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A review by shane
Priest-Kings of Gor by John Norman
4.0
This, the 3rd in the Chronicles of Gor series, very nearly got 5 stars, and perhaps it should still get those 5 really. One of the main reasons it didn't is because of the sheer alien-ness of the Priest Kings, great insectile creatures that immediately had me attempting to look away even as I continued to read about them. This wasn't at all unexpected since there's a nice colour piccy of one of them right there on the cover. Still, I had a little difficulty empathizing with them to quite the extent I would have liked.
The story continues where the last left off with our hero(?) Tarl Cabot venturing into the nest of the Priest Kings in a bid to find his lost love Talena and rescue her. As usual for Tarl, he gets more than a little sidetracked and ends up instigating a civil war within the nest and ultimately destroying it. This however, turns out to have been planned by the Priest Kings all along. He has in fact been used not just by one side but by both in turn, each with their own agenda.
Of course, in amongst all this waring and excitement he still manages to both enslave a girl and become enslaved by the very same girl himself. This also turns out to be part of her plan to help him though and as is only appropriate in these circumstances, she falls in love with him and is promptly rejected(albeit nicely) by Tarl because of his enduring love for Talena.
So, this, like the first two in the series was both frustrating and enjoyable at the same time. Frustrating because of the way Tarl treats the girl he's enslaved at times(he really is a bit of a sadist when all's said and done, but maybe the nicer kind of sadist if such there is!) and enjoyable because of the sheer pulpiness of the story and it's unfailing ability to make you sit up and gasp at the sheer delightful nonsense of it all.
I love these novels. Make of that what you will...
The story continues where the last left off with our hero(?) Tarl Cabot venturing into the nest of the Priest Kings in a bid to find his lost love Talena and rescue her. As usual for Tarl, he gets more than a little sidetracked and ends up instigating a civil war within the nest and ultimately destroying it. This however, turns out to have been planned by the Priest Kings all along. He has in fact been used not just by one side but by both in turn, each with their own agenda.
Of course, in amongst all this waring and excitement he still manages to both enslave a girl and become enslaved by the very same girl himself. This also turns out to be part of her plan to help him though and as is only appropriate in these circumstances, she falls in love with him and is promptly rejected(albeit nicely) by Tarl because of his enduring love for Talena.
So, this, like the first two in the series was both frustrating and enjoyable at the same time. Frustrating because of the way Tarl treats the girl he's enslaved at times(he really is a bit of a sadist when all's said and done, but maybe the nicer kind of sadist if such there is!) and enjoyable because of the sheer pulpiness of the story and it's unfailing ability to make you sit up and gasp at the sheer delightful nonsense of it all.
I love these novels. Make of that what you will...