Captive of Gor [Paperback]

John Norman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine (1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345243846
• ISBN-13: 978-0345243843
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,816,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Gor Book, November 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Captive of Gor (Paperback)

'Captive' is my favorite book in the Gor series. I'm a female, I'm a serious Sub, and I love to be dominated. Although I'm very independent, very dominating in my personal business affairs, where sex is concerned I am into utter and complete submission. So now you know where I am coming from.

The Gor series is about dominance and submission, period. Of course there is the 'big' story. But the sexual philosophy is the core of the series IMHO. I love the series up until Captive, but after that I find it becomes far too brutal, (for me) leaning toward an ugly, mean-spirited sadism. The first seven books reveal the true beauty of sexual slavery, masters and slaves have a mutual need, whose end result is pleasure, pain, and an immense erotisism that only those who understand, can experience. For me, the series ends after this book.

I read 'Captive of Gor' some 20 years ago. I was so excited to read the story of a slave, rather than Tarl/Bosk adventures and POV. I love Elinors abduction, and induction into the world of the Kajira. As I read it I became her, Gor entered my dreams, both awake and asleep. I loved the majority of the 'minutae' of Gorean slave culture. On a few occasions it became excessive, but hey, that is what skimming is for, to get back to the good stuff. I wanted so badly to be whisked off to the counter earth, I could hardly stand it.

If you compare this book to 'Slave Girl of Gor' it is about the incredible joy of submission, while the latter is about pure sadism, humiliation, and punishment. I hated the books immediately after 'Captive' for their excessive punishment and cruelty, so much that I skipped ahead to 'Slave Girl'. I never made it through the first hundred pages. How noble is it for three hardened Gorean warriors to rape, and mercilessly beat, a frightened girl from Earth? Not very. Gone is any sense of pleasure, of rapturous joy. All that is left is brutality. In 'Captive of Gor' Miss Brintons journey is brutal to be sure, but the element of erotic joy between master and slave is what makes it wonderful for her in the end. If you are powerfully stirred by dominance and submission, I think you might really like it.

My issue with Mr. Norman is his insistance that the Master/Slave relationship must be built on intense physical abuse, punishment, psychological violence, and Sadism. No master need treat me that way. I am a good little slave, obedient, and ready to serve, I need no abuse. I am ready to please my Master, but I have my own demand, which is respect, kindness, protection, and to recieve pleasure myself. I should be cherished.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Early books are the best in Gor Series, November 24, 2003

By 

silliman89 "silliman89" (Burke, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captive of Gor: (#7) (The Chronicles of Counter-Earth, Vol 7) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read the Gor series as a boy in the 70's and early 80's. IMHO the series is most appealing to teenage boys. I recently pulled "Assassins of Gor" off the shelf one night while bored, and re-read it. I was shocked that there was no real sex, and only a handful of pages of philosophy and psychology that I had to skip over. The book was really excellent, although in a straight forward, uncomplicated sort of way. These are escapist novels, richly detailed, which immerse you in an exotic world, not real thinkers. My enduring memories were of the later books in the series, which were almost unreadable because whole chapters were devoted to philosophy and psychology.

I am not offended by the idea that it is natural and enjoyable for women to be submissive to men. Although I recognize it as wish fulfillment fantasy, still I consider it harmless, especially in such an obviously fictitious setting. I even found it mildly interesting the first time it was mentioned. It is the umpteenth repetition that I find boring. I just turn those pages, skipping ahead to the next action sequence. Speaking of wish fulfillment, I wish someone would edit the series, and re-publish it without these parts. Maybe Eric Flint could do it? He likes to edit, according to his afterword to "1633" and he's good at it. Of course, if you take the sex out of Gor you get Barsoom, and that story has already been written.

I looked on Amazon to see if there was anything new going on with the series, and there was. It is being reprinted, starting at the beginning, and at least 2 new books seem to be published, or at least in the works. I was disappointed though that Amazon didn't have the whole series listed under one easy to find heading. I guess there are, after all, millions of books and only so many Amazon employees. So I'm listing the series, in order, along with some brief info. Some of these books I haven't read, as noted.

1.) Tarnsman of Gor - 1966. Earthman, Tarl Cabot, goes to another planet, hidden on the opposite side of our sun, and becomes a master swordsman and Warrior. This is the book that is most like "Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which I highly recommend. Note - the 1966 copyright is held by John Lange, the author's real name.

2.) Outlaw... - 1967. Tarl Cabot returns to Gor, to find he's been outlawed.

3.) Priest-Kings... - 1968. Tarl Cabot goes to lair of Priest-Kings to clear his name.

4.) Nomads... - 1969. Tarl Cabot goes to Southern Plains, and meets Mongol type nomads.

5.) Assassin... - 1970. Tarl Cabot returns to Ar, greatest city-state on Gor. Note - this is the first copy I have by Del Rey books, and it has cover art by Boris. I may not like reading about the Gorean philosophy on sexual roles for men and women, but I can't get enough of Boris' artwork depicting it.

6.) Raiders... - 1971. Tarl Cabot goes to Port Kar, pirate capitol of scum and villainy, and learns the meaning of shame. More Boris art on the cover of the Del Rey edition.

7.) Captive... - 1972. A new character, Elinor Brinton, is captured on Earth and becomes a slave girl on Gor. The first time this is done, it may be slightly creative and a little interesting, but it is a radical departure from the earlier books and I consider it to be the beginning of the end. At least Tarl Cabot has a few pages at the end, to tie this book into the rest of the series. This is also the last book published by Ballantine books, which I think is significant in the content and direction of the rest of the series.

8.) Hunters... - 1974. Tarl Cabot goes to the Northern Forest and meets amazon type women. This seems to be the first time there was a break in John Norman's writing, undoubtedly related to his switch to Daw books as a publisher.

9.) Marauders... - 1975. Tarl Cabot goes to the land of the Norsemen and meets Viking type Marauders.

10.) Tribesmen... - 1976. Tarl Cabot goes to the Tahari desert.

11.) Slave Girl... - 1977. Earth girl Judy Thornton enslaved on Gor. Again. No Tarl Cabot at all.

12.) Beasts... - 1978. Tarl Cabot goes to the Arctic ice pack and meets Eskimo type people.

13.) Explorers... - 1979. Tarl Cabot goes to the equatorial rain forests.

14.) Fighting Slave... - 1980. Earthman Jason Marshall is enslaved and forced to fight in a pit on Gor.

15.) Rogue... - 1981. Jason Marshall wanders free on Gor.

16.) Guardsman... - 1981. Jason Marshall earns a homeland.

17.) Savages... - 1982. Tarl Cabot goes to the great plains and meets American Indian type savages. Note - If you like this, John Norman also wrote "Ghost Dance" in 1970, a similar type story about real American Indians. I'm impressed that he kept the writing schedule he did on the Gor novels, and still wrote other books on the side. He also wrote "Time Slave" in 1975.

18.) Blood Brothers... - 1982. Savages and Blood Brothers are a two-part set. Just recently read this conclusion to Savages. Brings closure to Ubar of the Skies.

19.) Kajira... - unread. Another Slave girl story.

20.) Players... - 1984. Tarl Cabot joins the Carnival. Cos goes to war with Ar.

21.) Mercenaries... - 1985. Tarl Cabot returns to Ar again to try to save it.

22.) Dancer... - unread. Another Slave Girl novel? This is where I stopped even looking in the bookstore.

23.) Vagabonds... - unread.

24.) Magicians... - 1988, unread.

25.) Witness... - 2002, unread. I read on amazon that this is a story about Marlenus with amnesia, told by a slave girl.

26.) Prize... - unread. This is not yet published.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars John Norman replaces Tarl Cabot with a slave girl from Earth, May 14, 2005

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captive of Gor (Mass Market Paperback)

"Captive of Gor," the 7th volume in John Norman's Chronicles of Counter-Earth, was the first book in the series that I did not really enjoy. The reason was not because this is the first volume to be devoted primarily to Norman's Gorean philosophy of slavery/submission as the natural condition of women, but simply because Tarl Cabot (or Bosk of Port Kar as he is currently known in the series) is not the main character in this novel. In "Captive of Gor" we are introduced to Elinor Brinton, who was a wealthy and powerful woman on Earth, but who is brought to Gor and made a pleasure slave in the service of the slave merchant Targo. In other words, we have a modern "liberated" woman put into a condition of slavery where she is forced to learn the arts of providing pleasure to any man who purchases her for the night for a few tarn disks.

The conflict between the Priest-Kings and the Others which is the major backstory of the Counter-Earth series is behind Elinor's abduction, but that is ultimately a minor point in this 1972 novel where the focus is on the nature of human sexuality. Norman tells essentially the same story in "Slave Girl of Gor" (1977) and "Kajira of Gor" (1983), but then for that matter the story of Elinor Brinton is not that much different from what happened to Elizabeth Caldwell, transformed into Vella of Gor in the fourth Gor book, "The Nomads of Gor." Consequently, there is really no surprise to what happens in this novel and the style is not enough this time around to overcome the lack of substance (i.e., Norman does not create any compelling supporting characters as he did in previous novels).

Gorean philosophy aside, "Captive of Gor" is a major break in the developing narrative. There is nothing wrong with that, but Norman continues to abandon the epic story arc he created in the first six volumes in the ones that followed this volume as well. Consequently, "Captive of Gor" becomes a pivotal novel in the series, representing the end of the great adventures and the beginning of the sociological textbooks.