"Gor" Topic

Badly written formulaic books.

Creepy lifestyle.

Did I leave anything out?

How many of the books did you read before you gave up in disgust? I think I may have made it halfway through the third book before I realized they weren't going to get any better.

I only made 30 pages into Thomas Covenant before I threw that stinker against the wall. Is that to be construed as an opinion on relative literary quality? Possibly not. Back in the day DAW books were pretty cheap.

I think you got further than I did with Thomas Convent. Never read Gor probably for the better.

They made me laugh. I didn't realize, when I first read them, that the author was seriously proposing a particular lifestyle…

I remember seeing them in my youth. The covers looked "over-the-top fun", but for some reason, despite the fact that I read a TON of fantasy back then, I never read any Gor.

I made it through number 6 before it got to be too much to ignore.

As long as Cabot had some integrity I could put up with the rest – not unlike reading a historical series set in the decadent days of the Roman Republic.

Of course back in those days I made a point of finishing books that I bought or checked out of the library and tended to automatically pick up books by an author I had considered acceptable in the past.

Interestingly I have never gone back and reread them unlike nearly every other book I own.

I slogged through all of the first and second Covenant books. Second lot were better.

You mean your handle isn't an homage, goragrad?

I read the first and second Covenant trilogies and kept hoping they'd get better. Foolish me. I'm glad to learn I'm not the only one who thought they were lousy.

I sailed through the first six Gor books while still a touch too young to really get what was being portrayed. Book 7 fixed that problem of perception. Eyes open, Book 8 was the right combination of hack writing, obvious lifting of a plot as old as the Romans that it was already ripping off (who else do you think Ar is supposed to represent?), and the switch from trying to resist his fall into dishonor (in 6) to reveling in it that made my decision not to buy 9 an easy one to make.

Thomas Covenant? Three pages.

I got about half way into the first book when I realized what was going on and found it too awful to finish. The Gorean idea of sex destroys all the fun of it. The fun of sex is in the seduction. Branding is not a part of foreplay.

none for Gor…
I tries reading Thomas Covenant in the early '80s.
I decided to finish it (all 3) some 20 yrs later.
It wasnt me (as I had thought), Thomas was an asshole.

After science fiction became mainstream, I've felt Raymond Chandler's knock on mysteries applied with equal force to science fiction (and even more so to fantasy the past fifteen years or more): Most are no worse than the average novel, but the average novel doesn't get published.

As for the specific books, my experience was much the same. I got tried of Covenant's whining in short order and so abandoned the book quickly. Horses for courses and all that, but I can't see how this character could ever draw an audience large enough to justify more books in the series.

I started reading the Tarnsman of Gor when I was in middle school (back then I read everything), and saw no reason to finish what I saw as a very inferior ripoff of Burroughs' Mars and Venus stories.

Four books into Gor then I stopped.

Got about halfway through volume 2 and thought that was enoughmmisogyny for a lifetime, thank you!

I read one of the Gor books. Definitely the way I see the world.

I read both the Thomas Covenant trilogies and liked them. I agree, he could be a real jerk.

Grelber

I still want to game the closing battle in Book 1…

At the bookshop I used to manage out of high school, besides the occult crap we were famous for, we had a nice used book section. I always noticed that men were gaga for Gor, women for romance novels. I found either one unreadable.

Never read the book but watched the movie.

Read the first few books before deciding the main character was an whiney idiot and the side characters weren't much better :/ Unforunately that's also my take on GoT after watching the first season.Never raed Covenant.

I read both Gor and Covenant when I was far too young to take the misogyny of one and the jerk-iness of the other seriously.

Gor series (less slavery rubbish) is great up to Assassin and has the occasional flash after that.

Covenant is just depressing…with the occasional flash of greatness.

Try reading them before you are fourteen.

PS Willard Price's books anyone?

Big thumbs up for Willard Price's "Adventure" series

Never read the book but watched the movie.

Both movies?

Three books then stole Tarns for other campaigns.

Slovene for mountain castle.

Just teasing, goragrad.

There were movies? Do tell. Got links?

Hmmmm….
I Googled the movie. Jack Palance and Oliver Reed? Was any scenery left un-chewed?
One phrase stood out in a review: "scantily clad."

Saw the MST3K version.

I slogged my way through one Gor book and that was enough. I read the first three Thomas Covenant books and that was enough.

I also read 2 1/2 of the Dune books and that was 1/2 too much.