John Norman (1) (1931–)

I read most books all the way through, but not this one. After 104 pages, with another 500+ pages to go, I gave up. Perhaps the reason for my frustration is that historiography and philosophy are two of my main interests, so I was actually looking forward to reading this book. But I found the author's thoughts quite shallow and his restless style irritated me from the beginning, as he constantly jumped back and forth with random ideas and asides without really finishing up on them.

Basically, show more the author's idea is that A) nobody has written a philosophy of historiography before and B) logic and semantics, metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and aesthetics are the five cornerstones of philosophy, therefore C) he's going to write about the logic and semantics of historiography, metaphysics of historiography, epistemology of historiography, axiology of histriography and aesthetics of historiography. At first I thought I must have misunderstood this mission statement. Surely no philosopher could think that such a mechanical approach would be a fruitful way to perform an analysis?

But no, that's actually what the author sets out to do. So he starts the book by trying to write about the logic of historiography. The argument goes nowhere and he's forced to conclude that "there is no special or unique logic to historiography" (p.86). Indeed he's right, there isn't. Moving on to semantics, he ponders the meaning of the word "France". Again the argument unravels completely as he lines up an array of bizarre "thought-experiments". Let's pretend that the population of France is moved to a parallel universe, let's pretend that the French and Argentinean people exchange territories, and (on page 104) let's pretend that the United Nations decrees that France doesn't exist. What is France then?

I assume the eventual conclusion was that there is no special semantics to historiography, either. But at this point I was ready to throw this book out the window. I wasn't going to follow through another confused dead-end argument. The author didn't seem competent to write about the philosophy of historiography and there was no way I could imagine that he would have something interesting to say in the 500 pages I had left. So I bailed out and swore to avoid such bad books in the future.

Contrary to the author's assumptions, there actually are many books on the philosophy of historiography. I would especially recommend these:

Paul Veyne: Writing history
R.G. Collingwood: The idea of history
Moses Finley: Ancient history: Evidence and models
Reinhart Koselleck: The Practice of Conceptual History show less

Another strong novel in this sword-and-planet series. It's not Tolstoy, obviously, but within the limitations of the genre it offers solid action, wordbuilding and, in this case, even character development.

Of course, the series is infamous for the inclusion of the spicy themes of sexual slavery. We are not quite yet at the point where that theme dominates the story, but this novel prepares the terrain for that.

Regarding the character development, at some point of this story the until now show more untouchable, James-Bond-like main character Tarl Cabot chooses humiliation and dishonor over death. This shakes him completely and demolishes his self-image. Therefore he abandons his old ideas of honor and basically turns into a rogue without principles (or at least that's what he repeatedly tells us, although in reality he does not go all the way to villainy).

Other reviewers have complained, quite rightly, that this is out of character for Tarl as the character had been established. He always laughs and is defiant in the face of death, so why not this time, except because the story required it? Even in this same book, he is back acting in the davil-may-care way he always does, and insults his enemies when they have him captured and seem about to kill him. So are we to believe that he did the complete opposite thing when threatened by a bunch of rural bumpkins? I can't really buy it, but I accept it because it brings about welcome character development, making Tarl more interesting than he had been.

I suspect this is going to pave the way for more slavegirl eroticism, unfortunately. Nothing against eroticism, but Norman's interpretation often tends toward dull, extensive lectures on how it's the natural way of things. Anyway, we'll see what happens, but for the moment this gives Tarl more depth and makes him more interesting.

I would give this book five stars (understanding that I judge it within the standards and conventions of the genre), but I'm taking one away for the weary habit of the author to give us long worldbuilding infodumps. The worldbuilding is actually interesting, but these infodumps slow down the story too much. show less

You know, I keep expecting to *not* like these books. In point of fact, I generally hit points that put me on the edge of setting aside the series entirely. Sometimes that's long winded passages about how Goreans measure time, sometimes that's the pretty objectionable endorsement of extreme misogyny and slavery. But then you hit parts like 'We are of one chain', and I can't help but love what John Norman is writing. Its like the old saying goes, people are more than one thing, and contain show more multitudes. In the case of creatives, sometimes that's reflected in the work they generate. I would say, so far at least, this series is worth sticking with and sticking through the parts that you may find more objectionable parts for some of the brilliant gems you're going to come across. show less

It had been seven years since I read the previous volume in the Gor sword-and-planet series, although this one was published in the year after its predecessor (both in the mid-1980s). It returns to the voice of the series' chief protagonist Tarl Cabot, newly on a mission to a besieged town. The non-human intelligences of Counter-Earth (Priest-Kings and Kur) make no appearances in this installment, and receive only the briefest allusive mention.

The geographical details that supported the show more military concerns of this book reminded me that in twenty-three volumes there had never been a map of Gor. Surely the author must have worked one up for his own reference, even if it never was published in any of these books. I was able to find various maps online, but all of them were apparently fan-produced on the basis of the texts, and I didn't consult them while reading.

Typical of these books, the story is mostly concerned with the enslavement of women. These are encountered in two locations: the Crooked Tarn, an inn situated on a military highway, and the prison in the citadel of the town of Ar's Station. The narrator has left his Earthly squeamishness about slavery behind him many volumes since, and he is a frank advocate of it.

The accounts of sexual activity are written with just enough circumspection to allow for a denial--perhaps not a convincing one--that the novel is primarily porn. Still, the world-building is that much more powerful for being largely implicit in this late stage of the series. I am in no hurry to acquire or read the twenty-fourth book, despite or because of finding in this one nearly just what I expected. show less