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A review by bobmanasco
Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman
2.0
It's difficult to rate this book independently of my expectations going in. I'd always heard this was a dirty book (it wasn't), a sexist book (it was), a kinky book all about bondage and female submission (it wasn't).
No, mostly this was episodic wish-fulfillment adventure prose, not dissimilar from John Carter of Mars or even Treasure Island.
The main character is a English History professor who, through an unlikely series of events, winds up on a different planet, where the caste system is very rigid. He happens to be an awesome swordsman and easily lives through several certain-death scenarios and causes women to fall madly in love with him. Um, yeah.
So, yes, the author sets up a world where slavery exists, but the main character doesn't like it and makes efforts to free slaves. There are no strong female characters who aren't (at least momentarily) slaves. So, sexism. Check.
But, I don't really see what the hubbub is about. Perhaps the creepiness becomes more apparent in future volumes, but at least in this first book, it's just kinda bad writing, telling a pretty unbelievable story. Not dissimilar to a variety of those other 60s pulp novels.
No, mostly this was episodic wish-fulfillment adventure prose, not dissimilar from John Carter of Mars or even Treasure Island.
The main character is a English History professor who, through an unlikely series of events, winds up on a different planet, where the caste system is very rigid. He happens to be an awesome swordsman and easily lives through several certain-death scenarios and causes women to fall madly in love with him. Um, yeah.
So, yes, the author sets up a world where slavery exists, but the main character doesn't like it and makes efforts to free slaves. There are no strong female characters who aren't (at least momentarily) slaves. So, sexism. Check.
But, I don't really see what the hubbub is about. Perhaps the creepiness becomes more apparent in future volumes, but at least in this first book, it's just kinda bad writing, telling a pretty unbelievable story. Not dissimilar to a variety of those other 60s pulp novels.