Reviews for Assassin of Gor

The average rating for Assassin of Gor based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-12 00:00:00 John Schuler Norman gets quite ambitious in his fifth Gor book. The book is quite good, but you can feel that Norman overreached a bit. This is by far the most complex and detailed book so far and at times its hard to keep up with who is who. Tarl grows a bit as a character in this book (finally) and he's back to being very interesting as a lead character. Vella also comes along for the ride and again she's a great character (better than Tarl at times). This time Tarl and Vella make a true team and have an excellent partnership. Without spoiling it, Tarl and Vella each pose as something they are not so as to uncover a plot of assassination which itself is only a side story of a greater plot of Empire building which itself is a sub-plot of alien warfare. Its complicated. At this point in the series the world of Gor is very full and detailed. You know what an urt is, what a bosk is, what paga tastes like, what the castes are, and how to train a proper slave. You REALLY know how to train a slave and if you forget, Norman gives you a refresher course in every chapter. In this book you'll learn how to pose as an assassin and how to train a slave. You'll learn how to fly a racing tarn and how to train a slave. You'll learn how to tie a signature knot and how to train a slave. You'll learn how to,... you get the idea. This book really felt like it would be the breakout book of the series. If Norman can handle his own creativity and weave a tighter tale, it feels like the next book will cross over beyond pulp fiction. However since I am almost done with the next book I know this is not the case. From being mostly done with number six, I get the feeling Gor peaked in its literary ambitions with Assassins. I might be wrong. I'm going to read all 32 if it kills me so I'll find out.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-09-11 00:00:00 Jonathan Whitcombe Uber-warrior Tarl and former slave turned free woman turned slave turned free woman turned slave Elizabeth join forces to find out who killed Tarl's lookalike. This is one of the better books in the series so far. Tarl doesn't do as much of the "earth women all want to be slave girls" justification in this book, even tho he is off having sex with random women at every turn. I think he's also finally realised that 5 books is too long to wait for his missing woman, and gets on with the mighty task of bonking anything with breasts and a collar. The plot focuses on the political intrigue in Ar and does a decent job of keeping the reader entertained by alternating between slave training and action. Slavery is so engrained in the story now that it isn't justified as much as in the previous books and actually just becomes part of the world. Also there are a number of semi-fleshed out female characters in this book and not all are simpering "we love men" types that the previous books had. Of course they all still love Tarl who is now a world class jockey in addition to being the mightiest warrior ever and a great lover. Come to think of it, Tarl is Superman, just without tights and the Lois Lane fixation.