John Norman

Going by his books, John Norman is a mysogynist of the first water. That said, the first Gor (counter earth) books are well written and highly original in concept and development. The characters are vivid and believable, even likeable and the stories are of the best kind of high adventure - for the first 6 (Tarnsman of Gor, Outlaw of Gor, Priest-Kings of Gor, Nomads of Gor and Assassin of Gor). Tarl Cabot and, a bit into "Tarnsman", Elizabeth (Vella) Cardwell begin as abductees from earth brought to Gor, each for a specific purpose. They learn about their new world, adapt to it, and over time form an effective partnership/relationship as they begin to unravel the real secrets of Gor and the alien races that "supervise" it. There is a good deal of sex (at times fairly explicit) and discussion of sex, male/female roles, etc. - which probably won't bother the guys at all; I found that the storytelling was engaging enough that I could gloss over the general putting-down of women, and Vella is a strong enough character that she evemtially makes it work for her rather than against her - but the plot keeps on rolling despite that. After "Assassin" the series loses much of what made it so interesting. The strength of the story - and the appeal of the characters - fades considerably. The settings of each book are obviously cribbed from historical cultures with very little originality, the anti-female bias descends into something very close to contempt and the emphasis on the sexual more`s of each "culture" threatens to take over entirely. In short, they read like soft-core porn potboilers - and from the number that ended up being written (one a year, until I gave up on even noticing them somewhere around number 9) I would guess that, that is what they in fact were by then.