After seven years back on Earth, following the avenues recounted in Tarnsman of Gor, Tarl Cabot returns to Earth’s strange sister planet, Gor. To find that everything has changed, and changed in ways that seem to him bewildering and demoralising. He had looked forward to being reunited with Talena, the woman he loves, but now he despairs of ever seeing her again. And the priest-kings, the mysterious hidden possibly alien rulers of Gor, seem to have plans for him. He has danced to their tune before and did not like it but no-one can defy the will of the priest-kings.
Gorean society is a barbarian society, with odd traces of high technology. Gor should by now have developed a lot more high technology but it is the will of the priest-kings that it should remain an agrarian society, dependent on animal power and with no weaponry more sophisticated than crossbows.
Tarl Cabot is now a man without a city and on Gor that automatically makes a man an outlaw. Tarl decides that maybe it is about time that someone confronted the priest-kings but that means journeying to the Sardar Mountains and to do that he will need a tarn, one of the gigantic birds that serve as a type of winged war-horse. He reasons that the best place to head for is Tharna, the one city on Gor that welcomes strangers (and the one city ruled by women). Heading for Tharna proves to be a costly mistake but at least he finds out why the city welcomes strangers. It’s something he would have been happier not knowing.
Tarl has the usual adventures you expect in a sword-and-planet adventure. There’s no shortage of action.
As was the case with Tarnsman of Gor it is Gorean society that proves to be the most interesting feature of the book. Or more specifically, it is the hero’s ambivalent attitude towards Gor. Tarl Cabot violently disapproves of many aspects of Gorean society and contrasts it unfavourably to the Anglo-American culture in which he was bought up. He considers Gor to be a barbarian society, which of course it is. Despite this Tarl only seems to feel truly alive when he is on Gor, and he loves Gor passionately.
Tarl particularly disapproves of the Gorean treatment of women and most strongly of all he disapproves of the almost universal Gorean institution of female sex slavery. Of all the cities of Gor the one in which he should feel most comfortable is Tharna. Women are largely free in Tharna. And yet he finds Tharna not only to be dull and depressing, but in a strange way to be more barbaric than the other more overtly barbaric cities. He will soon discover just how barbaric Tharna is.
Tarl is an intelligent educated man. He is capable of understanding nuance, and he is capable of understanding just how complicated human beings are. Even an intelligent educated man can find it difficult to comprehend another culture. Tarl’s problem is that there are things he does understand about Gor, but he recoils from that understanding. For example he disapproves of the keeping of women as slaves and yet the women of Gor approve of this institution. Even the women slaves approve of it. To a Gorean woman the one thing worse than being captured and forced into slavery is not being captured and forced into slavery.
Of course many readers find it impossible to get past the slave thing. I suspect that most of those who find Norman’s treatment of the subject offensive either haven’t read the books or have had a knee-jerk reaction of disapproval the moment they encounter it. Norman, a professional philosopher, uses the barbarian society of Gor (including the slavery aspect) to comment on American society in the 1960s and human nature in general. And as in the first novel there’s nothing even remotely graphic of a sexual nature.
Outlaw of Gor is more than just a sequel to Tarnsman of Gor. Gorean society has changed profoundly in the years that Tarl has been away. So Norman has not just created a fascinatingly different alien society, he has created a dynamic changing society. It will be intriguing to see if there are further changes in the third novel in the series (a copy of which I have already ordered).
And like the first book Outlaw of Gor is a pretty decent sword-and-planet adventure tale as well. Recommended.
Actually, I suspect that a fair number of readers enjoyed the first few Gor books before the sexual slavery thing became rather more central. I remember really liking the first three, which seem to form a nice trilogy and even the next one... I was in seventh or eighth grade and even then a pattern emerged. I read the jacket text on a non-Gor book of Norman's I found in the school library - Ghost Dance (1970)- and discovered that it also involved a woman learning to submit to a dominant warrior man. Maybe there was more great world building in later Gor books, but I gave up around #5.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kingmaker's comment and with your review above. I thoroughly enjoyed the early GOR books and couldn't understand why he was criticised, then it all falls apart from about no.4 onwards and becomes BDSM fiction. A great pity as Norman was clearly talented at creating imaginary cultures and producing solidly-crafted adventure fiction. Mind you, like Kingmaker, I haven't tried any of the later books - there are 35 so far! - so maybe I should give him another try.
ReplyDeleteSorry Thingmaker - I got your name wrong in the comment above. Sincere apologies - I'll wear glasses next time! Alaryn.
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