Sword-and-sandal story in the pulp tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Good worldbuilding. Barely adequate writing. This series is of course (in)famous for the weird BDSM-like slavery, and in this fourth book it starts playing more of a role, although it's still not the whole focus.

In this fourth book we go back to pulp fantasy adventures after the science-fiction detour of the previous book. It's fine, but Norman is gradually spending more time with philosophical disquisitions and conversations about how women are only truly free and happy when they submit to a strong male master and all that. Extremely non-politically correct, of course, but my main problem with it is that those passages are so dull and long-winded. With this worldbuilding, there is a quite enjoyable story to be told here, with or without the BDSM themes, but Norman doesn't quite get there. He is just not that good of a writer and would seriously need to submit to a strong editor, male or otherwise, who would streamline his storytelling. ( )

Tarl Cabot, el guerrero de la Contratierra, abandona las Montañas Sardar para cumplir con una misión encomendada por los Reyes Sacerdotes de Gor. El guerrero ha de encontrar la última esperanza de vida de los misteriosos gobernantes de la Contratierra. Y lo único que sabe de ella es que se esconde entre los nómadas.
Los Pueblos del Carro, las tribus salvajes que viven errantes por el planeta, entre manadas de boskos, el animal más peligroso de Gor. Pero más peligrosos son aún sus amos, los tuchucks. Cuando ellos avanzan, todos los hombres huyen. Todos, excepto Tarl Cabot.

Appalling, but colourful and fun ( )

If you ever want to know what John Norman's 'Chronicles of Gor' are like, all you need do is read 'Chapter 25 - I Am Served Wine' and be done with it. I am of course exagerating. Just not much.

This installment of Tarl Cabot's adventures in the strange world of Gor has him distracted yet again from finding his beloved Talena to spend years on end with the fierce Wagon peoples who it is said were given the last egg of the Priest Kings which he has now promised himself he would find and return to them. He gets distracted a lot in fact, to the extent that he now hooks-up with another girl, Elizabeth Cardwell, who was unceremoniously snatched from Earth and dumped on the dusty plains of Gor to live out her life as a slave girl. She doesn't take to it quite as well as her gorean masters would have hoped though, and for some strange reason acts up a bit whence she becomes affectionately known as the pretty little barbarian. In the end, Tarl Cabot, who can always be relied upon to teach a girl her place, manages to bring her round to his point of view and convince our pretty little barbarian that she would of course be infinitely happier by submitting, and becoming his slave girl. Of course, which girl wouldn't? So, she bets him he can't in fact convince her of this, only to promptly lose, thereby ending a wonderful chapter(25, mentioned above) literally begging him to make her his slave, and even handing him the slave collar.

What a wonderful place Gor is. I wonder how I get there...?

( )

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. ( )