Conference noted::sf

Gor:

The first novel was passable imitation Edgar Rice Burroughs. The second one
wasn't as good, but it was still readable. The third one (about the Priest-
Kings) was quite good. Beyond that, I haven't read them. I figure that I
have better things to read.
	I've known of other women who've liked the Gor books, but I've never
been able to figure out why.

Red Sonja:

Start looking in the used-book stores. They didn't "poop out" at #2; there
were at least four. I haven't read them, though, so I can't give my opinion.

--- jerry

Tsk, tsk, Jerry - women love to fantasize, too! Just because something
would be unacceptable in real life doesn't mean it isn't fun to read
about.

The first few Gor books were indeed pretty good. I remember "Assassins of",
"Priest-Kings of", and "Nomads of," especially. There's another note in
here somewhere, or maybe in BOOKS, that speculates that the publishers
asked for more sex and less content, and that's why the later books seemed
to lose quality. I haven't read any of them in ages.

-b

	Read the first 7 or eight books of the Gor series. Past that point they
	seemed to get very redundant. It seems that once he had our attention it
	was time to give us the lecture. The first four or five books were great
	but the series went downhill after that (for me anyway).

	Annie's Book Swap in Acton has a good selection of these books. I will 
	check the titles next time I am there.

	Jim

Gor:

Recommend to start with #3.  It is more SF than the rest & better written
than 1 & 2.   He hit his stride (and writing style) in NOMADS and continued
'til #10 (TRIBESMEN).  Skip CAPTIVE, of course, unless you like the trans-
formation of an Earthgirl to a slavegirl.  Only in the very end does Tarl
appear.  KAJIRA and the lastest (SLAVE-GIRL, I think) repeat the theme.
11 + have increasingly more slavery & less story.  While I like the detail
he goes into, I'm sick of being beaten over the head with slavery so I 
skip those pages.  The "To be continued" books could have (& should have)
been in one volume.  And, he's running out of places on the planet to send
Tarl.  Figure he'll have to make a trip to The Steel Worlds pretty soon;
maybe even Earth!

Red Sonja:

Never read one but *I'm* sure they're worse than Conan.  Most are.  Only
Moorcock and a few others are comparable to Howard. (Not DeCamp & Howard,
or Carter & Howard, or Nyberg & Howard, or Jordan, or Offutt, etc., just
*Howard*.)  

Have you tried Norvell Page?

							Don

        Okay, so the replay is a tad late.  Give me a break; I only
    started at DEC 3 months ago.  
    
        I like the Gor novels.  It's just embarrassed to buy them in
    public.  I usually buy all my books at a Sci-Fi bookstore.  I
    just love the looks the men give you when you purchase one of these
    books.  As if I approve of slavery in any form!!!
        I haven't read one pass 18 or 19(it's hard to remember at this
    point).  I had to get into the habit of ignoring previous certain
    portions of text.  One can only stand so many descriptions of a
    Tarn.
    
       As far as the Sonja novels go; there were a total of 6.  The
    author (Smith I believe) left room for more, but seems to have
    dropped off the face of the planet.
    
    
    
                                             L.J.

    There were a series of novels written along the same lines by an author
    named Sharon Green.  I don't remember the titles and I only read one of
    them.  They were basically about a group of Amazon-like warrior-women
    on a planet that had lost contact with Earth and reverted to barbarism.
    It wasn't very good and I was rather suprised that a woman would write
    these kinds of novels considering it was chock full of sex, bondage,
    torture and female slavery.

    Sharon Green, when she first began writing, was kind of the
    female-author-equivalent of Norman.
    
    The Amazon-warrior series was the Jalav series (there were five).  She
    also wrote the Terillian Series (there are five of these too).  And the
    Diana Santee Space Agent series (I think there are only a few of
    these).  And The Far Side of Forever.  They get less tawdry and
    sex-oriented as you read her more recent books, and the plots get a bit
    more interesting.
    
    -Jody
    

    
    Sharon Green just wrote another new one, "Dawnstar".  I haven't
    read it yet, but it looks to be mostly a romance novel with a 
    tad of Sci-Fi thrown in as an afterthought.
    
    I prefered her earlier works: the Jalav & Terrilian series.  But
    then this is the same female that likes John Norman books, so
    what do you expect? ;*)
    
    Getting back to Norman, has anyone ever read the western Ghost
    Dance by him?  I hesitate to ask if anyone ever read his book
    on imaginative sex, but I will anyway.
    
    
    
    
                 L.J.

I notice most of the people who have responded in here are female.  I'm
surprised because I've always thought that Norman's stories were fantasies for
men who are male chauvinists types.  Sharon Green is even more surprising
because she's a woman and she writes about it.  I can't understand why women
would fantasize about being abused.  Not something that Gloria Steinem would go
for.  I've never read any of John Norman's books and only one of Sharon Green's
novels(it was terrible) so who am I to judge?
    
    ktlam

    There is a subtle difference between Green and Norman. Both deal with
    abusive situations but Green's books tend to play to the "love you so
    much I'm doing it for your own good" angle. Her females also triumph
    in the end. A much different outcome than the only GOR book I ever
    read. 

    And as far as fantasies go, many people fantasize about things they'd
    never want to do in reality. And then there are others whose fantasies
    become gruesome reality for some poor victim. liesl

    Actually, I read two of the Gor books and didn't care much for them...
    
    -Jody
    

    What does TA SARDAR GOR mean?  I didn't read any of the Gor novels so I
    don't know.
    
    

                "To the Priest-Kings of Gor"

                - Rob, a complete Gor lover, one of my favorite
                series of all time in fact, at least about 20
                out of 25 (or is it 26) of them -

                :')