I remember really enjoying this when I was a lot younger, and I was quite excited to reread the series despite remembering that the later books get pretty problematic with regards to gender roles and other issues. What I'd forgotten - or perhaps not noticed the first time I read these books through nearly twenty years ago - was that the issues aren't confined to later books.

The problems with Gor have been written about at length in other places, so I won't go in to them here. I'l just say that I found the portrayal of women very hard to swallow - the only female character of any substance is manipulative and untrusthworthy, as well as being far too willing to accept and enjoy the role of servitude that is forced on her. Norman tries to spin this under the guise of a powerful love that takes both her and Tarl Cabot by surprise, but it's entirely unrealistic and without base.

The other problem I found is that this is simply a badly written book. There's very little organic development of character, and I found it very hard to believe that Tarl could become a fearsome warrior in such a limited space of time, or that he would be chosen for such an important mission having only been on Gor for a matter of weeks. The motivations of all the characters are unclear at best, and loyalties seem to switch with no real reason other than what Norman thinks would make a good story.

There is the potential for something good lurking beneath the surface here, but Norman utterly fails to bring it to fruition and if memory serves that trend continues throughout the rest of the series. I know there's an interesting world hiding in here somewhere, and there's certainly scope for a truly epic story, but based on this first novel and what I know of the later ones I won't be sticking around to find out if it develops as it could because I'm fairly certain it doesn't.