Come along," I said to Poalu. "It will soon be dark." That was true. In a few weeks the Arctic night would descend. Personal flag of Bosk of Port Kar (a.k.a. Tarl Cabot of Bristol), the main narrator of the Gor books Pleasure slave: A kajira whose main function is providing sexual services. However, her training also includes broader skills, such as dancing and cooking. [21]

Gor Series by John Norman - Goodreads Gor Series by John Norman - Goodreads

Yes," he said, "I suppose that I am brave." He looked at the Older Tarl. "You must not tell other members of the Caste of Scribes," he cautioned. Kajiri (male slaves or slave boys) also exist on the planet Gor, but they are far fewer than kajirae, since Gorean men can only rarely be effectively "tamed", so that most male slaves are considered inherently slightly dangerous, and have little value other than as unskilled hard labor in work gangs which must often be kept under continual armed guard. Men conquered in war who are not left free are more often than not killed than enslaved, while women in the same situation are almost always enslaved (since kajirae are a readily-negotiable commodity, among other reasons). Few scribes, I expected, were so skilled in the supervision and management of complex affairs as this light, unattractive, brilliant girl.To my delight, even Torm, of the Caste of Scribes, appeared at the tables. I was honored that the little scribe had separated himself from his beloved scrolls long enough to share my happiness, only that of a warrior. He was wearing a new robe and sandals, perhaps for the first time in years. Such studies were conducted originally, at least publicly, as opposed to the presumed secret studies of cryptographers, in connection with the Sardar Fairs," said Bosk, "at meetings of Scribes concerned to standardize and simplify the cursive alphabet. Also, it was thought to have consequences for improved pedagogy, in teaching children to first recognize the most commonly occurring letters." The whip of the exterior whip master was handed to the scribe, who gave it to one of the attending guardsmen. The series is an overlapping of planetary romance and sword and planet. The first book, Tarnsman of Gor, opens with scenes reminiscent of scenes in the first book of the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs; both feature the protagonist narrating his adventures after being transported to another world. These parallels end after the first few books, when the stories of the books begin to be structured along a loose story arc involving the struggles of the city-state of Ar and the island of Cos to control the Vosk river area, as well as the struggles at a higher level between the non-human Priest-Kings and the Kurii (another alien race) to control Gor and Earth.

Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman - Books on Google Play Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman - Books on Google Play

Alternative Number System: The Kurii use base-12, presumably because they have 12 digits on their "hands." Tarl's mysterious message in Book One is destroyed after he has read it (and after he has foolishly ignored the instruction to throw it away, which costs him his camping gear). Ivar, like many of those in the north, was a passable reader, but took care to conceal this fact. He belonged to the class of men who could hire their reading done for them, much as he could buy thralls to do his farming. It was not regarded as dignified for a warrior to be too expert with letters, such being a task beneath warriors. To have a scribe's skills would tend to embarrass a man of arms, and tend to lower his prestige among his peers. The Kurii live in "Steel Worlds" in the asteroid belt; from there they plot their plans to destroy the Priest-Kings and take over Gor & Earth for themselves. The Steel Worlds have artificial weather & daytime/nighttime and rotate to simulate gravity, with beings living on the inside circumference of the ships. They used to have a planet of their own but they destroyed it making war with each other.

Wham Episode: In the first five books, Tarl has faced all manner of certain death. In book six, Raiders of Gor, he falls into the hands of the Rence Growers, who sentence him to death by being thrown to the crocodiles (swamp tharlarion, if you're particular) tied hand and foot, and the only choice they offer is whether to kill him mercifully first. Defying the trend established repeatedly in all the previous volumes, Tarl can find no way out except begging for shameful slavery, and he will never again be the same man as he was before.

Tarnsman of Gor - Archive.org 01 - Tarnsman of Gor - Archive.org

An Exclusive Interview With John Norman, Author of the Gor Series of Novels". Polygraff. Vol.1, no.2. Montreal: Polymancer Studios. 2010. pp.47–53. ISSN 1918-655X . Retrieved 2010-12-15. To many Gorean males this seemed almost incomprehensible, but, we note, many languages are spoken on Gor, though obviously, because of the standardizations agreed upon by the caste of Scribes, meeting at the great fairs, Gorean is the most common.

Setting contains examples of the following tropes:

In Hunters of Gor Tarl, after delivering a speech about how he lost his honour in the marshes, and cannot regain it, nevertheless sometimes recollects it, takes on fifty armed men single-handed. We would soon see if such feared sleen and Kurii more, or Gorean males, their masters. If they did not obey, they would be slain. As slaves, they were commanded; as slaves, did they fail to comply, they would be put to death. They had no choice. They would obey. Colors in the Gorean high cultures, as in most cultures, have their connotations or symbolisms. Too, in the Gorean high culture, certain colors tend to be associated with certain castes, for example green with the Physicians, red, or scarlet, with the Warriors, yellow with the Builders, blue with the Scribes, white with the Initiates, and so on. I am grateful," had said Ramani of Anango, who had once been the teacher of Shaba. I had delivered to him, and to two others of his caste, the maps and notebooks of Shaba. Ramani and his fellows had wept. I had then left them, returning to my lodgings. Copies would be made of the maps and notebooks. They would then be distributed by caste brothers throughout the cities of civilized Gor. The first copies that were made by anyone had already, however, been made, by the scribes of Bila Huruma in Ushindi. So," thought Ellen. "How cleverly Selius Arconious demeans me! He knows I hate him, that I cannot stand him, that I loathe him! Now he whom I intensely despise chooses to interfere! From where has he come? Why is he here? By what right does he interpose himself betwixt a slave and an agent of her master, the state of Cos? How he humiliates me! So now I should be grateful to him? With what contempt he buys away my whipping! How better could he show his contempt for me? How better could he impress my vulnerability, my nothingness, my slavery, upon me? And so he wishes to put me in his debt, me, whom he so scorns! Am I now supposed to be grateful to him, for this act of calculated humiliation. I loathe him! I loathe him!"

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Gor is described as a habitable planet in the Solar System that shares the same orbit as Earth, but it is linearly opposed to Earth and consequently always hidden by the Sun, making direct observation of it from Earth impossible. The flora, fauna and customs of Gor are intricately detailed. Norman populates his planet with the equivalents of Roman, Greek, Native American, Viking, Inuit and other cultures. In the novels, these various population groups are transplants from Earth brought there by spacecraft through the behind-the-scenes rulers of Gor, the Priest-Kings, an extraterrestrial species of insectoid appearance. The Gorean humans are permitted advanced architectural, agricultural and medical skills (including life extension), but are forced to remain primitive in the fields of transportation, communication and weaponry (at approximately the level of Classical Mediterranean civilization) due to restrictions on technology imposed by the Priest-Kings. The most advanced form of transportation is the riding of large predatory birds called tarns by masterful men known as tarnsmen. The limitation of technology is imposed to ensure the safety of both the Priest-Kings and the other indigenous and transplanted beings on Gor, who would otherwise possibly come to harm due to the humans' belligerent tendencies. [5] In traversing the street I saw the fellow from the polar basin, he stripped to the waist, with fur trousers and boots. He was dealing with a large fellow, corpulent and gross, who managed one of the booths. There was a thin scribe present as well behind the counter. There was laughter, from the scribe, and from one of the guardsmen, and from the two whip masters who had now come forth from the area of preparation. Many castes, incidentally, have branches and divisions. Lawyers and Scholars, for example, and Record Keepers, Teachers, Clerks, Historians and Accountants are all Scribes.To indicate a slave as a particular owner's property, a collar with the owner's name is placed upon the slave (male and female slaves are both collared). It is what I wish it to be," he said, "a Metal Worker a Forester, a Poet, or Singer, a Cloth Worker, a Peasant, a Scribe, such things."