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3.0 out of 5 stars
What happens when a story lines grinds sadly to a close?, Jan 19 2004
I am writing this review after having read the sequel, "Witness of Gor". The sequel actually revives for me the story line that seems to peter out in "Magicians of Gor". The previous novels all lead up to this one, the tragic suborning of the greatest city on Gor--"glorious Ar"--by the treacherous opponents of Marlenus of Ar, in collusion with the forces of the island nations, Tyros and Cos. Thus, one is expecting something of an epic conclusion. Only one does not get it. The story drags through the sordid occupation of the once great city by her ancestral enemies. It details the treachery of Marlenus' cast-off daughter (and one-time free companion of Tarl Cabot) Talena, the rewriting of history by Tyros and Cos to depict the heroic defense of Ar's Port city-Ar's Station-by its garrison as cowardly and derelict, and the rejection of Ar's citizens of her own glorious heritage. The only really bright points in this story are 1) the efforts of Cabot and another defender of Ar's Station to recover that city's home stone from its place of ignominy in Ar, where citizens spit upon it regularly, 2) Cabot's formation of "The Delta Brigade", a band of veterans of the disastrous Delta expedition as a resistance force, and 3) Cabot's determination to subjugate the treacherous Talena to his own masculine will once more-as an act of abduction and rape in reprisal for the contempt she had shown him earlier, when he lay paralyzed from the stroke of a poisoned weapon, and for her treason to her home stone and her father-Ar's greatest Ubar. Yet even these three elements could barely save the book's virtues for me. Having been dragged breathlessly through every one of the previous 24 Gor novels, I found myself struggling, wading, and forcing myself through the final third of this one. Norman's naturalistic philosophy of male dominance and female submission became too much the center of the story, or the subject of wide-ranging discourses, even though, by this time, all of us devoteés of Norman's works are as fully apprised of this culture as we can be. And we have either bought into it or not. I was thus somewhat disappointed. Still, ANY Gor book is better than none, and "Magicians of Gor" does paint a critical chapter in the history of Gor. Its sequel lets us know, moreover, that we may want to go back and reread this one, and tells us, finally, that the author has not abandoned the task of completing the series.
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