Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman

Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman

This is the first Gor novel I have read. Not being a big fantasy fan, I held back until I read the Brak novel which I reviewed previously. I knew the Gor Novels by reputation and Covers. Generally, Barbarian men and naked women are in various forms of distress. I was surprised by how tame this tandem Cover was from 1970. Compared to the Conan-style covers in the 80s and the Star Books publications. They tapped into the Arnie Conan movie and what followed that. Know your market, and we all know sex sells!!!

John Norman Was a pseudonym for John Frederick Lange Jnr, a Professor at Queens College in New York. The Gor series sold about 12 million copies during the 1970’s and 80’s. DAW finally stopped publishing the series in 1988. After many failed attempts, the series was finally brought back to life thanks to E book publisher E-Reads.

So, as I mentioned I knew of these books by reputation and how it plays a bit fast and loose with the female slave aspect of the novels and its pretty awful treatment of women in general. Apparently the series repeatedly depicts men abducting and physically and sexually brutalizing women, who grow to enjoy their submissive state. I never got past this first one, so I can’t corroborate this. What I do know is this was a very dull read.

Frankly, this tries to be Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E Howard and,in my opinion, it fails on a spectacular level. The story is of Tarl Cabot and his transportation to Counter-Earth (that exists in our solar system but cannot be seen) A Sword and Planet book, the usual trope of almost the Early Roman Empire world with low-level tech. His father, whom he has never met, is from Counter Earth now Tarl must train to be the ultimate warrior, a Tarnsman to help his Father bring down the head of another city. The story then heads down slave women ( which to be fair to the main character, he initially finds distasteful) flying creatures that are Griphons, battleting tribes, and love interest between main character Tarl and female protagonist Telena.

These books have a massive fan base, but honestly, I found it boring as hell and none of the characters engaging. I started skip-reading just to get it over with. It wasn’t filled with all the sexual exploits it has a reputation for, but apparently, this only appeared in the later volumes. It certainly doesn’t treat its female characters well. Gorman has certainly set up a rich, layered fantasy world. His description of the cities and technology are pretty good. The characters, however, just seemed bland and uninteresting and by the end, I didn’t care what happened to any of them. I couldn’t even remember who was who and did what by the end of the novel. Or cared.

I know he has a massive fanbase and wrote about 30 books. Incredibly, there have been 2 films produced by the infamous Cannon Studios. Starring Oliver Reed and Jack Palance, they are unintentionally funny and camp as hell. They were not a commercial success.

He is also still writing, you can check out his astonishingly awful designed website at www.gorchronicles.com/.