Book Review: Priest-Kings of Gor (Gor #3) by John Norman

This is the third installment of John Norman's popular and controversial Gor series. Tarl Cabot is the intrepid tarnsman of the planet Gor, a harsh society with a rigid caste system that personifies the most brutal form of social Darwinism. In this volume, Tarl must search for the truth behind the disappearance of his beautiful wife, Talena. Have the ruthless priest-kings destroyed her? Tarl vows to find the answer for himself, journeying to the mountain stronghold of the kings, knowing full well that no one who has dared approach the priest-kings has ever returned alive..

I DID IT!! I finished another book! That seems to be a constant refrain of mine this year. Anyway took me two weeks, but I read this book. It is not a bad book at all. It just my brain is funny these days, and I have no idea what is wrong with my attention span. Maybe I use it all up doing freelance client work then by the time I am done with that for the day my brain don’t wanna focus anymore. Who Knows?

A word of caution: If you are in in way a feminist then you would want to avoid the Goran Saga. I am a Bad Feminist so even though it offends me I just let it slide.

Even though there is a LOT of info dumping here and world building if you haven’t read the first two books in the series, then you will be lost with this one. So I highly recommend you start with the first book Transman of Gor and then proceed from there.

So for this book, our man Tarl is going to the Sardar to face off the Priest-Kings and to find out why they have destroyed his family and city Ko-Ro-Ba. I am not sure what I had in mind when I envisioned a Preist-King, but it sure wasn’t a giant wasp. After reading the description that John Newman provides for some reason a Giant Wasp came into my head and refused to leave. I honestly thought they would be fearsome humans but nope.

Now I can’t unthink the Giant Wasps. How Tarl keep from shitting his pants the first time he saw one I have no idea. I mean if I came face to face with a giant wasp then I probably die of a heart attack right then and there.

The book sloooowly takes us through the process of getting to know thePriest-kings and their ways. It felt slow but probably wasn’t the book is not long at all, but all that info dumping was not done seamlessly. It seemed that info dumping would take pages before anything would happen. I was like come on you are face to face with a giant wasp then u info dump for five pages… Just TELLL me what happens next damnit.

The world building as always in the Goran Saga in fantastic. John Newman was brilliant when he created Gor. I have yet to come across an author who has built such worlds as the early sci-fi people. I mean sure you can world build in 300 pages but to keep it up for 20 somethings novels. THAT takes skill. I sometimes wonder at the people behind the early Sci-Fi and how they came up with the ideas in their heads.

Yes, there are slaves in this book. Human slaves. Women mostly. So like I said if you are in any way offended by a woman being pleasure slaves then stay far far far away from this series. I found it quite fascinating how Newman was able to keep it all consistent across all of his novels. I have found with a series sometimes the author will slip and you will find inconsistencies in the story. Not so with this one.

Overall I enjoyed this book despite taking so damn long to read it.

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