Kur of Gor [Paperback]

This is the 28th book in the lengthy "Gorean saga" of SF/Fantasy novels. Up to now these have been set mostly on the planet Gor, which supposedly shares the orbit of Earth but on the opposite side of the sun so that our astronomers cannot detect it.

And at long, long last, after a wait of about 21 years, we finally get the next major installment in Tarl Cabot's story.

Tarl Cabot - presumably pronounced "Cabbo" since he was born in Bristol and apparently related to the famous Bristol family of explorers, and as a former Bristol resident I can confirm that's how that surname is pronounced in Bristol - is the main hero of the series, but this is the first book since 1988 which has concentrated on the story from his perspective.

This book differs from the previous books in the series in two respects: first, it is told in the third person by a narrator who is never identified. Indeed, the narrator speaks of the human race in the third person and I wondered if he or she would turn out to be a member of one of the alien races in the book but this was never confirmed or refuted.

Secondly, none of the action of this story takes place on either Earth or Gor: this book is set entirely in space. It starts on the "Prison Moon" which is an artificial satellite of the planet Gor which is used as a prison by the rulers of Gor. But the action soon moves to one of the "Steel Worlds" which are artificial habitats in this system's asteroid belt.

This is the first "Gor" book for about thirty years which in my humble opinion comes anything close to the standard of the first thirteen or so books in the series.

The first 25 books in the saga were published between 1969 and 1988. Then after a long gap, John Norman published two more novels in the "noughties" but both "Witness of Gor (Gorean Saga)" and "Prize of Gor" are narrated in the first person by slave girls whose sufferings and experiences were incidental to the wars, revolutions, and inter-species conflicts which the story arcs of the previous books described. And frankly, both are indifferent 700 page books, inside which a moderately good, much shorter book is struggling to get out and which will have disappointed most mainstream fans of the Gor series.

"Kur of Gor" is an entirely different kettle of fish, resuming the story of Tarl Cabot as the major character. Apart from being narrated in the third person, this is much like the last half-dozen or so Tarl Cabot books and has some of the flashes of brilliance which characterised books like "Priest-Kings of Gor: Volume III in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth" and "Tribesmen of Gor: The Tenth Book of the Saga of Tarl Cabot."

In all the Gor books from about number fourteen onwards, you have to wade through page after page of male supremacist lectures in support of enslaving women to get to the heroism, courage and action of the story. But at least compared with the last two efforts, "Kur of Gor" is back to the situation where the story is most of the book.

To understand what is going on in "Kur of Gor" you really need to have have read a good chunk of the previous 27 books in the series. If you haven't, do not touch this with the proverbial barge-pole. To describe the book I will have to refer to a number of places, characters and races with which we share this solar system according to John Norman's narrative, e.g.

PLACES

Gor (or "Counter Earth") - an artificial earthlike planet which shares Earth's orbit but on the opposite side of the sun. Apparently maintained in this position by the rulers of the planet, a high-tech nonhuman race called "Priest-Kings."

The Prison Moon - third satellite of Gor, which as the name suggests is used by the Priest Kings as a (supposedly) maximum-security prison

The Steel Worlds - a series of artificial habitats in the system's asteroid belts, built and maintained by a rival high-tech nonhuman race called the Kurri.

Ar - greatest city on Gor, recently conquered and as at book 27, still occupied.

Port Kar - a coastal city: main "industries" are piracy and slave trading. Tarl Cabot made this city his home from books 6 to 20.

Sardar - a mountain range near the city of Tharna where the Priest Kings have their nest and centre of power.

CHARACTERS

Tarl Cabot - narrator and anti-hero of the majority of books in the series, central character (but not narrator) of this one. Originally from Bristol, then Ko-Ro-bar on Gor. Also known as Bosk of Port Kar, where he made his home from books six to twenty, but has been an outlaw since then because someone seems to have persuaded the Priest-Kings (see below) that he had betrayed them.

Zarendargar (which means "Half-ear") - a war general of the Kurri. Was commander of a Kurri invasion base in book twelve, Beasts of Gor. Lost power and became a hunted fugitive for a time after getting the worst of an encounter with Tarl Cabot. However, Zarendargar and Tarl Cabot regard one another as worthy enemies, even when both paid a price for treating the other honorably. Zarendargar is now rumoured to have returned to the steel worlds and to be back in a position of power.

SPECIES

Priest-Kings - reclusive rulers of Gor, and apparently also creators of the planet. They live in the Sardar mountain range and rarely allow themselves to be seen by humans. Have promulgated laws banning certain forms of technology, for example "forbidden weapons" such as guns. Worshipped as gods by most of the human population of the planet. Some others wrongly assume that they are mythical: if this leads them to break the laws of the Priest-Kings by using forbidden technology, this may be the last mistake they make.

Kurii or "Others" - another space travelling race, who are large, furry and extremely fierce carnivores. Cruel and bloodthirsty but capable of honour. Appear to have blown up or otherwise destroyed their original home planet, possibly in a civil war, and now looking for a replacement. Consequently plotting to conquer Gor, but often divided among themselves: for example, one Kur, at the cost of his own life, worked with Tarl Cabot to frustrate a plot by others of his kind to blow up the entire planet in book ten.

At the start of "Kur of Gor", Tarl Cabot wakes in a glass cell on the Prison Moon. He appears to have been captured and imprisoned there by the Priest Kings, shortly after the events of "Magicians of Gor" and "Prize of Gor". Tarl Cabot was warned by a friend in book 20 that the Priest Kings think he has turned traitor. The narrator of this book, who is never identified, offers an opinion about why the rulers of Gor might have lockup up Tarl as a traitor - but I don't think we are meant to take for granted that this opinion is correct.

A few days later, two human females are introduced into Tarl Cabot's cage, one from Earth and the other from one of the "Steel Worlds" where she was the "pet" of an important Kur. Readers of earlier books featuring the Kurri will not be surprised when they react rather vigorously to the abduction of their property, and soon afterwards an old friend and enemy, General Zarendargar, drops in to see Tarl.

Shortly thereafter, he finds himself on one of the asteroid belt habitats of the Kurri. And caught up in a very bloody civil war ...

If you don't follow the references in this review, don't buy the book because you won't understand "Kur of Gor" either. I would advise anyone who is thinking of reading any of John Norman's "Gor" books to start at the beginning with "Tarnsman of Gor" and work through until you reach this one, lose interest, or lose your temper. And there is a good chance that it will be the latter.

For me the first book was good, numbers two through six were excellent, but then the series gradually goes downhill. As I have mentioned, to get to the flashes of imagination and excitement which made the first few books fun to read, you have to wade through ever more interminable male supremacist lectures calling for the enslavement of all women.

Yes, you really did read that correctly. And the endless repetition of the case for making women slaves eventually gets quite boring and almost makes you wonder if Norman actually means it. And, perhaps worse, while there were a few interesting female characters in books one to thirteen, those in the later books are increasingly stereotyped as one of two basic types: "good slave girl" or "treacherous slave girl."

But at least compared with the last two efforts, "Kur of Gor" is back to the situation where the story is two-thirds of the book and you only have to wade through a couple of hundred pages of "women belong naked in a slave collar!" If you're reading the books for the adventure, this is a big improvement on two hundred pages of story buried in five hundred pages of "women belong naked in a slave collar!"

Book 29, "Swordsmen of Gor" is now out and is another Tarl Cabot story which follows on directly from the end of "Kur of Gor." It includes several things which we've been awaiting for literally decades and assumed John Norman had forgotten - for example, the master shipwright Tersites, a mad genius, finally gets to build the ship which he was trying to persuade the Council of Captains in Port Kar to commission as far back as book 6, first published nearly forty years ago! It also significantly increases the "women belong naked in a slave collar" element compared with "Kur of Gor" so those who buy the books for this will be pleased with it, while those who think Norman is seriously overdoing it wil sigh with weary resignation ...

For reference, the full series in its' proper sequence is

1) "Tarnsman of Gor" - Tarl Cabot first comes to Gor
2) "Outlaw of Gor" - Tarl returns to Gor to find his home city destroyed
3) "Priest-Kings of Gor" - Tarl meets the alien rulers of the planet
4) "Nomads of Gor" - a search for the stolen last egg of the Priest-Kings
5) "Assassin of Gor" - a plot to restore Marlenus as Ubar of Ar
6) "Raiders of Gor" - Tarl Cabot becomes known as Bosk of Port Kar
7) "Captive of Gor" - Elinor Brinton from Earth meets an alien monster (K)
8) "Hunters of Gor" - Tarl hunts for his lost love Talena in the forest
9) "Maurauders of Gor" - of Viking raiders and the monstrous "Others"
10) "Tribesmen of Gor" - of a Doomsday weapon in the deserts of Gor
11) "Slave girl of Gor" - with a warning of invasion hidden in her head (K)
12) "Beasts of Gor" - of an invasion base at the North Pole of Gor
13) "Explorers of Gor" - Tarl Cabot explores the equatorial jungle
14) "Fighting Slave of Gor" - part one of the Jason Marshall trilogy
15) "Rogue of Gor" - part two of the Jason Marshall trilogy
16) "Guardsman of Gor" - part three of the Jason Marshall trilogy
17) "Savages of Gor" - the Kurii stir up trouble on the plains, part one
18) "Blood brothers of Gor" - trouble on the plains, part two
19) "Kajira of Gor" - Tiffany is brought to Gor to impersonate a Queen (K)
20) "Players of Gor" - of Gorean chess, drama, and war between Cos and Ar
21) "Mercenaries of Gor" - the invasion force from Cos moves against Ar
22) "Dancer of Gor" - a librarian from earth is caught up in a war on Gor (K)
23) "Renegades of Gor" - Ar's war against Cos begins to go badly wrong
24) "Vagabonds of Gor" - Ar's soldiers meet disaster in the Vosk Delta
25) "Magicians of Gor" - Ar has been conquered - but resistance begins
26) "Witness of Gor" - a girl planted in Treve to look out for a prisoner (K)
27) "Prize of Gor" - Cos's puppet regime in Ar starts to look shaky (K)
28) "Kur of Gor" - Tarl Cabot is taken to one of the Kurri "Steel Worlds"
29) "Swordsmen of Gor" - Back on Gor, Tarl trains an army, Tersites builds a ship

Books with a (K) after the description are "Kajira" novels (Kajira is Gorean for "Slave girl") e.g. these novels are narrated by a slave girl and tell her story. Books 14 to 16 are narrated by a man called Jason Marshall and tell his story. All the other books have Tarl Cabot as the central character and, prior to this one, are told in the first person by him.

Norman's greatest strength is not that he is a particularly good writer, and the prose in this work is sometimes quite impenetrable. It is the breadth of his imagination, to bring to life creatures like huge birds (the tarns of Gor, which do not appear in this novel) which can be trained to carry a warrior on their backs, and in particular his ability to set your own imagination off. This book often does do that. I particularly like some of his battle and fight scenes. This is the first "Gor" book for 21 years in which he actually makes use of that imagination, for which I, and I suspect most of the rest of his readership, read the books.

Been a LONG time coming. Not only do we have a Tarl Cabot book, but we have a book that focuses on the story and action, rather than on the endless lectures of women really being slaves at heart.

Oh, there is still that ongoing lecture, done both in dialogue and simple musings by the omnipotent 3rd person narrator. But it is only about 1/3 of the book, rather than 3/4 or so as in the later books in the series. If you are like me, and got adept at skimming the page after page of lecture, then you can apply that easily with this book. If you LIKE the lectures, and view the story as an unwanted diversion, well, there is plenty of the slave stuff to chew on. Something for everyone, I guess.

Norman returns to the story of Tarl Cabot, the warrior of a generation, once of Ko Ro Ba, now of Port Kar. Tarl, though Norman never just comes out and says it, is probably the baddest human in existance. He has been through a litany of "trainings" as he visited place after place in the Gor series, assimilating and learning the cultures and fighting styles of varied peoples. Gorean versions of Native Americans, Vikings, and Nomadic Wagon Peoples, among others, have all donated to his training. I think Norman has an ultimate plan for Tarl, and this visit to the Kur worlds adds to his expertise in all things Gorean. Marlenus of Ar, once Ubar or king of Gor's largest city, may be his match, maybe not.

Anyway, welcome back, Tarl Cabot. The wait was worth it....Norman can do violence and mayhem as well as anyone.

This book could be rated in many different ways. I've rated it simply as I enjoyed it, as what it meant for me. 5-stars.

If you're not a John Norman fan, don't want to know about all the history nearly 30 books in a series can provide, the idea of females as slaves turns you off, or simply hate books with words you need to look up (Mr. Norman loves finding/using obscure words) not the book for you.

But, if you like any or all of those things (learning new words alone could recommend this book) then this is a book for you.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over history or how I am one of those people who like John Norman's work and have followed it over the last 30 years. I read my first Gor series book back in the mid-eighties when there were just 12 books. I tore through those as fast as money allowed. Once caught up, I followed each release with excitement. Then... a long wait. I'm just glad that wait is over and his old characters, his old style, are all back and honestly as good as ever.

Over the series the books there have been taken from many different angles. In this one, from the point of apparently the Kurii (read the book...) which is something so few authors ever try. This makes for a very interesting read to see how such a story could have been translated (at least that's the idea) from an alien mind into English. While I'd love to have seen more lose threads tied up (pun sort of intended...) the starting of new threads was exciting to believe there is more to come. If that new stuff keeps up what this book throws down, then I'll add this to one more reason to own a Kindle!

Anyway, I'm a fan and I truly enjoyed this book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  3.3 out of 5 stars