After 35 Years, John Norman's Imaginative Sex Available Again

For decades the fictional world of Gor has been John Norman's testing and proving ground for his advanced but controversial principles of relations between male and female. Thirty-five years ago Norman produced Imaginative Sex, a guide revealing his vision and describing those principles and the philosophy behind them. Unfortunately, as social and publishing mores shifted toward the reactionary, that book fell out of favor, and there it has lain - until now. If you're interested in learning how Norman's books were marginalized before being restored to their current place of honor in the world of fantasy and science fiction, you can read about it in Are John Norman's Gors "Boy-Books"?

E-Reads is proud to restore Imaginative Sex both to yearning devotees and to a new generation of Norman fans. It's available now for download and paperback.

The titles of the first nine chapters include"Imaginative Sex: The New Sexual Revolution", "Love, Hunters and Evolution," "Marriage, Sex and Normality," "Sex and the Brain," "Marriage and the Ventilation of Emotions," "Privacy," "Disease," "Requirements for Imaginative Sex," and "Imaginative Techniques."

Norman details and develops his theories and ideas about sex in the modern age, and in the tenth chapter, "Sensuous Fantasies: Recipes for Pleasure" he presents fifty-three scenarios designed to reintroduce fantasy and intimacy to the bedroom. Examples include "The Aphrodisiac Fantasy"; "The Rites-of-Submission Fantasy"; "The Lady Fantasy"; "The I-Am-His-Slave-Girl Fantasy"; "The Safari Fantasy" and "The Blindfolded-Lovers Fantasy" as well as many other sensuous suggestions, detailed for the enjoyment of all truly adult readers. Find out what really lies behind the philosophy of Gor and the ways in which role playing can enhance everyone's love life.

And anyone interested in John Norman and his magical world of Gor is invited to visit The Chronicles of Gor website.

RC

Prize of Gor, Volume 27 of John Norman's Gorean Saga, Now Available in Paperback

The 27th volume of John Norman's Gorean Saga is now available for purchase as a paperback. The e-book version has been available for several weeks.

Ellen is a beautiful young slave girl on the planet Gor. Yet she was not always thus. For nearly sixty years she was a woman of Earth, but life had largely passed her by. Then, following an apparently chance encounter at the opera with a strangely familiar young man, an echo from her past, she finds herself transported from Earth to Gor. Here she discovers the true identity of her kidnapper and his sinister motives.

Her fate is decided in this latest thrilling installment of John Norman's best selling Gorean Saga.

Treat yourself to a holiday gift and fill in the gaps in your collection of Gor. For a complete list, click here.

Richard

Prize of Gor Released for E-Book Download

Prize of Gor, the long-heralded 27th novel in John Norman's Gorean saga, is now on sale as an e-book.

"What man, in his deepest heart," asks John Norman, "does not want to own a female, to have her for his own, utterly, as a devoted, passionate, vulnerable, mastered slave, and what woman, in her deepest heart, does not want to be so intensely desired, so unqualifiedly and fiercely desired, that nothing less than her absolute ownership will satisfy a male, her master?"

To learn the answer to the author's question, and to buy the book, click here.

And watch this page for news of Prize of Gor's release in paperback.

RC

A Peek Behind the Curtain at John Norman's Prize of Gor

"What man, in his deepest heart," asks John Norman, "does not want to own a female, to have her for his own, utterly, as a devoted, passionate, vulnerable, mastered slave, and what woman, in her deepest heart, does not want to be so intensely desired, so unqualifiedly and fiercely desired, that nothing less than her absolute ownership will satisfy a male, her master?"

In a letter about Prize of Gor, the soon to be released 27th novel in his phenomenally popular Gorean Chronicles, Norman reasserts the philosophy that has intoxicated fans and appalled conventional readers. As for the latter, Norman asserts, "Perhaps some people cannot even understand such things, such desire, such passion. Let them then cling to their tepidities. Gor is for those who do understand such things."

If you are among those who have cast off your tepidities, Prize of Gor will be a rewarding if not rapturous read for you. Its protagonist is an older woman taken to Gor and given a drug that restores her youth. What exactly is the prize of the novel's title? "Prize of Gor is a Kajira novel," writes Norman. "The notion of 'prize' is quite Gorean, given the typical Gorean celebration of the intelligence and beauty of the human female, a form of life so remarkable, fascinating, exciting, and desirable to the Gorean male that he is typically content with nothing less than its possession."

Hear John Norman talk about his heroine:

... a college professor specializing in Feminist Studies, and such, whom life, largely due to the constraints of her ideology, self-image, and such, has largely passed by. She has never known love, for instance. Her life is closing, darkening about the edges, a life, as she now suspects, largely misguided, worthless, and wasted. In her youth, however, she was incredibly beautiful, and was so even in her first teaching years. Have we not all seen photos of elderly women as they were in their youth, and marveled at their beauty?...Let us see how her theories hold up, once she is at a man's feet, young, beautiful, and collared. She will learn the ways of Gor, and, in doing so, will learn her lost womanhood and its hitherto neglected possibilities, glories, and riches. She will then find herself, to her astonishment, on this incredible and vibrant world, a prize, one to become no more than a domestic animal which, at the merest word of a male, must kneel, press her lips to a whip, and hope to be found pleasing.

Watch this page for more news about Prize of Gor.

- Richard Curtis

A Holiday Prize for John Norman Fans

John Norman's Gorean Saga is far and away E-Reads' most successful series. Originally comprising 25 titles, Norman added a 26th volume, Witness of Gor (pictured right),  in 2001 to satisfy decades of speculation by loyal fans that there might be another work germinating in the author's brain.

Since then, those fans have been back in the rumor mill wondering if there's going to be 27th volume. The answer? There certainly is, and I'm looking at the text as we speak. It's my pleasure to announce the forthcoming publication of Prize of Gor. I can't reveal the story yet, but take my word for it - it's well worth the wait.

We're rushing it into print in time for the holidays. Watch this space for more news!

- Richard Curtis

John Norman Introduces Volumes 7-9 of His Bestselling Gorean Saga

I write fantasy.
Sometimes this type of literature is referred to as “escape” literature. Sometimes its “relevance” might be called into question.
It is perhaps worth taking a moment to discuss these observations, or charges.

To read John Norman's fascinating essay in its entirety, click here.

John Norman Introduces Volumes 4-6 of His Bestselling Gorean Saga

The concept of an unknown planet in our system, of a particular and interesting sort, rather unlike other planets, perhaps a mysterious sister or visitor to more familiar worlds, is quite an old concept.
The expression in Greek, transliterated into English letters, is “Antichthon,” which we may translate as “Counter-Earth.”
The Greeks, you see, had the concept of another Earth, a different Earth, a “Counter-Earth.”
It is interesting to speculate on these matters, to wonder, for example, from whence came this ancient, provocative concept. Had they evidence we do not...?

To read the complete essay, click here.

- RC

John Norman Introduces Volumes 1-3 of His Bestselling Gorean Saga

Introduction to The Gorean Saga Volumes 1-3
By John Norman
#1 Tarnsman of Gor
#2 Outlaw of Gor
#3 Priest-Kings of Gor

The Gorean series, to the best of my knowledge, is the longest, most complex, most carefully worked out single-world series in the history of science fiction, or, if you prefer, adventure fantasy. On the other hand, the Gorean series has grown, like a forest, in “foreign lands.” It is not really science fiction, as that genre is normally understood, nor is it adventure fantasy, in the usual way that genre is understood. It transcends genres and its ships beach on unusual shores. For better or for worse it is an “Original,” and it bears all the interest of a new literary form, and risks all the perils of the same.

To read John Norman's complete essay, click here.

Are John Norman's Gors "Boy-Books"?

I’m proud to say that all 25 of the original novels in John Norman’s Gorean saga are together for the first time in decades, plus his 26th and penultimate novel, WITNESS OF GOR. The journey of the series from Blockbuster to Can’t Give Them Away and back to Blockbuster (they are among E-Reads’ biggest sellers) is a saga in itself and sheds some interesting sociological light on the publishing industry.

The first novel, TARNSMAN OF GOR, was released by Ballantine in 1966, and over the next fifteen years or so another 24 were published by Ballantine and then DAW. The books were enormously popular and sales were tremendous – until, one day it all ground to a halt, mysteriously, like that scene at the end of War of the Worlds where a seemingly invincible alien catches cold and drops dead. What happened? Tastes in reading habits change but usually they evolve rather than fall off a cliff as Gor did.

The answer may lie not in what readers like to read but what editors like to edit. The Gorean Saga’s epic sales were fueled by the kind of red-blooded male readers that consumed cowboy books, Executioner and Destroyer action-adventure, Spillane-type thrillers and space operas by the carton. And many of the editors who acquired them were red-blooded males themselves (with notable exceptions like Judy-Lynn Del Rey, the diminutive titan who gave her name to Random House’s science fiction line).

Then came the Feminist movement, and with it a revolution in editorial viewpoint. And Feminists had a lot to say about the morality practiced by the masters of Gor on their female slave subjects. As Feminists occupied more and more significant editorial positions at major publishers including the science fiction and fantasy divisions, hard-line Feminist thinking influenced decisions on all kinds of books, especially the kind that guys cherished. A lot of Feminist ire focused on Gor – many female editors passionately hated Norman’s world and all the decadent male chauvinism it seemed to stand for. (Not surprisingly, the author takes a very different view of all of this!) In any event, yes, by the 1990's you couldn’t give Gor away.

The books were all out of print when I started E-Reads around 2000, but I discovered something very interesting when I went online. Not only was there a huge cult revolving around Gor (some of his hard to get editions sell in the used book market for well over $100), but many of those involved in Gorean role-playing games were women who were into fantasy slavery or simply took the stories in with a large dose of good humor.

Gor is once again alive and thriving on E-Reads, I’m happy to report. And as for Feminism in the publishing industry, I’m also happy to report that it’s here to stay. But it still unnerves me when female editors refer to the literature men like to read as “Boy-books.”

Readers and fans interested in learning more about John Norman and his Gorean world can visit John Norman's Chronicles of Gor.

- Richard Curtis

The Gorean Saga by John Norman

The entire Gorean Saga of novels by John Norman is now available in all ebook formats and will be available in September in trade paperback at Amazon.com.

When John Norman’s Gor series started appearing in 1967, the books were originally seen as being in the planetary adventure tradition of books like Edgar Rice Burroughs’s legendary John Carter of Mars series combined with alternate historical heroic fantasy series like Robert E. Howard’s Conan. The books developed a wide and enthusiastic readership over the course of original publication of the series, which ended in 1988.

However, one particular aspect of the society on Norman’s invented world both caught the imagination of the readership and, ultimately, provoked a storm of controversy as the popularity of the books grew. In the universe of Gor, women are invariably regarded as slaves and chattel property of men—and the women wholeheartedly believe that this is the way things should be and everyone is happy with the situation.

Given that the publication of the series coincided with the first phases of development of the feminist social movement in America, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a major controversy developed. Nonetheless, the near-disappearance of the entire series from public view was a surprising and baffling result—popular books with an established audience and a successful track record of steady and growing sales became inexplicably unavailable. Norman himself has suggested the possibility of a conspiracy to suppress his work and has, in turn, been accused of paranoia and having a persecution complex. But even those who don’t see conspiracies everywhere are brought to wonder how this series of books defied all publishing expectations and became “lost” to the general public for a period of many years.

In any case, readers no longer have to haunt dusty used bookstores and back alleys to get their full fix of the wonderfulness that is Gor and E-Reads and Fictionwise are proudly making available the entire run of the series in downloadable file formats for all versions of the online reading experience. For those who prefer to hold a printed book in their hands, paperbacks are available as well.

Start at the beginning with Tarnsman of Gor or just buy the whole set right away. You won’t regret the investment and you’ll have a splendid opportunity to learn what the fuss is all about and make up your own mind about Gor.

Are you game?

Readers and fans interested in learning more about John Norman and his Gorean world can visit John Norman's Chronicles of Gor. And for some personal reflections about Norman's place in the publishing spectrum, you might enjoy reading Are John Norman's Gors Boy Books?

- Richard Curtis