I originally set out to read the entire Gor series. Here I am, at the end of the fourth book...and I'm seriously rethinking that commitment.Cabot just keeps getting more unlikeable as the series progresses. At this point, he's only heroic in comparison to uncivilized men around him. And it's not like Cabot's an anti-hero, where walking the line between "good" and "horrible" is the point of the character - Cabot is supposed to be all-around good guy.Remember Talena? Because Cabot sure doesn't!Much like the biggest issue I had with the third book in the series, Priest-Kings of Gor, Cabot has stopped looking on Gorean society through the lens of somebody from Earth, and started lumping himself in with the Goreans. Cabot's impartiality is thrown out the window, so his occasional rants about women on Earth vs women on Gor come across as less cultural comparisons, and more Cabot complaining about Earth women not being like Gorean women. The Gorean master, commonly, likes a spirited girl, who fights the whip and collar, resisting until at last, perhaps months later, she is overwhelmed and must acknowledge herself his, utterly and without reservation, then fearing only that he might tire of her and sell her to another.So, basically, until the women develop Stockholm Syndrome. Wikipedia: "One commonly used hypothesis to explain the effect of Stockholm syndrome is based on Freudian theory. It suggests that the bonding is the individual's response to trauma in becoming a victim. Identifying with the aggressor is one way that the ego defends itself. When a victim believes the same values as the aggressor, they cease to be perceived as a threat."Nomads started off decently enough, all things considered, with the introduction of a new Gorean culture. Things were going pretty well. And then, Elizabeth Cardwell showed up.Poor, poor Elizabeth.When Elizabeth's first introduced, she's terrified out of her mind, and has no idea what's going on. She can only speak English, and is worried that she's going crazy.So what does our hero, Cabot, do when he finds out that she's from Earth?Nothing.He just stands and watches her freak out, until Kamchak finds out that Cabot can understand the girl, and gets Cabot to be a translator.Things just go downhill from there.The middle chunk of the book turns the focus away from Elizabeth, but it's just full of inconsistencies and obliviousness on Cabot's part. He repeats information that he just found out as though he'd known it for a while. I remembered that two years before, as I had learned, he had brought Aphris of Turia a five-string diamond necklace, which she had scorned, and had, according to her report at least, given to a slave.Aphris and Kamchak discussed that event not five pages before, which was the first time Cabot had heard that story.He doesn't pick up on the fact that Saphar the Merchant is clearly involved with the whole Elizabeth plot - the guy knows Cabot's name, the collar on Elizabeth was Turian, and Saphar's first order of business with Kamchak is to discuss potentially buying the freaking Priest King egg. When Kamchak refuses every offer, Saphar declares that he will have the egg, even if he has to start a war with the Tuchuk to do so.And yet - In Turia I had learned nothing, unfortunately, of the answers to the mystery of the message collar or to the appearance of Miss Elizabeth Cardwell on the southern plains of Gor.Cabot buys some wine because Kamchak paid for admission tickets to see a slave girl dance, even though Cabot was the one who lost the bet for who had to pay for the admissions, and there was a scene of him grudgingly giving the payment to Kamchak while looking at all of Kamchak's wealth.He gets stalked around by a person whose job it is to torture and assassinate people, and all Cabot thinks is, "Oh, that guy must be curious about me!" I noted, following me, as I had more than once, a masked figure, one wearing the hood of the Clan of Torturers. I supposed he was curious about me, not a Tuchuk, not a merchant or singer, yet among the wagons.But none of that drove me to the breaking point. Frustration, yes - but I was still willingly reading.No, no, no. The breaking point came after a nice series of action scenes that had me actually enjoying the story.Kamchak ends up giving Elizabeth to Cabot as a slave. Cabot, as he often does, frees Elizabeth. Elizabeth, by now thoroughly immersed in Gorean culture, takes the gesture as Cabot not thinking that she's worth anything, and haughtily acts like an offended slave girl.And then the point of no return is reached. She seemed to me very beautiful. Again I considered raping her, but now that she was free, no longer a simple slave, I supposed that it would be improper.YOU SUPPOSE???I was sure that I had read the sentence wrong the first time Cabot casually thought about raping Elizabeth. And then that second rape comment happened.It would be one thing for Cabot to admire her beauty, and think about how he wanted to have sex with Elizabeth. That, I could accept. But the way Cabot phrased it? Oh HELLS no.And it still managed to get worse. The institution of freedom for women, I decided as many Goreans believed, was a mistake.What follows after that is a very uncomfortable implied sex scene between Elizabeth and Cabot, where Elizabeth challenges Cabot's theory that all women long to be slaves to men - or rather, to a certain man. Elizabeth bets that she'd never truly wish to be a slave, and that if Cabot can make her wish otherwise, then HE has to be HER slave for a while.Naturally, such an arrangement is offensive to Cabot.Anyway, Cabot does finally agree to her terms, and sets about sexing Elizabeth up, which leads to Elizabeth admitting that she's in love with Cabot (of course) and that she wants to be owned by him. She also develops a split personality, and starts referring to herself with the plural "we" - Elizabeth, the girl from Earth, and Vella, the Gorean slave. Both of whom intend on competing against each other for Cabot's affection. "We love you," said they, "Master."After that creepy as hell scene, the action picks back up, and the ending only further proves what an idiot Cabot is. "Pa-Kur," I said, "defeated in personal combat on the high roof of the Cylinder of Justice in Ar, turned and to avoid capture threw himself over the ledge. I do not think he could fly.""Was the body recovered?" Kamchak asked again."No," I said. "But what does it matter?""It would matter to a Tuchuk," said Kamchak.Please, please let Assassin of Gor be about Parkur getting revenge on Cabot.I know Parkur won't stay alive, but if he manages to at least make Cabot miserable for a while, I'll be happy.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.Nomads of Gor is the fourth installment in John Norman’s series about Tarl Cabot, the professor from Earth who is now a warrior on the planet Gor (the Counter-Earth). In the last book, Priest-Kings of Gor, Tarl was instructed by the Priest-Kings to find their egg — the last hope of the insectoid Priest-King race. The egg is in the keeping of the wagon people, a fierce group of nomadic tribes. Tarl needs to find these people, infiltrate their society, get the egg, and escape.Gor is an impressive world full of diverse and fascinating geographies, races, languages, cultures, and economic systems which John Norman describes in loving detail. This world-building is the best part of the Gorean Saga. But amongst all this diversity, one thing (surprisingly) remains the same wherever Tarl Cabot goes: every society he encounters captures pretty girls and uses them (branded, chained, and collared) as pleasure slaves.John Norman’s favorite trick is to turn a beautiful, independent, and feisty woman into a slave. At first she’ll resist and scream “Never!”, “I hate you!”, etc. Then she is subdued by her master and made to learn her place. Soon she is happier than she’s ever been in her life because she’s learned to give in to her natural desire to be dominated by a man. (Yet, if she’s so content, I’m not sure why she still has to wear a leash.)This is my fourth (and last) Gor book and I’ve had an epiphany. All this time I’ve been wondering why these “spirited” women don’t get together, rise up, and revolt. They walk around doing chores together, so it’d be easy to plan a night where every fiery female slave stabs or poisons her master. Now, I’ve finally realized what their problem is… they’re all idiots.This is how it goes:Man: You are beautiful and feisty so I want you to be my slave, wench! I will have you!Stupid Wench #1: No way! I am a free woman and my birthday is in a few days. Then I will get my inheritance and become the richest woman in the country. I will never be your slave! NEVER! NEVER! I hate you! NEVER!Man: Stop kicking me and punching me with your tiny fists, feisty wench! You will be my slave!Stupid Wench #1: No! Never! And just to show you how much I hate you, I will now ask this other warrior to challenge you in a duel and I will make myself the prize. You will never have me! NEVER!Man: Actually, I changed my mind. You are not worth fighting for.Stupid Wench #1: What? Am I not beautiful? Don’t you want me?Man: No, not really. I’ve got Stupid Wench #2 over there and she’s way better than you.Stupid Wench #1: What? She has fat ankles!Man: Her ankles are sturdy. See how well she runs next to me when I’m riding on my horse.Stupid Wench #1: I am better than her! Fight for me!Stupid Wench #2: I am first girl, you stupid wench! We don’t need any other stupid wenches around here. I can do all the washing, cooking, cleaning, animal grooming, poop scooping, kneeling, groveling, and man-pleasing all by myself. You will not outrank me! NEVER!Stupid Wench #1: I am prettier than Stupid Wench #2! My ankles are not fat. Don’t you think I’m pretty?Man: You are not worth much.Stupid Wench #1: Fight for me! Fight for me! Put your collar on me, Master!So Man wins Stupid Wench #1 (who loses her inheritance since she’s no longer free), outfits her in shiny new handcuffs, ankle rings, and collar, drags her by her hair, throws her across his saddle, and rides off. Stupid Wench #2 is trotting along at his side, sweating and resting her head on his thigh occasionally. Once Stupid Wench #1 is branded and settled in, she and Stupid Wench #2 jealously jostle for position — taunting each other, sneering, calling names, and sometimes even kicking, biting, and pulling hair... And yet, according to the Gorean philosophy, they’re now complete women because they have submitted to a man and are in their proper place…This is just insulting. Not the part about women being willing to submit to men, but the fact that these women are valued only for their beauty and “spirit,” are so easily beguiled by these men’s transparent manipulations, and then are encouraged to jealously compete with each other for the man’s affections. Norman wants us to believe his women are wonderful because they're fiery and spirited. But no, they’re not. They’re all just a bunch of idiots. I say they got what they deserve.
What do You think about Nomads Of Gor (1981)?
On a quest to find the lost egg of the Priest Kings, Tarl Cabot journeys into the vast grasslands of Gor and encounters the fearsome Wagon Peoples (Mongolian/Cossack analogues). Manly man things and womanly submissions ensue.Once the blushing shock of the misogyny wears off, the best thing about the Gor books is Norman's world building. It isn't the story-telling, which is just a John Carter knock-off. It isn't the action, which is OK. It isn't the sex, because really, there isn't any (or it is merely implied). It certainly isn't the social commentary, because it is laughable. ("A woman cannot truly be free until she submits utterly as a slave to a man." *yawn* Even Christian Grey could come up with something better than that, and he's a putz.)Sadly, this fourth book of the Gor series has the least world building thus far, and consequently, was the least enjoyable for me. It also really bothered me that in this book, Cabot apparently gives up on his quest to find his beloved wife, Talena. Instead, he blithely goes about boinking all manner of girls and falls in love with at least two, one of which he keeps as his wife/slave/free companion/sub/whatever. Clearly, I'm the only one troubled by this, and this troubles me.
—John Lawson
This series appears to have gone downhill quickly.Tarl (super warrior and the world's most desirable man) is now searching for the last remaining egg of the Priest-Kings (giant golden ants) in the realms of the wagon people (warriors who have wagons... although they don't spend much of the book in them). After convincing the hostile wagon people that they should love him for his huge warrior attributes, he gets on with turning a poor earth girl into a slave, whilst causing every girl within sight to swoon over him and throw their Gorean panties at him. He then proceeds to use his mighty warriorness to impress all his enemies and cause even more girls to throw away their clothes and declare their undying love for him.All of that I could deal with. What got me is that he ruminates on the local philosophy that all girls want to be slaves, decides he sort of believes it, and then "seduces" the earth girl into being his sex slave just after he considers raping her. What the hell? I knew where this series was headed, but why would the character do such a 360 on his beliefs in such a short amount of time? Book one doesn't count because he went back to earth in the meantime. Book three he was such under a mountain fighting giant golden ants, so really it's only book two and four where he's had a chance to be convinced that all woman desire to serve men. It just doesn't ring true for me. The book still gets three stars because the first half is fine, and much of the second half is okay. But the parts where he seduces Elizabeth and she turns into his mindless sex slave... bah! Tarl has turned into a big big prat.
—Christian West
I have read the entire series, there simply isn't anything else like it; they are decadent and addictive, completely and wholly something everyone should have on their MUST READ list. Edgar Rice Burroughs BARSOOM series would be a faint comparison, I suppose; but Norman carries his characters to a depth of depravity that is reminiscent of a D/s or BDSM fetish fanatics dream. At the same time, they are not written in a way as to be entirely sexual, he merely casts about components and subtle subtext that one familiar with the lifestyle would of course pick up on, while a "vanilla" person could read right over without ever noticing or being offended.The worst part of this series is it's highly addictive quality. Not long after I read my first book, I found myself at a Second Hand BookStore in Dallas purchasing a paperbag FULL of the entire series. 20 years later and I still have them! And, I always WILL!
—J.L. Day
