Tarnsman of Gor

A quick word of pre-clarification: I’ve done no research for this book review (other than actually read the book). So all I have to say that does not explicitly refer to the contents of the story is just commentary on the bits and pieces I’ve picked up over the years of various views about the Gor series.

Anyway, here’s the scoop. In the mid-60s college professor John Norman wrote a short little novel that gets filed under the old Conan sword & sorcery section of the great big tent of fantasy epics. Only instead of sorcery, he threw in some science fiction. The novel was successful, and sequels followed. Many, many sequels. Outlaw of Gor. Marauders of Gor. Wizards of Gor. 401k Administrator of Gor. You get the idea.

Tarl Cabot is a disenchanted Englishman teaching history to college students in New Hampshire when, off camping for a weekend, he comes across a mysterious metallic letter from his long-lost father. Soon he’s accosted by a flying saucer and wakes up on the planet Gor, forever hidden on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth. Gor is a brutal, semi-barbaric caste world of nation states continually vying in a bloody game of one-upmanship. All under the watchful eyes of the hidden and hands-off Priest Kings, who have the superior technology to keep the majority of Gorians throwing spears and slinging swords at each other.

Gotta admit the story is quick on its feet. Tarl is trained in the ways of a Gor warrior and sent on a mission. Through a combination of everything going wrong and Tarl taking the higher road at every opportunity, adventure ensues. I actually liked it. The characters were a tad flat and stereotypical, but the situations were always gripping. Man, does Tarl take a beating. Oh, and a tarn is something like a ten-foot-tall hawk that’s saddled and flown by swordsmen. But be careful – a tarn can turn on you, depending if it’s hungry or just really grumpy, and that’s an unpleasant way to go.

Now, the main thing Norman and his series about Gor is noted for is its sexism. Each book in the series has a quite lurid picture on the cover – quite lurid for the 60s and 70s, I guess, but tame by what you’d see on some primetime TV shows or on MTV. Still, though, not something I’d want my girls to see. Usually a muscular warrior with sword in hand and – here’s the controversial part – a woman either chained or bound at his feet. Women are not treated very well in Norman’s world, unless they are strong and as wily as the men are portrayed. There is slavery on Gor, and women are often treated as chattel. Tarnsman of Gor had about four or five short scenes (each no longer than a paragraph or two) of women in captivity. However, Tarl is by no means an enthusiastic endorser of this attitude, and even sets one slave girl free at his own peril.

Some people get all bent out of shape over this aspect of the Gor novels. I suppose I need to state that I obviously don’t condone such brutish attitudes toward women. But I don’t believe it’s cause for boycotts or censorship. Yes, I wouldn’t want to see these books in a high school library, but I don’t think Norman’s livelihood should be litigated or protested away from him (if he’s even still alive).

All that being said, I’d give the novel a B – . I don’t think I would seek out more Gor novels to read, as opposed to, say, some works by Lin Carter. Similar worlds, similar cultures and sociologies, but I think Carter is more out of left field plain weird whereas Norman is more a straightforward author. But that’s just this guy’s opinion.