Customer Reviews

Explorers of Gor. Volume 13

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

 

 

This 13th Gor novel marks the halfway point in the series thus far. (As I write this the 26th book is being prepared for publication after a 13 year hiatus and a 27th volume has been announced.) In this one Tarl Cabot once more goes on a mission for the Priest-Kings, this time to recover the shield ring of the Kurii (last seen in Volume 10, Tribesmen of Gor). During his wanderings through the African landscape of the unexplored equatorial region of Gor he encounters intrigue, treachery, a hidden empire, crocodilian river tharlarion, cannibals, a boar-like tarsk, pygmies, army ants, amazons, an 8-foot thick rock spider, a lost city, a ring of invisibility, and the Kurii. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? Unfortunately it's not as exciting as it sounds. None of those things show up until you're about 200 pages into the novel! Somehow the villains in this one don't seem as villainous and the dangers don't seem as threatening as they should be. In his better adventures Tarl Cabot usually meets up with a stereotypical rogue who is charming, knowledgeable, a true warrior, and knows how to handle women a la Gor (i.e., terrorize, brutalize, and rape them). In this one the role was divided between 2 characters: Ayare who is the smart charmer and Kisu who is a violent lout (which is good on Gor). It just doesn't work as well. But the real reason this one didn't click is because the flow of the story was continually broken up by interminable discussions of Gorean philosophy. At 464 pages this may very well be the longest of all the Gorean books (some of the later ones have more pages but they also have bigger print). The difference in length is taken up entirely by the theory and practice of the enslavement of females. The author may have invented a few new ways to restrict his slave girls both physically and psychologically but philosophically speaking I don't recall anything in this book that he hasn't already beaten to death in previous volumes. At this point in the series he is just preaching to the converted---if you've bought in to his point of view, it's redundant and if you haven't, further haranguing will not change your mind. I realize that a lot of the people who buy his novels are into bd/sm and therefore expect this but I suspect that there are a lot of readers who are not. It would better serve the stories and all of the readers to confine the bd/sm aspects to example and leave the unnecessary and unrealistic philosophical discussions out.

This book unfortunately sees Norman's last gasp at the Kurii for about 5 or 6 books. The Guardian series is BS. Explorers has action suspense and is well researched and imagined. Marauders is better, but this book is well done. Skip the slave stuff. It adds nothing

As an avid Gor fan I must agree that the Master/Slave relationship is a big part of the Gorean ethos. I feel that John Norman is trying to put over a fundemental point that men and women have stopped talking to each other about what concerns us most the continuation of the human species. Procreation has become a chore and increasingly if you listen you can hear the words "men (or women just don't understand us women (or men)" how can we if we don't or won't or can't talk frankly and openly to each other. The situation he uses may be distasteful to some but it is merely a metaphor for our inability to talk to one another. She is offered the choice "Talk or Die" I know I would rather talk. The book offers marvellous views of life up the amazon (Gorean equivelant) or the nile it is a book of discovery and adventure. the correctness is subjective.

Take 4 stars with a grain of salt - this has its problems.
I am grading on a curve, so it is 4 stars for a GOR book.
The story is great - when it stops repeating itself, and preaching the lore of the female bondage.
Dont get me wrong, I am all in favor of female bondage, this guy just like to drive it into the ground - in between a rolling good adventure story.

I find that these books would often be best at around 2/3 the length, and just trim back the Dogma. I enjoy a sumissive female as much as the next guy, actually MORE than the next guy, as long as the next guy isnt John Norman ;-)

The Kur are playing games with a ring of invisibility, and a duplicate with explosive potential, so it is up to Tarl Cabot / Bosk of Port Kar to keep the ladies in line, and the Kur at the business end of a weapon. This instalmennt set in the jungle - NEAT !

As with all of John Normans books the story is exciting and keeps your interest. There is plenty of danger,close calls and mystery to keep anyone rivited to the story. My only complaint is that Mr. Norman repeats himself verbatim throughout the book. He also goes overboard on his beliefs about a true womans role in life. Other than that,it's fantastic tale. I loved it!

Long winded, low on plot, high on pages upon pages of boring description. The only redeming feature of this book was the Chris Achilios cover on the UK edition. If you are a fan of Gor just skip this one, it adds nothing.

I must disagree with scuba: the slavegirls add _everything_, as any Gorean-aspirant could tell you. Tarl's probing of the blonde slave girl gets to her incandescently-hot Aztec/Mayan fantasy, counterpointing the Search-for-the-source-of-the-Nile adventure Tarl is taking with a black Livinstone expedition. The black masters make good use of the slavegirls, black and white, whilst Tarl confines himself to white slavegirls, tiptoeing safely past the whole race/and/color minefield. Pity: Tarl is at his best when he samples every morsel of wenchflesh in his surroundings, and some of the dark meat looks _really_ tasty!