Customer Reviews

Dancer of Gor

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

John Norman fell down with players of Gor which while godd was not great I have read all 26 books and found that there is a 27 out but not in print and unobtainable????

Dancer centers around the story of a young lithe librarian of Earth who is brought to gor by Kurii Slavers. The start of the book follows her search for truth and capture on Earth by Teibar of Ar.

On her arrival on Gor she is sold to a paga tavern and the owner finds her of interest as a dancer for his customers. She makes friends and enemies and through the work of a jealous rival is stolen and travel across Gor constantly chased and captured til finally she meets Teibar once again and realises that she has loved him from the moment she met him on Earth.

A love story, a bondage treatise, A great adventure as with all Gor books They cover many areas and as with all Gor books should be taken as what they are Fiction, Science fantasy.

This is one of the best in the series and recaptures the Mood of the earliest books perfectly. Ten out of ten (10/10)

This was the first Gor book I read, because I heard it had belly dancing in it. After forcing myself to finish it, I can honestly say it is the most poorly written book I have ever read. John Norman has the most annoying writing style I have ever seen. He somehow manages to fill an entire book with words that don't seem to say anything. He likes to drag out his sentences by adding extra words that don't need to be there such as "to, therefor, also..." and he seems to think that run on sentences will make him sound smarter.

Poor writing aside, his characters have as much depth as a sheet tray. The main character is supposed to be smart, but I don't recall one smart thing she did in the entire book. Apparently we are supposed to believe she is smart because people are always telling her she is. Mind you, the people telling her this are men who are her Masters and consider a "smart" woman to be one who obeys them at all times. The other characters are no better. The men are all sexist, controlling pigs who only care about war, drinking and reminding slave girls they are slaves (see dialogue example below). We are told that these Gorean men are somehow better than our Earth men, but I didn't see one example of a man who was in the least bit admirable either for his charm, intelligence, or any other characteristic aside from his ability to boss around naked women.

Which brings me to another point. Yes, this book is about women being slaves to men. I get that. It's not the pinnacle of feminist ideals. I could appreciate if it was the fantasy, sexy fun I figured it would be. Instead it's filled with pages full of Norman's own insistence that "modern women" are somehow denying their true femininity by not enslaving themselves to men. Norman *constantly* bashes feminism. If I had a nickel for every time a slave said or thought something about how they love to be a slave, how they were meant to be a slave, how they were now fully "aware" of their femaleness, how badly Earth women are

missing out, etc. I would be rich. Instead of feeling like I am taken to another world where things are different, I feel like I am reading a book that is the authors soap box for his anti-feminist views and his sexual fantasy land (despite the fact he conveniently skips describing the sex scenes and spends all his time detailing how the women are chained instead). Not to mention the fact this idea is incredibly flawed. The main character is chosen to be a slave because the person who went to Earth and picked her out tested her by telling her to do things and seeing if she would comply, even though she didn't know this man or have any reason to do what he said. How many women would really do this? She was basically culled from the flock! But we are told that, deep down inside, all women are like this. It's so far off the mark it's completely unbelievable. I find myself wishing Norman had instead chosen to make her fully resist being a slave and showed her growth as a character despite this drastic change in her life. But no, she's pretty much a slave before she's ever selected. There is no growth, no struggle. She takes to her slavery like a fish in water. What is this book about again?

The dialogue is atrocious. It's full of pointless conversations such as:

Master: You are chained

Slave: Yes, Master

Master: You enjoy being chained

Slave: Yes, Master. I am a slave!

Master: You enjoy being a slave

Slave: Yes, Master!

Followed by the slave begging for sex, although what she's all hot and bothered about remains to be seen.

The plot is weak, weak, weak. At one point Norman actually switches a main character out for another and doesn't seem to notice his error. Where is the editor of this book?? He also likes to constantly not tell you what is going on or what happened between the last chapter you finished and the next chapter you just started. He seems to think this is suspenseful when in fact it's just plain annoying.

To give you an idea of what you would be reading, here is my own impersonation of John Norman's writing "style" which I have been told men many "Goreans" is a sad, yet accurate impersonation:

"Or instead of self mutilation I could just read another John Norman book. Too, therefore, also I might read something, on occasion, which might sometimes go like this, whoever the reader, when reading a John Norman book, as well. I might also, when reading a John Norman book, find, that also, I might shoot myself in the head, sometimes to avoid further reading which might, in time, drive me insane from frustration which, is brought about by the reading of John Norman, and I would be well shot in the head, if done by a true Gorean Master, who are well versed in such things as the shooting of women, and would not miss. How lucky I would be to have such a master! Truly, I would be shot well, for I would be only a slave, and how grateful I would be, for I would be shot well."

I did not like the unnecessary page details. For example in the opening, we read page after page after page of the main character looking at herself in the mirror dicussing- not discussing but thinking about how she feels. I understand building the main character is important, but ramblings like this was so bad, I kept pressing next page, next page too skip ahead. The author also repeats the same lines, "I was chained and afraid because I was chained. It was the chain that made me afraid because I was a slave- chained." Need I say broken record? How chained can one be? Or, just when you think the character has gotten beyond some major emotional or mental feat- the very issue will come up again to be repeated word for word again. I found myself rolling my eyes about thinking, 'She is chained once more." She was chained throughout the whole book, imagine hearing this line over and over again. Yes the author wants to immerse the reader into the story and help bring understanding that Gorean slavery was a major difference than Earth slavery, but it does not have to be done in this way.

I personally, don't believe this book was written by Norman. The writing style was very different it felt as if the writing and tone was a bit modern for this Gorean planet. I read Captive of Gor, Kajira of Gor, and Slavegirl of Gor, and all written from the time and perspective of the planet the women were on. Not Dancer of Gor, poor Doreen might have been with earthly men who staged a planet called Gor. This is exactly how I felt this book read, like a play by totally different characters and concept.

I was given a piece of fake material and told to believe this was something genunine. So I eventually became annoyed with the characters. The description of Doreen's experience while interesting didn't seem authentic. I found Doreen a little likable, but the author focused so much on her negativity- I had to stop reading book several times and force myself to try to gain some new respect for the character and the author. This is suppose to be a character who is quite differet than most Earth women- a woman who wants no desires wait- NEEDS to be captured and made a slave, she longs for it, but it seems the author wants to make the reader run around and suffer though pages of details, experiences, and through things that did not seem realistic for the main character. For example, Doreen is about to be sold, she comes to the realization that she is about to be sold, and is taking through slave paces, suddenly out of no where she becomes frigid. I was like huh? What is happening? This is a woman in which the author built the character to be more submissive and more ready for her experiences on Gor than any other character in his books. But right at the moment of compliance the author gives Doreen a fake insecurity that is never explained. Everyone in the book wonders what is wrong with her? I was wondering the same thing too. Simply unrealistic.

I tend to agree with one reviewer who doesn't understand why Doreen is begging for slave sex. She is always frightened and scared, why would she? Some would say, I don't understand the Gorean Lifestyle enough to see that she is having all these conflicts within herself. But her conflict does not match the kind of woman the author portrayed her to be. I felt so for Doreen- would have been better off dancing on earth.

Norman or whomever wrote this, is so focused on slavery and manacles, hoods, and chains, whips, and sex- the author forgets that there has to be fairness in the writing. If you write your character one way don't try to change them in the middle of the book- it won't work. At least it didn't for me.

If I said that this is one of my favorite books, I would still not say enough. Norman is a master at D/s. If you do not know what that means, it is Dominance and submission. Lovely book. An earth woman is abducted by a man from another planet, yeah, they look like us; then sold into slavery. Yummy book.

Humbly, I would strongly disagree with the one star review ~ I found Doreen's genuine acceptance of her status on the world of Gor to be a refreshing deviation from J.N.'s typical 'rich snotty young woman who pretends to detest men & foolishly tries to resist what is so apparent to everyone else'... that is, that men on Gor ARE Masters & females in slavery WILL serve.

Personally, I have found this to be the most enjoyable of the Gor series. From the perspective of one who would like to have an honest interpretation of living in accordance to the ideals of a Love Master/love slave relationship, it was a decidely engaging & insightful read.

The Gor Series nearly disappeared, becoming "collector's items" because it isn't "politically correct" to have strong men and submissive women.

Glad to see them available and affordable. Get all 27 of them.

Dancer is a very good book in the series and one of the most popular.

Doreen, a shy librarian who secretly practices bellydancing between the stacks after hours, is kidnapped by slavers from the wild planet of Gor. Somehow frozen in a state resembling the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard's "Conan" books (and every sword and sandal tale ever told), Gor forces its men to become warriors while the women become "living jewels of desire". On that "wild counter-earth", enslaved Doreen's floorwork makes her the local star, even though (as with all slaves) her individual situation approximates a souvenir brought back from a long trip, like a switch-comb, or one of those novelty pens. Whereas modern bellydancers stress their art as liberating and empowering women - that images of slave girls in gauzy skirts performing for men is just a Hollywood myth - Gor creator John Norman buys into that "myth" completely: Doreen's dancing really is an act of submission set to rhythm. Driven into exile by an un-wanted competitor, Doreen finds herself in the forefront of war between competing city-states on Gor. For reasons not made quite clear, Doreen's dancing makes her a crucial factor in a massive Gorean civil war - but she remains too much of a slave to exploit that position.

I'm ashamed to admit I read "Dancer" - not ashamed because of the book's purportedly hot subject matter, rather the opposite: "Dancer" is long, pedantic and boring, with no payoff. There's little excitement to be found in the brutal treatment typical of slaves in "Dancer" which is little better than that given to animals. This doesn't bode well for Gor's male population either. (Gor is supposed to be a wild and adventurous version of Earth, but Gorean men manage to go to extremes for a pitifully shorter and less erotic coupling than paler and weaker Earthmen would aspire to.) Not even the author's emphasis on bellydancing - which he assures us really is about female submission - seems to bring out its sexier side.

But the worst conceit is Doreen herself. In Norman's prose, Doreen is meant to stand in for all modern women - outwardly liberated, educated and assertive, a destroyer of men and manhood; on the inside, entirely submissive, passionate and dependent on male power. Enamored with the idea of those days of yore (when women were women), Norman crafts a tale of a modern womanhood's descent into submission, with Doreen leading the fall. The problem is that Doreen is so transparently weak from the outset, that it's impossible to imagine her as a convincing modern woman at all - the only reason we have to think that Doreen is a modern anything is because she says so, repeatedly. (When Gorean scouts first encounter Doreen, their leader rhetorically asks her if she's a "modern woman". If shy Doreen is the Gorean idea of a modern women who "destroy men", the rest of Earth's women are safe.) Because she's already a slave waiting for her chains on page 1., Doreen's story of submission is pretty much over as soon as it starts, and "Dancer" discards the plot element of "transition" critical to any tale of fantasy. About the only transition Doreen achieves by the story's end is that she can now openly refer to bellydance by that name, and not "ethnic dance", which connotes PC pretension. Norman's error is in identifying modern women by their intelligence alone rather than strength of character, which says more about him than his bellydancing anti-heroine. Doreen is smart - her slave visions are out of library books and not movies - but submits to the slave collar with little problem. Worse, because she's smart and submissive, Doreen never becomes an interesting character, as she calmly describes the ordeals of being a slave almost as if they were occurring to someone else, and that "other" person doesn't seem worth Doreen's efforts. I've heard all of the canned diatribes about white male wish fullfillment, and this book ironically debunks every one of them - there's nary a word here to satisfy anybody's wishes. For anybody considering spending their hard earned cash to get "Dancer" on eBay, consider this your warning.

I find these books very arousing. Woman need to know that they are wanted but also to serve. In these books women get both, pleasure from pleasing and pleasure from the men, they make them beg for it to the point that they will just submit. Men could take a few pointer from these books in that pleasure department