Mariners of Gor (Gorean Saga)

Hello everyone. This review is from the Kindle version of the book. First off, let me say that I am a long time John Norman fan. Very much at home in the other worldly adventures of Tarl Cabot, et. al, on the World Of Gor. This review also assumes that you have read Swordsmen of Gor (the book before this one). One presumes this is a trilogy but I could be wrong. Norman doesn't give too many hints on where his plot or characters are going from book to book unless it is obvious. The grand adventure starts in Swordsmen where the gigantic ship of Tersites is built; Tarl is compelled to "play nice" with the Pani (and lead them as Commander, of course) and off they go. Mariners is told from two 1st persons point of view, I believe. The main protagonist is Callias from Cos and he play a rather large role in the book. His observations of Tarl Cabot and Tarl's actions and demeanor are pretty cool. "For such an officer one would die" is mentioned a couple of times. Seremides is quite the villain in this book and gets a small come-uppance but you want to definitely get the book to read those passages. The ship sails and takes quite a beating from various forces, internal and external. The book is quite good. It took me a while to figure out who the real villain was in the book so now I'm definitely chomping at the bit for number 31! You would think a story told almost completely on a ship at sea would get boring - nope. John Norman does a good job keeping the action going except, of course, when he goes into his "slave girls are great" spiel. The end of the book is somewhat mellow; very anti-climatic in my opinion. However,one realizes that there has to be another story (called at this time "Conspirators of Gor") so one is inclined to let ending be and get ready for another ride in book 31. Again, I enjoyed reading this book; I think you will too.

Although I always long for Tarl Cabot - the thousand-year warrior - when I read a John Norman book, I must admit this was perhaps the best of those which do not feature Cabot as the protagonist. It is something of an Odyssey-like epic, and the swordsman who is the hero is engaging. (It does help that Cabot is an undisguised background character.) It is also nice to have a character who is not wallowing in his dishonor all the time, even if he has had some setbacks.It was great to see the great ship of Tersites at work at last! That alone is not to be missed.As always, I have to read around the fetish scenes, but it was not too tough, as there was enough other text to make it worth it.This novel makes the reader long for the sequel, but wraps up the individual story, which does not always happen with fantasy.This story only begins to explore the Japanese culture, and I look forward to more in the next book. Exploring adventures in other cultures is half the fun of Gor.

John Norman was a writer of the 60's, not the best writer but what his writings have given to many people is a world that they can read and have come to life in their mind. This gift that have driven many men to be honorable, and women to be sensual to the men they love. If you can read all the books you will enjoy the understanding of a life on Gor. I enjoy reading how Tarl is patient and uses his heart and honor to act in any situation.This book is about the Pani and war, but written from Callis point of view. Callis is from Cos and a very good man, I enjoy reading about his Honorable ways, more so then Tarl. Good book many great quotes and I didn't enjoy the Pani ways. But they did live in it's he worlds end and getting there was a story in it's self.Many people role play from these books and enjoy making Gor come to life in Second life and many other chat rooms.

I have been reading the chronicles of Gor almost twenty years, and often find myself wishing that it were real, that the women obtainable, that the caste system viable and obtainable. One may dream, right?!Mariners of Gor is awesome. Enjoy.

The first six books about Tarl Cabot's Gorean adventures had some of the most imaginative, action-packed battle scenes ever written. The plots were interesting and satisfying. Some objected to a few passages about slave girls and the theory that all women long to the enslaved, but these were a side issue. While understandably objectionable to some readers, these passages could be flipped through and ignored.Mariners of Gor has many passages that almost as good as those first six books. There are many exciting battles, the political machinations are intriguing and we finally get to sail to the end of the world on Tersites ship, something we've waited 30 years to read.Another positive aspect of this novel is that Tarl Cabot is back in original form, not the wimped-out version we read in Kur of Gor.The biggest problem with this book is that it's really only a 300-page novel padded out to 595 pages with long, boring, repetitive passages devoted to Norman's obsession with the theme that all women are natural born slave girls. This ridiculous theory was mildly diverting the first time, tolerable the second and after having to wade through the same scene repeatedly in every book in the series, is now painful in the extreme. Like commercials in broadcast TV, they completely stall the action and kill the plot. I've learned to recognize them from the first few words because they are all so similar and just flip through them.

The book was about. A secondary carater. It starts off mysterious. It ends the way. I expected it to. I like this book!