climax, everyone ends up married and happy, and all the bad guys get defeated. Everything is neatly accounted for in an avalanche of detailed explanations, so much so that the ever-piling climax had me laughing aloud with each new addition.
It is not only his plots but his romanticism which resembles Victorian dime novels: his hero is an ideal in honesty, love, and purity, as well as swordsmanship and will. Not only will his somber superman enact a master-slave relationship with his chosen mate, but that relationship will be a pure and courtly love, undying and perfect. Tarb (Tarb-riding son of Tarb) frees every enslaved woman he finds only to make conspicuous that he the then enslaves them utterly with the purity of his heart's love.
It's not enough to enslave a woman, or even to do so against her histrionic strong will, she must also be enslaved by her own desires and emotions, since the chain will never be strong enough. Of course, it shouldn't surprise us that Norman sees love as slavery, because only complete emotional control of a woman can overcome his personal insecurities.
Of course, in that, Norman follows the unbalanced ideals of many marriages and relationships: one need not live on far-off Gor to think that romance may be secured by the simple application of a jeweled band of gold. Nor is this unbalanced sexual dynamic uncommon in the fantasy genre.
The writing isn't bad, and can even be evocative and exciting when not stuck in repetitive digressions on the world and Norman's philosophies (As amusingly parodied here). Sad to say, Norman's prose often shows more talent than most modern fantasy authors, even as his insecurities grow increasingly awkward.
It's like a guy who acts big and tough, except once you were hanging out and he tore his pants on a fence and you saw that he has a tattoo of a cartoon poodle on his thigh. If he showed it off and proudly admitted liking cartoon poodles, that would be one thing, but he's never mentioned it, and he always wears long pants, and you just remembered when he declined to go skinny dipping and just stood on the beach skipping rocks.
But now you've seen it, and you can't unsee it. Did he notice you looking? It doesn't matter, because you'll never buy the macho-man routine again, if you ever really did. The illusion is broken.
Don't Miss Terb 2: Terb vs. the Blood Lesbians!
My Fantasy Book Suggestions
I read the first 7 Gor books in the late 70s, early 80s. I enjoyed them for the adventure. I did get most of the series but never did get around to reading most of them.
I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Barsoom and Tarzan books in my early teens. The Gor books that I was reading in my late teens / early 20s seemed similar but more detailed and complex. Probably simplistic compared to what I read these days.
I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, Barsoom and Tarzan books in my early teens. The Gor books that I was reading in my late teens / early 20s seemed similar but more detailed and complex. Probably simplistic compared to what I read these days.
A misogynistic aspiration to mediocrity that ends in abject failure. Remarkably lacking in redeeming features, or indeed, even in non-condemning ones.
http://www.adventuresinneverneverland.com/2012/10/08/book-review-tarnsmen-of-gor/
I had no idea up until a week or so ago that the author of these books was blacklisted by publishers because of them. I don't really see what the problem is to be honest. Oh I can see the rage building on the faces of various people and flame wars springing up all over the place, and that's really what I'd expect with a series of novels like this, but to blacklist the author? That baffles me.
The story itself isn't bad, and the characters are interesting to say the least, I mean, who wouldn't love a girl that begs you to brand her with a hot iron?, and that's par for the course on this planet it would seem,
Fair enough, no need to ask twice. She does though,
To be honest, I'm late to the party with the whole Gorean phenomenon and those internet flame wars that blew up around it, but I'm loving what I've read so far and once again, am just glad there are so many more in the series. I'll be reading them as long as he's writing them.
It's down to you as to whether or not you pay much attention to the nay-sayers and those that seem to delight in tearing the world of Gor apart at the seams at every opportunity(even nowadays), I just think you'd be missing out on a whole lot of fun and something just that little bit different. And it is a fun read. There's no way the writing or the plot can be compared with some of the more modern fantasy series, but then again, there's something to be said for just sitting back and enjoying the ride. I am, and I'm loving it.
The story itself isn't bad, and the characters are interesting to say the least, I mean, who wouldn't love a girl that begs you to brand her with a hot iron?, and that's par for the course on this planet it would seem,
"Call for the iron," she said. "Brand me, Master."
Fair enough, no need to ask twice. She does though,
"I want to be owned," she whimpered. "I want to belong to you, fully, completely, in every way. I want your brand, Tarl of Bristol, don't you understand? I want to be your branded slave."
To be honest, I'm late to the party with the whole Gorean phenomenon and those internet flame wars that blew up around it, but I'm loving what I've read so far and once again, am just glad there are so many more in the series. I'll be reading them as long as he's writing them.
It's down to you as to whether or not you pay much attention to the nay-sayers and those that seem to delight in tearing the world of Gor apart at the seams at every opportunity(even nowadays), I just think you'd be missing out on a whole lot of fun and something just that little bit different. And it is a fun read. There's no way the writing or the plot can be compared with some of the more modern fantasy series, but then again, there's something to be said for just sitting back and enjoying the ride. I am, and I'm loving it.
not worth reading even for purposes of mockery. just dont do it