Mariners of Gor (Gorean Saga Book 30)

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.

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.

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.

One of the better books in the Gorean Saga. The author constantly drifts off story into his Bondage Fantasies. This one was told from perspective of an average soldier, which is far superior to ANY of the authors attempts to tell the story from the perspective of a Kajira (slave girl). I basically speed read these books and skip over all the wandering bondage/female slavery that he repeats over and over and over and over again throughout hundreds of pages. He needs to re-hire the editor that he used on the first 6-8 books when they originally came out. This book like the most in the series could have been shortened by 60% and still told the story while keeping the reader more interested.

This is the 30th book in the lengthy "Gorean saga" of SF/Fantasy novels. These stories are set mostly on the planet Gor, which supposedly shares the orbit of Earth but on the opposite side of the sun so that our astronomers cannot detect it.In 2009, after a wait of some 21 years, John Norman finally published another installment in the story of the main character in the series, Tarl Cabot, which was called " Kur of Gor " and takes place entirely in space, mostly in the asteroid belt settlements known as the Steel Worlds. It was followed by " Swordsmen of Gor: Gor Book 29 " which took up Tarl Cabot's adventures where "Kur of Gor" left off, beginning with his return to Gor.This book in turn continues the story of a great expedition which was launched in "Swordsmen of Gor" and in which Tarl Cabot crosses the great ocean, Thassa, in a huge ship of what for Goreans is radically new design. "Mariners of Gor" is largely narrated by one of Tarl's companions on the voyage, and it is the first book in the series told from the viewpoint of a participant other than Tarl Cabot in which he is nevertheless a major character.The first 25 books in the Gorean saga were published between 1969 and 1988. Then after a long gap, John Norman published two more novels in the "noughties" but both " Witness of Gor (Gorean Saga) " and " Prize of Gor " are narrated in the first person by slave girls whose sufferings and experiences were incidental to the wars, revolutions, and inter-species conflicts which the story arcs of the previous books described. And frankly, both are indifferent 700 page books, inside which a moderately good, much shorter book is struggling to get out and which will have disappointed many mainstream fans of the Gor series."Kur of Gor" was an entirely different kettle of fish, resuming the story of Tarl Cabot as the major character. It had a lot of action, although like all the Gor books from about number fourteen onwards, you have to wade through page after page of philosophical lectures in favour of male superiority to get to the heroism, courage and action of the story.Books 29 and 30 (this one) carry that story forward, and have more flashes of brilliance, but the amount of "women should be slaves" material in "Swordsmen of Gor" and "Mariners of Gor" is rather higher than in book 28.To understand what is going on in "Mariners of Gor" it is essential to have read the previous one, "Swordsmen of Gor" and very helpful to have have read a good chunk of the previous 28 books in the series. If you haven't, do not touch this with the proverbial barge-pole. To give a basic introduction to the series, here is a list of places, characters and races with which we share this solar system according to John Norman's narrative, e.g.PLACESGor (or "Counter Earth") - an artificial earthlike planet which shares Earth's orbit but on the opposite side of the sun. Maintained in this position by the rulers of the planet, a high-tech nonhuman race called "Priest-Kings."The Steel Worlds - a series of artificial habitats in the system's asteroid belts, built and maintained by a rival high-tech nonhuman race called the Kurri (also sometimes known as the "Others.")Ar - greatest city on Gor, recently lost a major war against the cities of Cos and Tyros, was occupied for a time, but in book 29 we learned that Ar has thrown out the occupying forces.Brundisium - a coastal harbour city not too far from Ar.Ko-Ro-ba - a city on Gor where Tarl Cabot's father is administrator. Razed to the ground by order of the Priest-Kings between books one and two: subsequently however they allowed it to be rebuilt.Port Kar - a coastal city: main "industries" are piracy and slave trading. Tarl Cabot made this city his home from books 6 to 20 and references in this book suggest that he still considers Port Kar to be his home.Cos - an island empire in the Thassa ocean: long-standing enemy of both Ar and Port Kar. With the overthrow of her puppet regime in Ar, and the expulsion of her mercenary occupying army, Cos appears to have lost her mainland territorial gains from the recent war and to be suffering a serious post-war economic recession, but remains a major maritime power on Thassa.Jad - main city of Cos.Thassa - a large ocean to the west and north of mainland Gor. Galleys and "round ships" using Roman era technology operate along the coast, and as far west as the "Farther Islands," Chios, Daphna and Thera. Beyond that point the ocean is too wide and dangerous to be crossed by ships of this technological level. The main sea powers on Thassa are the island empires of Cos and Tyros, and the pirate city of Port Kar.Sardar - a mountain range near the city of Tharna where the Priest Kings have their nest and centre of power.River Alexandra - major navigable river running through the vast forests in the northern part of the main continent. It feeds into Thassa a long way North of Ar. The "Great Ship of Tersites" was built and lauched at a Pani camp adjacent to this river in the previous book in the series.River Vosk - a major navigable river. It feeds into Thassa via a large delta where Ar's army lost a major battle to Cos during the recent war.CHARACTERSTarl Cabot - narrator and anti-hero of the majority of books in the series, a major character in this one. Originally from Bristol, then Ko-Ro-bar on Gor. Has been known by several other names, particularly "Bosk of Port Kar" after the city where he made his home from books six to twenty, but had been an outlaw from books 20 to 28 because someone apparently persuaded the Priest-Kings (see below) that he had betrayed them.Marlenus - sometime Ubar (Emperor) of Ar. Has been both ally and enemy to Tarl Cabot, who helped overthrow him in book one and restore him to power again in book five. Father of Talena, and hence formerly the Gorean equivalent of father-in-law to Tarl Cabot: and boy, was he the father-in-law from hell.Marlenus mysteriously disappeared a few books ago, which is one of the reasons Ar was defeated and conquered in books 21-25. At one stage he was a prisoner in Treve and had lost his memory, but accounts in the book before this one told us that he recently regained his memory and immediately led a revolution which expelled the occupying forces and returned him to power in Ar.Talena - daughter of Marlenus. Tarl Cabot carried her off and married her in book one, and then lost her when Ko-Ro-Ba was destroyed. There is a lot of history between them since then. After Cos and her allies conquered Ar, in book 25 they appointed Talena as their puppet ruler of the city. In that book Tarl Cabot tricked her into becoming his slave again, quietly filed the paperwork which proved this in such a way that nobody noticed, but left Talenda on the throne, apparently intending to reclaim her at some future stage. We learn early in "Mariners of Gor" that Talena will figure in this story. Talenda is an exceptionally beautiful woman with smooth olive skin and dark hair, who was once a slave in Treve and therefore has the Treve slave brand on her thigh. More information on the backstory about how Talena comes to be in a position to be a character of this book will be briefly coverered in book 32, "Smugglers of Gor."Tersites - a brilliant but half-mad and half-blind shipwright who Tarl Cabot previously met in book six " Raiders of Gor " which was first published in 1971. Back then he tried to persuade the Council of Captains in Port Kar to commission him to build an enormous ship of radically new design. At that stage almost nobody took the idea seriously, but a powerful figure in Port Kar who has close links to the Priest Kings told Tarl Cabot at the very end of book six that they wanted Tersites' ship built for a mission "Beyond the world's end" e.g. over the ocean at a distance beyong the range of existing Gorean ships. I think 40 years is probably a record for an author to get around to implementing an obvious hint about a future book, but in "Swordsmen of Gor" the ship was finally built and this volume describes her voyage ...SPECIES and RACESPriest-Kings - reclusive rulers of Gor, and apparently also creators of the planet. They live in the Sardar mountain range and rarely allow themselves to be seen by humans. Have promulgated laws banning certain forms of technology, for example "forbidden weapons" such as guns. Worshipped as gods by most of the human population of the planet. Some others wrongly assume that they are mythical: if this leads them to break the laws of the Priest-Kings by using forbidden technology, this may be the last mistake they make. The Priest Kings are very cerebral, passionless and highly intelligent creatures with a preference for working through others, who they often move around like pieces in a game of "Kaissa" - the Gorean equivalent of Chess.Kurii or "Others" - another space travelling race, who are large, furry, warlike and extremely fierce carnivores resembling 600-pound sentient bears. Appear to have blown up or otherwise destroyed their original home planet, possibly in a civil war, and now looking for a replacement. Consequently plotting to conquer Gor, but often divided among themselves: for example, one Kur, at the cost of his own life, worked with Tarl Cabot to frustrate a plot by others of his kind to blow up the entire planet in book ten. The polar opposite of Priest-Kings, the Kurri are proud, hot-tempered, and often suicidally brave: believe themselves to be, and sometimes actually are, highly honourable by their own standards. But those standards of honour are not identical to those of most humans.The Pani - a new group of Gorean humans introduced in book 29 and obviously descended from Japanese samurai. They have commissioned Tersites to build and command the great ship which he has been seeking to create for decades, apparently as part of some kind of challenge involving the Priest-Kings, which has yet to be explained.Tarns - giant birds which can be trained to carry a warrior on their backs. Gor's tarn cavalries are the most powerful fighting arm of the human cities on the planet.Having explained all that, let's say a few more words about this book ..."Mariners of Gor" opens in a tavern in the major port city of Brundisium. The first chapter is narrated by a member of the caste of scribes and junior official in the Brundisium administration, who signs his name at the very end of the book as Calisthenes.A stranger comes into the tavern offering to tell everyone a most remarkable story in exchange for a meal and a drink - a story of "The Great Ship of Tersites," a legendary vessel which many of the people in the bar have heard of, but whose existence they doubt. At first almost all the patrons are inclined to scoff at his tale but then something happens - I won't spoil the story - to make them listen.Most of the rest of the book is the story narrated by the stranger, a spearman from Cos who had taken part in the occupation of Ar. He uses the name "Callias" although this is probably an alias because Calisthenes hints at the end that he changed several names in the story.After Cos's forces were expelled from Ar, Callias had been unemployed and penniless. Desperate for work, the former first spear of a squad of elite soldiers signed on as an oarsman on a Cosian war galley. This galley was sunk in a collision with a huge ship of unusual design. Callias, the sole survivor, was rescued and offered a berth as a crew member of the great ship, which is on a mission to sail west beyond the "Farther Islands" and therefore beyond the knowledge of any of the Gorean nations known to him.The huge ship has been built and sailed by Tersites on commission from warriors calling themselves the Pani who are obviously descended from Samurai. On the ship Callias meets Tarl Cabot, one of the commanders of a large force of mercenaries embarked for a mission which Tarl hints may decide the fate of the world. It soon becomes apparent that Tarl Cabot is the only person on the ship who Callias can trust. There appear to be traitors aboard.There are also three people aboard the ship who Callias knew in Ar under different names and in vastly different stations. One girl is of particuar interest to Callias, one man is an obvious threat to both of them, and there is also someone of particular interest to Tarl Cabot ...If you think you would be likely to enjoy "Swordsmen of Gor" and/or "Mariners of Gor" a good option might be to buy the two together and read them back to back. Incidentally, if you have an Amazon kindle, both these two books are about to be offered as kindle e-books for much less than the dead tree versions cost, so that would be a good way of getting them."Mariners of Gor" contines the story of Tarl Cabot's voyage on the great ship of Tersites but does not conclude it. Since Callias is narrating "Mariners" in a tavern in Brundisium, it's hardly a "spoiler" to say that he makes it safely back to the Gorean mainland. Nor will it give too much away and ruin the book to say that, at the time he parted from Callias, Tarl Cabot's part in this adventure was clearly going to continue ...Not, however, in volume 31, "Conspirators of Gor" which has also just been released in e-book, and paper format. It is yet another "Kajira" (slave girl) book along the lines of "Witness" and "Prize."The incidental story buried between in lengthy tracts of "I belong in a slave collar" material in volume 31 does not complete the story arc begun in "Swordsmen" and continued in "Mariners," although it does reintroduce one or two of the more interesting characters from volume 28, ("Kur of Gor") who left the Steel worlds at the same time as Tarl Cabot did and returned to Gor.Volume 32 "Smugglers of Gor" which has been described by the publisher as a prequel to this book, is a flashback to the timeframe of "Swordsmen of Gor" when the great ship was being built and outfitted. It describes the same major events from the viewpoint of two new, alternating perspectives: those of a slave girl from Earth, and the man responsible for bringing her to Gor.If you want to know what happens to Tarl Cabot and the crew of the "Great Ship of Tersites" after the narrator of most of this book returns to the Gorean mainland, you will find the conclusion of the story in book 33 "Rebels of Gor" which I presume may be the last Gor book. (Professor Lange, who writes as John Norman, is in his eighties and book 33 reads as though it is intended to finish the ongoing story arcs and tie up the loose ends.) Incidentally, if you liked the first six books but feel that the subsequent ones went downhill, you will probably consider "Rebels of Gor," which is much more like the first six books, to be a great improvement.If you don't follow the references in this review, don't buy the book because you won't understand "Mariners of Gor" either. Notwithstanding my comment in the paragraph above, I'd recommend anyone who is thinking of reading John Norman's "Gor" books to start at the beginning with " Tarnsman of Gor " and work through until you reach this one, lose interest, or lose your temper. And there is a good chance that it will be the latter.For me the first book was good, numbers two through six were excellent, but then the series increasingly went downhill. As I have mentioned, to get to the flashes of imagination and excitement which made the first few books fun to read, you have to wade through ever longer and more interminable male supremacist lectures calling for the enslavement of all women.Yes, you really did read that correctly. The endless repetition of the case for making women slaves eventually gets quite boring and almost makes you wonder if Norman actually means it. The last book, "Kur of Gor" dialled this back a bit compared to the previous two, but there was rather more of it in "Swordsman and "Mariners" and, for my taste, too much. In "Mariners of Gor" this material is marginally less irritating because it is better integrated into the story, largely consisting of dialogue between Callias and a particular slave girl who is the main female character of this book rather than consisting of lengthy philosophical tracts about how men and women would both be better off if the former enslaved the latter. However, for the same reason the "women should be slaves" passages of this book are harder to flip past.Those people who read the Gor books for the "women belong naked in a slave collar!" stuff will probably love this book, but those who don't like it, find it silly, or would have got a thrill out of it but only in moderation, may get fed up with the hundreds of such pages which they have to wade through to get to the story.For reference, the full series in sequence, including book number 31 which is now out, is1) "Tarnsman of Gor" - Tarl Cabot first comes to Gor2) "Outlaw of Gor" - Tarl returns to Gor to find his home city destroyed3) "Priest-Kings of Gor" - Tarl meets the alien rulers of the planet4) "Nomads of Gor" - a search for the stolen last egg of the Priest-Kings5) "Assassin of Gor" - a plot to restore Marlenus as Ubar of Ar6) "Raiders of Gor" - Tarl Cabot becomes known as Bosk of Port Kar7) "Captive of Gor" - Elinor Brinton from Earth meets an alien monster (K)8) "Hunters of Gor" - Tarl hunts for his lost love Talena in the forest9) "Maurauders of Gor" - of Viking raiders and the monstrous "Others"10) "Tribesmen of Gor" - of a Doomsday weapon in the deserts of Gor11) "Slave girl of Gor" - with a warning of invasion hidden in her head (K)12) "Beasts of Gor" - of an invasion base at the North Pole of Gor13) "Explorers of Gor" - Tarl Cabot explores the equatorial jungle14) "Fighting Slave of Gor" - part one of the Jason Marshall trilogy15) "Rogue of Gor" - part two of the Jason Marshall trilogy16) "Guardsman of Gor" - part three of the Jason Marshall trilogy17) "Savages of Gor" - the Kurii stir up trouble on the plains, part one18) "Blood brothers of Gor" - trouble on the plains, part two19) "Kajira of Gor" - Tiffany is brought to Gor to impersonate a Queen (K)20) "Players of Gor" - of Gorean chess, drama, and war between Cos and Ar21) "Mercenaries of Gor" - the invasion force from Cos moves against Ar22) "Dancer of Gor" - a librarian from earth is caught up in a war on Gor (K)23) "Renegades of Gor" - Ar's war against Cos begins to go badly wrong24) "Vagabonds of Gor" - Ar's soldiers meet disaster in the Vosk Delta25) "Magicians of Gor" - Ar has been conquered - but resistance begins26) "Witness of Gor" - a girl planted in Treve to look out for a prisoner (K)27) "Prize of Gor" - Cos's puppet regime in Ar starts to look shaky (K)28) "Kur of Gor" - Tarl Cabot is taken to one of the Kurri "Steel Worlds"29) "Swordmen of Gor" - Tarl trains an army in the forest, Tersites builds a ship30) "Mariners of Gor" - continues the story of the voyage of Tersites' ship31) "Conspirators of Gor" - Allison Ashton-Baker from earth is enslaved on Gor (K)32) "Smugglers of Gor" - another perspective on the launch of Tersites' great ship (M/K)33) "Rebels of Gor" - concludes the "Great Ship" story arc, and probably the saga, with a much better book.Books with (K) at the end of the description are "Kajira" novels, e.g. they are stories told from the perspective of slave girls, (Kajira is Gorean for slave girl.) Book 32 has M/K after it because the perspective alternates in consecutive chapters between those of a slave girl and a Gorean master. Books 14 to 16 are told in the first person by a man from earth called Jason Marshall and tell his story. The other books have Tarl Cabot as the central character, or at least as a major character, and are mostly narrated by him.Norman's greatest strength is not that he is a particularly good writer: his prose is sometimes quite impenetrable, although this novel isn't too bad on that front.His strength is the breadth of his imagination; for example the way he brings to life creatures like huge birds (the tarns of Gor, which feature in this novel) which can be trained to carry a warrior on their backs; and in particular his ability to set your own imagination off. In quite a few places this book does do that. I particularly like some of his adventure, battle and fight scenes. So much so that, unlike John Norman's recent books other than "Rebels of Gor" and "Kur of Gor" this one persuaded to award the fourth star. But, as with most of his recent novels, I felt that a better and shorter book was struggling to get out. Kur of GorSwordsmen of Gor: Gor Book 29Witness of Gor (Gorean Saga)Prize of GorRaiders of GorTarnsman of Gor

This book is a direct follow-on from Swordsman of Gor, it really needs that book to be read first. I shudder to suggest that to fully understand the plot you will also need to read the next book as well, since John Norman has a habit of doing the unexpected, so the next one could just as easily run of at a tangent.This is also a short book by John Norman's standards little over 600 pages, surprisingly about 400 of them are worth reading.The book really is about the great ship and the main enemy is Thassa, the sea itself and the journey to worlds end.Although Tarl Cabot figures highly in the book he is not the narrator so it allows the story to develop without seeing the whole picture.On the way we hear more about Marlanus's second rebellion in Ar and how some of the people who cooperated with the occupation fled. In Talena's case it appears that was with the help of the Priest-Kings, but why did they get involved?As usual this book leaves you wondering what will happen in the next one, and I cannot wait to find out.

Another Gorean adventure featuring Tarl Cabot.The main tale is told by Callias of Jad (a Cosian) and latterly by a scribe (Calisthenes).It tells of the journey of the great ship Tersites to Worlds End and the subsequent battle there.It is one of the better recently published Gor novels but once again Norman`s obsession with the slave - master relationship keeps interrupting a potentially excellent adventure story.I believe this to be the penultimate Gor novel featuring Tarl Cabot ( he is barely mentioned in books 31 & 32) and hope the finale (Book 33) `Rebels of Gor` brings the series to a satisfactory conclusion.

I am a collector of John Norman's books and looks a good storyline and will enjoy reading itso thank you

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