This book would be better if it were called 'Terb vs. the Blood Lesbians', which would have the combined benefits of precisely outlining the plot and sparking the audience's collective imagination. If I had written it, that's what I would have called it, but if I had written this book, I would be a damaged man trying to outweigh my insecurities with a chivalry fetish.Now, kicking John Norman for being kinky is a tired game that's been done better, especially since he's no more sexually confused than Stephanie Meyer. Both idealize the phrase 'love conquers all' until it supersedes pain, self-interest, or plot.Norman doesn't bathe his books in this sort of rhetoric, indeed, he can run on for chapters with only hints of the queasiness he is capable of evoking. He also often contradicts and questions his own persistent themes. This is because he is not merely a fetishist or a chauvinist, but a man who has combined romanticism, nobility, and idealism to create a confused (if far-reaching) rhetoric of female slavery.His is not a slavery to injure women or to lay them low, but a slavery to elevate them, to make them better than they ever could have been alone. Likewise, his grandiose philosophy states that men are just as useless without women as their subjects. Nor is it enough for Norman's protagonist to simply capture or enslave a woman.Norman places a high importance on freeing a woman entirely, so that they can choose their subservience out of a true and abiding love. I am reminded of the passage from Angela Carter's 'The Sadean Woman' where she mentions that the 'earth mother goddess' of New Age religion is just another social slavery women subject themselves to., since it invites them to define themselves solely by their capacity for childbirth.Likewise, Norman is not happy unless the 'weaker sex' realizes just how helpless it is, that it is only half of a whole, and cannot survive alone. Anyone who buys into such rhetoric only does so because they are not a whole person.Since Norman had already written a book where a man travels through a world filled with luscious lady slaves and frees them so that they can truly devote themselves to him, he felt he had to up the ante with the sequel.Now, Terb, son of Terb, Terb rider must travel to the far-off city of Therb where he meets the Therbtrix, its alluring and mysterious queen. He sees that it is up to him, and him alone alone, to take down this one-of-a-kind matriarchy in a world where women are normally slaves or unseen. This isn't because he wants it to be like the other, patriarchal cities, but rather because the women have made a royal mess of everything, and can't be trusted to rule over men.Indeed, the Blood Lesbians practice extensive slavery, consider the men of their city to be little more than animals, and love nothing so much as pitting men against one another in brutal bloodsports. Of course, if everyone around me was bent on enslaving, branding, and raping me due to my chromosomes, I might go a little nuts, too.Since Norman has trouble making plot conflicts, Terb swims through his minor 'difficulties' without mussing his hair, freeing the slaves along the way. Everyone he befriends or acts kindly to returns later at a crucial moment to save his life, meaning he's very lucky none of them got sick or failed to travel a thousand miles to the same city he traveled to at just the right time.All these 'name' characters also survive, and most of them hook up with one another, though none realize that the other knows Terb until he shows up and everyone gets to act all surprised. Norman can't seem to bring himself to cause any hardship, let alone death, except to henchmen and major villains. Many books (and children's movies) share this problem, and so we go through bloody war after bloody war and no one important ever dies.Eventually, we get to Norman's piece de resistance, where we learn that the Queen of the Blood Lesbians only hates Terb because she secretly loves him and has always literally dreamed of becoming nothing more than a slave and a man's play toy. Terb has a moment's pang of remorse over his 'one, true love' (wherever she is) but seems to quickly forget it in time for the suggestive fadeout.Norman is not content with a physical dominance over women, indeed, nothing less than complete emotional and psychological slavery will do. It's almost as if Norman is so insecure about his own worth as a person that he can only love a woman who is entirely devoted, body and soul, to his every whim. But of course, that would be silly; and really sad.In addition, women who are already suggestible are 'no fun'. Terb's aforementioned 'true love' was one ornery, cutthroat bitch, so Norman felt he had to ratchet it up and create a literal Queen of all Bitches for his hero to dominate with his impassable exterior and self-sacrificing kindness.We all know a guy who complains about being 'too nice'. He listens to women complain about their boyfriends and is often heard to quip how they should love him instead, since they always say he's so nice. If these men had their way, our world would look like Gor. Any man who was simply 'nice' would have the most powerful and self-willed women of the world eating from his hand. Probably literally.Of course, what his friends should tell him is that, while he is technically 'not a jerk', he probably has no other redeeming qualities. Then they should remind him that actually 'being nice' requires a person to be active, and not just to passively avoid being mean. That is to say, he is much like our dithering and inscrutable Terb: with little personality to speak of, and with even less opportunity to show off how really self-sacrificing he can be.It's one thing when you are a world-shaking man with the ability to defeat an army single-handedly. It's less engaging when you sit in your den writing novels about interesting things happening to your author surrogate. I'd suggest Norman needed to get out more, but he wasn't going to be developing any healthy relationships, anyway. Better to stick with the pretend women in his books.One question remains: why do I keep reading these books? The sad thing is, despite the fact that they are somewhat unsettling, the pacing and writing are still better than much of modern fantasy or even accilaimed bestsellers. Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer and he can't even punctuate a sentence. When a zany, insecure chauvinist can outwrite the 'great literary minds' of the day, maybe its time to get into nonfiction. Then again, it worked for Hemingway. Hell, Frank Miller's still riding the 'wacky chauvinist' train, though for how much longer, it's hard to say.My Fantasy Book Suggestions
Outlaw of Gor begins with hero Tarl Cabot on a mission and it ends with the same mission looming before him. This book, then, is nothing but a long distraction. But it is a clever distraction, an adventure more enjoyable than his first.Indeed, the gravity of his quest -- to confront the dreaded and feared Priest-Kings of Gor -- benefits from this sort of anticipatory development. The likelihood of his death (from his perspective, if not the reader's) is very high: no one who has ventured into the mountains of the Priest-Kings has ever returned. That's enough to give a man pause. But Tarl, whose courage is unquestioned, will not willingly hesitate when his mind is made up. So John Norman holds him back himself, with an adventure Tarl cannot possibly resist.Not that he has any choice, at first. When he discovers that his Gorean home city has been wiped off the face of Gor, that his friends and family -- his wife -- have been scattered to its four corners, all courtesy of the Priest-Kings, he sets off for the mountains in search of whatever retribution he can exact. On the way, he enters Tharna, a city unique on Gor, for it is ruled by women. There, he is betrayed, arrested, and sentenced to death.This, of course, is just the beginning, and it's fun to watch as Tarl, eager to get to the mountains, keeps finding that all roads instead lead fatalistically to Tharna. We are told that the Priest-Kings, who are the gods of Gor, don't do anything without a reason. So it follows that if Tarl was brought back to Gor, it was to serve a purpose. But if he is a puppet of the gods, he is also a slave to his own sense of justice. A small nudge from the gods and Tarl is off risking his life again.Norman's prose flows smoothly and confidently, as if, with this second book, he is more comfortable on Gor and with Tarl and his other characters. It helps, too, since these books are a one-man show, that the story is more localized. Norman had a lot of ground to cover in his first book; here he can focus his (and Tarl's) energies on the fate of a single city.As you might expect, this installment has more to say about women and their place in Gorean society than the last one. But if you think, because it features a city ruled by women, that it is more fair-minded, you'd better think again. Tarl himself, being a man from Earth of the late 1960s, is all about women's rights (up to a point, anyway), but on Gor, free love means buying a slavegirl.Tharna itself is a dismal place, where women wear long robes and silver masks (the ruler, or Tatrix, wears a golden mask). Men of Tharna, who aren't allowed to touch the women, are considered beasts. As Tarl observes, turnabout is fair play, but either way it makes for a dysfunctional society.Who, then, can blame him if his prefers to be on top? So far, there's nothing in these books to warrant their reputation. But I've a long way to go.Good fun fantasy - 2Sadomasochistic sexism - 0
What do You think about Outlaw Of Gor (1983)?
For a full review, see here:http://bookswithoutanypictures.wordpr...I read the book in one sitting, and it worked wonders for my mood. This series has become one of my guilty pleasures. I should probably be outraged by the treatment of women, but I’m not. Strangely, I think it adds to the books’ charm, and let’s face it, the male characters are no less objectified in sword and planet books and movies. That being said, these books aren’t for everyone, and readers should know what they’re getting into. Pretty much every female character is a happy sex slave (or discovers she’d be happier as a sex slave, as in the case of Lara, the ruler of Tharna).
—Grace
Here is my book review of Outlaw of Gor. An old school mate meets Tarl on the streets of Manhattan. Tarl is initially confused and rages at his friend. Once Tarl realizes where he at the two enjoy an evening of conversation, food and heavy drinking. Tarl mentions in their discussion about the land of Gor and his longing to return. The friend is held in a state of disbelief and is uncertain about the mental health of Tarl Cabot.The two go their separate ways and several days later the friend discovers the manuscript (which is apparently the first book of Gor) that Tarl Cabot mentioned over their reunion. Tarl hikes back to the mountains where he was first abducted and eventually the priest kings of Gor arrive and Tarl is able to depart via space ship once more to the land that he has grown to love. When Tarl awakens in Gor he finds that his home city has become destroyed and that all inhabitants of his city, Ko Ko Ro Ba have been scattered throughout the world.The story turns into an interesting tale into a very predictable yarn. When a person reads a novel, albeit a fantasy novel in this instance, the reader must be able to make a connection of realism even if playing by the rules of the new world. For me the story makes everything so very easy for Tarl to be the point of it being silly. Case in point, the first slave girl he encounters just so happens to be from his home town. And to follow up that there is scene where Tarl is about to be devoured by a Tarn and it turns out to be not only a Tarn from Ko Ko Ro Ba but also his very own Tarn that he left when returning to earth. Those are just two examples but you can see how a good story can sour when the author for sake of a quick story makes everything convenient. It is ok to this once or maybe even twice in story. When you are talking about a novel that is 250 pages long and your encounter this “convenience” eight or nine times well then it just leaves the reader red face frustrated.
—Dale Pearl
Just as easy a read as the first one. Tarl goes back to Gor where he finds his home has been destroyed and so he must go on a journey to do, err, something. I was a bit vague on what that something was (go confront the Priest Kings and get himself killed? I dunno, some warrior thing). Anyway, along the way he goes to a city ruled by women and manages to annoy everyone there so much that they set about trying to kill him. Lots of violence and angry women who suddenly realise they're all in love/lust with Tarl and want to become his sex slaves. Unlike the first book where Tarl thinks "slavery bad, free women good", he's suddenly started thinking "slavery bad, free women good, some women want to be slaves because that's in the nature". I can see where this is heading. By book 4 he'll probably be thinking "slavery okay, slave women good". By book 10 "slavery is the best thing ever, especially when it involves mostly naked women with collars". And by book 20 he'll be a merchant selling slaves who rapes and pillages to get his goods.But I digress, the book was still enjoyable, as long as you don't go into it thinking you'll be reading a work of great literature.
—Christian West
