eBook Dancer of Gor download

I generally find John Norman's work when taken from the prospective of a female (slave of course) to be weaker than his books from a male prospective which are frequently good action adventure yarns. The slave girl stories are too heavily weighted in the direction of learning her slavery and how she blossoms and grows to be more of a woman in her slavery. Frankly it typically goes on and on for pages and pages and I have to express some skepticism that he really shares or understands a woman's view point - doubtless men like it but usually this harangue goes on for 80% of the story.

Of these categories of stories this one is better than most to my taste. The action takes a bit larger portion of the book the chief protagonist has a lot happen to her. It's not a bad read although it took me a while to get through it as it got put aside for months - something that doesn't happen to better reads of Norman's.

In traditional John Norman style, it takes him about 20 pages to relate maybe 3 pages of story. Over and and over we are inundated with philosophical rants about the "proper" places of the sexes in nature. Anyone who has read Norman's earlier novels knows these by heart by now and in Dancer of Gor, it has gone beyond tiresome. For example, one has to read the first full quarter of Dancer of Gor before Doreen Williamson finally meets her first master on Gor, that is the first man to buy her at auction. ONE QUARTER OF THE BOOK, just to get to that pivotal moment. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe in takes Norman 20 pages to relate 2 pages of story.

I read these novels to help enlighten me about the world of Gor. What are the social protocols, the way of speech, the relationship of the castes etc. This book provides an insight to such things as well as gives me ideas to improve my own roleplay. As most of Norman's books that I've read so far, he manages to reveal more details about the world he's created and it grows ever more complicated - as is to be expected when trying to describe a planet so very different from Earth's standards. This book has a storyline, described above by Amazon, and I'm grateful for it. Grateful that he chooses to describe the story through the eyes of a woman who finds herself in that position.

But why does he have to go on and on about the same "all women need to be dominated, they just don't know it yet"-scenario?? Honestly!! Most of what he drones on about lasts for ages (it seems) and he puts it right in the middle of the action, as if the characters stop and rethink their whole lives every other minute. Okay, it's not really like that, but that's the feel I got when I read it. If he could just manage to refrain from all of this speculating and droning on about the same stuff, and improve his vocabulary to include other ways of adding to the story than "Too, ...", he would revolutionize the whole series! It's not a science project to be debated and justified, it's a fictional story! There are very few typos in his books, but he doesn't vary much in how he leads the reader on. So please Mr Norman, if you by chance read this: have someone help you vary your language and try reading other captivating books with an eye to see how the authors can keep their reader's interest. You have so much potential!

Personally, I'm a marathon reader: always lost in the books I read, devouring their words and characters - not wanting to miss a thing. With these books, I find my self skipping pages, anxious to know what will happen rather than read the justifying arguments he so lovingly dives into. I will dutifully read more of his books though, learning more about his planet of Gor - but in the future I hope his books will captivate me so that I wouldn't want to skip ahead.

Sincerely,

Toony
(not my real name :-p)

I did not like the unnecessary page details. For example in the opening, we read page after page after page of the main character looking at herself in the mirror dicussing- not discussing but thinking about how she feels. I understand building the main character is important, but ramblings like this was so bad, I kept pressing next page, next page too skip ahead. The author also repeats the same lines, "I was chained and afraid because I was chained. It was the chain that made me afraid because I was a slave- chained." Need I say broken record? How chained can one be? Or, just when you think the character has gotten beyond some major emotional or mental feat- the very issue will come up again to be repeated word for word again. I found myself rolling my eyes about thinking, 'She is chained once more." She was chained throughout the whole book, imagine hearing this line over and over again. Yes the author wants to immerse the reader into the story and help bring understanding that Gorean slavery was a major difference than Earth slavery, but it does not have to be done in this way.

I personally, don't believe this book was written by Norman. The writing style was very different it felt as if the writing and tone was a bit modern for this Gorean planet. I read Captive of Gor, Kajira of Gor, and Slavegirl of Gor, and all written from the time and perspective of the planet the women were on. Not Dancer of Gor, poor Doreen might have been with earthly men who staged a planet called Gor. This is exactly how I felt this book read, like a play by totally different characters and concept.

I was given a piece of fake material and told to believe this was something genunine. So I eventually became annoyed with the characters. The description of Doreen's experience while interesting didn't seem authentic. I found Doreen a little likable, but the author focused so much on her negativity- I had to stop reading book several times and force myself to try to gain some new respect for the character and the author. This is suppose to be a character who is quite differet than most Earth women- a woman who wants no desires wait- NEEDS to be captured and made a slave, she longs for it, but it seems the author wants to make the reader run around and suffer though pages of details, experiences, and through things that did not seem realistic for the main character. For example, Doreen is about to be sold, she comes to the realization that she is about to be sold, and is taking through slave paces, suddenly out of no where she becomes frigid. I was like huh? What is happening? This is a woman in which the author built the character to be more submissive and more ready for her experiences on Gor than any other character in his books. But right at the moment of compliance the author gives Doreen a fake insecurity that is never explained. Everyone in the book wonders what is wrong with her? I was wondering the same thing too. Simply unrealistic.

I tend to agree with one reviewer who doesn't understand why Doreen is begging for slave sex. She is always frightened and scared, why would she? Some would say, I don't understand the Gorean Lifestyle enough to see that she is having all these conflicts within herself. But her conflict does not match the kind of woman the author portrayed her to be. I felt so for Doreen- would have been better off dancing on earth.

Norman or whomever wrote this, is so focused on slavery and manacles, hoods, and chains, whips, and sex- the author forgets that there has to be fairness in the writing. If you write your character one way don't try to change them in the middle of the book- it won't work. At least it didn't for me.

Most of the Gor books are told from the male point of view. I think 6 are from the female, and of those this is the best.

Little did she know that the dance classes she would take on earth would take her to a world of slavery and adventure