The seventh book in the Gor series and it happened to be the first one that I read. I was kind of young when I read it. Not porn or anything but it's about a woman who gets kidnapped and taken to another planet where everyone behaves in an extremely Savage manner towards her. ( )

Elinor Brinton de la Tierra, adinerada, bella, en situación de disfrutar de todos los privilegios de su sexo y posición social, se encuentra de pronto prisionera en el campamento de Targo, mercader de esclavos de Gor. Allí, encadenada junto a otras bellas cautivas -Ute, la amiga leal y compasiva que no es más que una pobre tonta a los ojos de Elinor; Lana, la favorita y la más mimada de todas- debe aprender a olvidarse de su amor propio, a someterse, a obeceder las ordenes de los hombres y llamarles Amo.

Adiestrada en la lujosa ciudad de Ko-ro-ba, le son enseñadas las sensuales habilidades, las provocativas danzas y los sutiles movimientos de una esclava goreana del placer; soporta la humillación de ser vendida y los castigos que conlleva la desobediencia: el látigo de conco tiras, la marca de hierro candente y la temida caja de los esclavos.

Orgullosa y virginal, está decidida a no ser la esclava de ningún hombre… y a escapar. Es entones cuando se encuentra con Rask de Treve, tarnsman salvaje y proscrito, conocido y temido en todo Gor por su mortal destreza en la batalla y su maestría en el arte de doblegar a las mujeres a su voluntad.

This one very nearly got 5 stars this time, but for the fact that it did get a little repetative, and if I'm honest, a little tedious at about the 30-40% mark. Fortunately the tedium passed and it picked up nicely and swiftly developed into a really nice love story.

Tarl Cabot, or Bosk as he has come to be known nowdays, doesn't make much of an appearance here except right at the end but I found I didn't miss him too much. There's not too much of plot as such either, just one woman's memories of her capture and subsequent life as a slave. The love story that develops towards the later part of the novel between Elinor and her Master is done quite nicely I thought, although it was never going to be a surprise. John Norman has used this exact same little storyline before in pretty much the exact same way, so I'd like to see something a little bit different from now on.

Critisisms if any, well I've already mentioned that parts do tend to get a little laborious at times and I found myself speed-reading through almost 100 pages before it picked up and then held my attention very well right up to the end. Then there's that almost obligatory falling for the Master that seems to be getting to be a bit of a habit.

A good read if you skim parts of it, but not the best so far. Still quite enjoyable though and definitely not deserving of a lot of the critisisms I've read in a good many reviews.

It's really not all that bad... ( )

Overlong and remarkably turgid, even for the current series. Defies genre expectations by being almost totally free of action. ( )

Gor. Counter Earth, and counter sense. it was the early seventies and I was desperate for anything that seemed fantastic. For a while these were cult hits. We have better fantasy novels today. These are very much sexual fantasy and lack the delicate nuances of a Horseclans novel. :-? ( )