Guardsman of Gor

Now, for more than fifteen years I've avoided the Jason Marshall books and stayed with the Tarl Cabot-led titles because I once went through about the first 50 pages of "Fighting Slave Of Gor" and felt let down. Of course, that was many moons ago and, just for the hell of it, gave in and went through books 14, 15, & 16 - found myself unable to put them down!!! What a moron for not having read through them in the first place, years ago! But then, after reading Guardsman of Gor, I can remember WHY I may have decided to put it off: MINDNUMBING EPIC-LENGTH RANTS ON THE DOMINATION OF WOMEN BY MEN. Now, I'm not going to waste my breath on the argument - in fact, I can quite safely say that the entire proposal in the series is self-contradictory; instead, my problem lies in the nearly unbearable REPETITION & LENGTH - as though our good fellow Mr. Norman has been trying to convince the unconvinced by beating them about the head and shoulders - some of us who like the series can make it through the abuse by circumventing much of the cognitive drudgery. I've gotten so good at skipping through THOUSANDS of words of it that I feel like I'm only reading 1/4 of a book, and that I'm reading the same 3/4's of a book over and over again with merely the names changed. Still, I keep reading the series, repeatedly. Why? Because it's John, and John's stuff has a certain fascinating magic to it, as though he actually loves the imaginary places he writes of; as if he loves the adventures themselves. TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY: Why is it that EVERYBODY in the Jason books possesses, apparently, the 'Second Knowledge', in that EVERYBODY knows everything there is to know about the existence of Earth; whereas, in other books, most people are generally clueless? Some folks don't like the Vosk ship battles - I thought they were great. Matter of fact, all the scrapping in all three books of the Jason trilogy are way neat - I don't care how fantastically unlikely some of them are, ya gotta admit they moved things along. One thing I can definitely say is that when I wasn't skimming over the repetitive slave stuff, it was a speedy read even when he was detailing such things as markets, crops, tools, towns, etc. Okay, I'm a weakling Earth Man, so I will betray my codes by making one commentary on the male domination thing, and it is this: Those of you who are Gor fans who are perplexed by the reactions of those who despise the series based on the treatment therein of female characters should perhaps consider this formula, constantly expressed throughout: A: Women are natural slaves B: Slaves are as low or lower than animals (common livestock) C: No amount or extreme degree of abuse to women is cause for outrage D: Any such outrage flies in the face of the natural order and demonstrates cowardice, weakness, and a lack of intelligence E: Women, being livestock, and yet intelligent, naturally enough, secretly desire and love to be abused -

My first recommendation would be to start at the beginning of the series. While you can figure out what is going on; and each book is a story unto itself - the climax which builds in knowing the full history of Gor, the characters and emotions driving the plot line, is critical in my opinion. As any who have encountered Norman's undertakings knows, there are aspects of his writing style that are dry; redundant and so explicitly technical it borders on dullness. However, this also denotes a seeming trademark, something you come to expect and almost relish as you submerse yourself into the world he has created for us to escape to. Holding true to form, there are twists and turns that leave you cheering for the hero and celebrating a clearly ingenious mind! I highly recommend picking this up, whether you are a long time follower of Gor or if you are just beginning .. you'll get hooked I promise!

Guardsman of Gor continues the story of Jason and Beverly, both from New Your City who were captured and transported to Gor in Fighting Slave. Guardsman begins with a naval battle on the Vosk river between pirate fleets and a loose confederation of river cities. Norman spends the first several chapters on three days of the battle during which time the battle is almost lost and the remaining 3 confederation ships make and escape. In a dramatic turn around things get better from there. While the river battle has been going on the men of the cities have formed a fighting alliance on land and wait in ambush for the remaining pirate vessels. Victory over the pirates is complete with Jason earning considerable wealth, including female slaves, captured from the pirate fortress. The last part of the book describes Jason as a dominant man of Gor, no longer the Earth wuss who had been controlled by feminist women in a feminist dominated culture. Jason plays match maker, distributing appropriate female love slaves to the heroes of the pirate battle who are now his friends. Because they are slaves, the females fall deeply in love with strong manly men who control and dominate them, much more so than Earth feminist women. Finally, Jason completes his complete enslavement and domination of the former Beverly of New York City, now transformed into a submissive Gorian love slave. Jason gives her a good whipping and makes her grovel at his feet. Miss. Beverly, now transformed into Norman's vision of true femininity, loves her life as Jason's salve and vows to serve him fully and well. I found the book tedious in many places with slow action and long repetitive conversations that could be skipped, especially in the last half. If you're reading the whole Gor series you might enjoy it and it wraps up the 3 Jason books. Tarl Cabot of Port Kar is not mentioned, nor are the Priest Kings or other space aliens, nor the war between Cos and Ar. The Fighting Slave trilogy stands by itself set on Gor as a commentary on Earth men and women. John Norman's commentaries on human sexual instincts and personalities is interesting, though some would disagree with his assessments.