Gor is the name of the fictional planet that forms the backdrop for John Norman’s ongoing series of fantasy novels The Gorean Saga. The series is famous (or perhaps infamous) for its extremely prevalent themes of male domination and female submission.
To be clear, the books aren’t erotica. There’s actually very little sex. What there is instead is a lavishly-described imaginary world where men are (almost always) powerful warriors, and women are (almost always) proud but achingly submissive pleasure slaves.
Some people find this world and its customs so appealing that they incorporate elements from the books into their real-world BDSM dynamic. Interesting, right?
Unfortunately the books are long, tedious and repetitive. They’re not a fun read. So, to save you the trouble of wading through Norman’s tortured prose, I’m going to read them all for you. Below you’ll find summaries of the books I’ve covered so far, with a particular focus on content that might be of interest to a kinky reader.
A caveat
One warning before we begin: many people find The Gorean Saga quite gross and problematic – kinky folk included. There are times when the content veers from an appealing softcore fantasy into a violent teen wet dream.
The Gor novels are definitely not texts by which to calibrate your approach to kink… but the exaggerated, violent fantasy world might nonetheless prove interesting.
1. Tarnsman of Gor
Worth reading? Yes
Year of release: 1966
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“Bound in the saddle in front of me, drugged, her head completely covered with a slave hood buckled under her chin, was a girl. It was Sana, the Tower Slave whom I had seen on my first day in Gor…”
Summary
Mild-mannered lecturer Tarl Cabot is abducted by a UFO during a hike. He wakes up on Gor – an Earth-like planet where men are warriors, women are sex slaves, and a mysterious race of “Priest Kings” use superior technology to keep the world in check.
Cabot embraces his new life. He learns to ride a tarn (big, smart dragon-like creature) and goes on a series of wild adventures involving politics, intrigue, fantasy monsters and beautiful yet slavish women.
Just as he’s starting to enjoy himself, he wakes up one day back on gloomy old Earth.
Notes
This book is heavy on the action and impeccably well-paced. It’s a solid fantasy adventure with restrained but intriguing sexy themes – the pleasure slave element of Gorean culture is mentioned often, but not given more weight than any other bit of world-building.
The prose is solid, and the plot is interesting. Tarl Cabot seems like a more-or-less decent chap with a chivalrous streak and good grasp on his baser instincts. One of the strongest novels in the series.
2. Outlaw of Gor
Worth reading? Yes
Year of release: 1967
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“The words came hard to her. ‘Would I be… exhibited?’
‘Of course,’ I said.
‘… unclothed?’
’Perhaps you will be permitted to wear slave bracelets,” I snapped in irritation.
She looked as though she might swoon.”
Summary
Tarl Cabot isn’t adjusting well to life back on Earth. No problem, though, because he soon finds himself back on Gor. But it’s not the Gor he remembers – his adopted home city of Ko-ro-ba is mysteriously missing, and everyone is being weird and unfriendly.
Cabot stumbles into Tharna, a city where women are in charge. Bizarre, eh? Through a series of misadventures he topples said matriarchy, resulting in the ruling class of women becoming pleasure slaves, which is (it turns out) okay because they actually sort of prefer it that way.
Notes
This novel is well-paced and has some brilliant world-building and compelling set pieces. The action is undermined, though, by the fact that Cabot never really feels like’s he’s in danger, never struggles with anything, and is just a bit too much of a cool fantasy author-insert to be believable.
We spend a lot of time listening to Cabot muse about the superiority of men over women, and how a woman might be happiest on a leash. It’s fun to read as it’s not too intense, fits the setting of Gor, and is kept in balance by the relentless pace of the book.
3. Priest-Kings of Gor
Worth reading? Maybe
Year of release: 1968
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“When a possible buyer would stop in front of one, one of the bearded scoundrels of Port Kar would poke her with a slave whip and she would life her head and numbly repeat the ritual phrase of the inspected slave girl: ‘Buy me, Master.’”
Summary
The mysterious, all-powerful Priest Kings of Gor appear to be responsible for fucking up Tarl Cabot’s adopted home city of Ko-ro-ba. Pissed and puzzled, Cabot sets off to have a word with them in their mysterious mountain lair (from which no man has ever returned alive).
The Priest Kings turn out to be… weird. They’re big gross insects who keep humans as slaves (but not the sexy kind). We also meet Vika of Treve – a pleasure slave who Tarl sees as a real bad egg because she sometimes seduces and enslaves men.
Our hero has some will-he-won’t-he (will he fuck/kill/enslave her) tension with Vika, and gets involved in Priest King politics. He lives in a big hamster cage for a while. He runs around the nest, starts a war, briefly turns off gravity, and then decides to ditch Vika and go in search of his love interest from the first book.
Notes
Honestly, it’s kind of bananas. There’s a little bit of vaguely sexy content, but we spend a lot of time palling around with giant centipedes. The world-building is pretty strong, but it’s never clear why Cabot is doing any of the things he’s doing. What’s at stake? I have no idea.
If you’re mainly interested in Gor for the sexy content, you could probably skip this book. If you’re reading mainly for a wild fantasy adventure, go for it. We also learn quite a bit about how Gor works, so do read if you want to better understand the world of Gor.
4. Nomads of Gor
Worth reading? No
Year of release: 1969
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“The institution of freedom for women, I decided, as many Goreans believed, was a mistake.”
Summary
Tarl Cabot forgets completely that he’s looking for his love interest from the first book. Now he’s in search of the egg of the Priest-Kings. It’s the last hope for the continuation of the Priest-Kings as a race, and he is super invested in finding it.
It’s probably in the care of the wagon peoples, so Tarl goes to pal around with them for a while. There’s a whole bunch of exciting fantasy shenanigans: war, attempted assassinations, actual assassinations, and something called the Love War (games where multiple tribes fight to win beautiful female sex slaves off one another).
Eventually (SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS) he finds the egg and takes off with Elizabeth Cardwell – a timid secretary from Earth who becomes a passionate and fulfilled slave when she’s unexpectedly transported to Gor.
Notes
This book feels a bit more sane than the last one. We’re back in good old classic fantasyland with lots of intrigue, warring factions, lost treasures and daring escapes from weird yellow gelatinous monsters.
There’s a background hum of Gorean slavery stuff, but it’s not a big part of the book. If that’s the main reason you’re interested, skip this entry.
Tarl Cabot is also becoming a little bit irritating. He’s so nice and honourable that he won’t even enslave a woman when she’s begging him to do so. Instead he has to free her, reject her, make her fall in love with him and then have her willingly surrender herself into slavehood. It’s meant to be an elegant dance of desire and ownership, but mihgod it gets tedious pretty quickly.
5. Assassin of Gor
Worth reading? Yes
Year of release: 1970
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“I heard the tearing of a veil and heard a girl scream and turned to see her lips being raped by the kiss of a Warrior, and then she was yielding to him; the crowd went wild; here and there was the cry of a woman in the throng who was seized by those near her; one girl tried to flee and was dragged screaming by the ankle to the foot of a tier…”
Summary
Tarl Cabot has been murdered. Sad times. A mysterious assassin, keen for vengeance, travels to the city of Ar to find the killer. Then (BIG SPOILER) we find out the assassin is, in fact, Tarl himself – now on a covert mission to work out who has it in for him.
He’s pretty bad at investigative work though. He and his subservient/empowered woman-of-the-moment spend months swanning around Ar, getting good at tarn racing and Gor chess and watching passively as political intrigue goes on. Some guy called Cernus is making a grab for power.
Just as this grab seems like it might be a successful one, Tarl finally gets his shit together and does something about it. There’s a big old revolution and the good guys end up in charge once more. Phew.
Notes
This is actually a genuinely good read. We’re pretty immersed in the world of the story by this stage, and Norman goes a good job of giving us more detail (particularly detail relating to the acquisition, training and treatment of slaves) whilst not holding up the plot.
The characters which pepper the story are interesting, and much to my surprise I found myself genuinely invested in their lives and struggles. There are some interesting sci-fi ideas as well that I’m keen to see explored further.
The content isn’t overtly sexy, but it has its moments. Norman’s flirty dialogue makes me want to die, but beyond this there are plenty of moments that should make the average kinky person’s ears prick up.
6. Raiders of Gor
Worth reading? No
Year of release: 1971
Protagonist: Tarl Cabot
Available from: Amazon
“‘A slave,’ I informed her, ‘will take whatever abuse a free person chooses to inflict upon them.’
Telima stepped back, regarding Midice.
‘Yes, Midice,’ she said, ‘all things considered, I think you will make an excellent slave.'”
Summary
For no particular reason, Tarl Cabot strikes out into the marshy wilds in search of the piratical city of Port Kar. While poking about in a canoe he is captured and enslaved by the rence-harvesting peasants of the marshes, and it is – to say the least – v bad for his mental health.
Of course, it’s not long before Tarl finds himself back in a position of power. Destroyed by the humiliation of having been enslaved, he starts behaving like a bit of a dick… but then also (almost accidentally) reforms and then saves the city of Port Kar.
By the end of the story we learn that the Priest-Kings might not yet be done with Mr Cabot, and that he’s totally a real strong cool guy even if he did lose his mind for a bit after being collared and made to wash the dishes.
Notes
Not much of consequence happens in this instalment of the Gorean Saga, but it’s still a decent read. It’s interesting to see our hero enslaved and even more interesting when he becomes a complete wanker afterwards.
There are some interesting naval battles, lots of swashbuckling and fantasy combat, and some cool characters that are (one has to note) basically rebrands of characters from previous books in the series.
The slavery element in this is a little more on the surface and a little more brutal, but it’s not really the main focus and it doesn’t reveal much about Gorean slavery that we don’t know already. An entirely average read.
7. Captive of Gor
Worth reading? No
Year of release: 1972
Protagonist: Elinor Brinton
Available from: Amazon
“On Earth I had been unpleasant, petulant, and irritable, the common symptoms of the woman who had not been mastered. Then, on Gor, I had found masters; I had been stripped, and knelt, and collared, and fulfilled. I here, without options, choiceless, must set myself to obey men, and please them to the best of my ability.”
Summary
Elinor Brinton – a rich, dense, personality vacuum of a woman, is kidnapped from Earth and transported to Gor, where she becomes a willing/unwilling slave. She initially rebels against this fate, but secretly finds it very thrilling. After a lot of back and forth she drops the pretence and just admits that she likes being a slave.
That’s pretty much it. Right at the end of the novel some plot happens. She’s involved in some political intrigue, but ends up back with the boy she likes, after a brief encounter with Tarl Cabot.
Really, though, absolutely nothing of any significance happens in this book.
Notes
This is John Norman’s first attempt to write from a female perspective, and mihgod it is extremely awful. Elinor gushes for page after page after page about how ashamed she is to be a slave and how much it secretly turns her on. Which is entertaining at first, but then it just keeps on going: endless, repetitive and lacking in imagination.
The narrative is so dull and lacking in content that it’s a relief when something finally does actually happen at the very end of the novel. But then the book almost immediately ends.
While the other Gor novels thus far have also had some decent fantasy elements, this one is basically just the meandering internal monologue of an extremely dull character.
That’s all for now…
This piece is a work in progress. At the time of writing there are 37 novels in The Gorean Saga… and none of them are particularly short. I’m currently reading volume eight, Hunters of Gor, and will update this piece once I’ve finished it.
In the meantime, why not pass the time with some more sophisticated literature?
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This is the kink version of rick rolling lol (the link at the end).
That’s pretty much exactly what I was shooting for. How pleasing!
Still workin on this? Please continue as I won’t read them all but love this post.
Still ploughing my way through. Currently on the first novel written from a woman’s perspective. It is, to say the least, heavy going… but I’m enjoying it a lot!
How can you read these books?! We tried, after we’d found the pictures of the slave positions, which we gathered to our (my) bosom and still have great fun with me being made to assume them, so we thought we’d give them a go. Jeez Louise! I found I’d rather gnaw off my one leg. It was as bad as Ford and Arthur feel when they’re forced to listen to Vogon poetry. But thanks for reading it – at least as you say, we no longer have to!
They have their moments… but for the most part they’re a slog to get through. I can generally convince myself to keep going for research purposes… but, yes, not a particularly edifying read!