John Norman is obviously whipped. Why the heck else would he write a supposed "spice-up-your-love-life" book--and make it sound just like the Gor series?

Seriously, though, not only is the poor guy obsessed with the entire maledom/femsub thing--which is exactly why I suspect that he's "whipped--he thinks that *everyone's* fantasies involve bondage--which simply isn't so.

Norman's half-baked psychosexual philosophy is neither here nor there, but it doesn't extend to the ability to write sex guides. The highly touted "fantasies" typically run to a half a page. "I-Am-A-Slave-Girl Fantasy" = tie a naked gal up, intimidate her some, have her call the male "Master," take things from there. Period. This wasn't breaking startling new ground in 1974, and it sure tells no one anything now.

The previous reviewers failed to mention that 49 of the 50 listed fantasies are male-dominant (the exception being I-Am-A-Slave-Guy, with the sneering statement that some of us just can't manage to be manly 24-7). Norman states that all women are submissive boy toys deep down (repeatedly and at tedious length), and that any assertion to the contrary by the little darlings is self-evident denial. There's certainly a segment of the male population who would love to believe this, but I haven't found many women who admit to craving chaining and whippings if only a man would notice them.

First of all, yes the book contains Dominance and submission fantasies to explore with your love. Saying this, to those who are dismayed by the book and its explorations...if you dont like that kind of stuff? Why the heck did you buy the book? If you are a vanilla or just afraid of showing yourself as a true Man and a True woman...whether a woman who is considered as a Free Woman or a slave...then dont buy the book!

Saying that, I myself have loved this book from the beginning. I am a huge fan of the Gor novels and their philosophy toward life and relationships. Unlike the politically correct or the feminist fools, I am proud to be a MAN. I am as a Man a Master of myself my relationships and my fate. A woman is a natural submissive, unlike those females who think and strive to be men...only to fail at being what they are genetically and psychologically. Not that I am sexist, I am a realist and I am an "actualist", that being, someone who understands what is actual about the Male/female dichotomy.

If you want a realistic book that talks plainly and truthfully about being a Man and a woman, unlike your John Grays or Phillip McWhatever his name is...then get this book and BE A MAN!

on page 79, (English test) beginning with #22, the answer key is off. It gives the answer to 21 as D. and 22 is also D. How is this possible when the choices for 22 are F,G,H,J?

This was an o.k. book. It didn't help me very much, but it had good tests. They made a lot of mistakes, which could have been avoided. The writers probably didn't put their best into it.

This is the best book I've ever used to get higher scores on the ACT. It tells exactly what you need to know and study -- and nothing more. I was studying a lot more formula's then I needed to and I didn't realize it untill I got this book. I also wasn't taught a couple of formulas, needed for the math part of the ACT, untill I used this book. I highly suggest this book to anyone who wants to raise their scores.

This is Volume 8 in the Gor series and Volume 7 of the Tarl Cabot saga since the protagonist in the previous volume was someone else. After the disappointment of Captives of Gor I was hoping that Norman would get back on track with this story but, alas, it was not to be. The book is 370 pages long and has a flimsy plot that would normally support a book about half that length. The rest of it is taken up by Norman's obsession with female enslavement. Every time Cabot binds a slave (which is frequently) it is described in excruciating detail with loving description of the devices used and types of knots employed. This may be fine for the bondage crowd but for the rest of us it's just plain booorrriiinnnggg! Also, the level of violence against women and outright sadism seems to have escalated compared to the first 6 volumes. Another flaw in the book is the outrageousness of some of the scenes. I've complained about this with Assassin of Gor but none of them in that book can compare to this one: Cabot knowingly walks into the stockade of his enemy Sarus of Tyros where he is quickly locked in and surrounded by 55 Tyrosians and 22 panther girls all of whom have good reason to kill him on sight. He demands that they give up their prisoners immediately or he will kill everyone there. A melee ensues. Guess who wins. Oh, puh-leeze. One final complaint: In the past Norman's thoughts on bondage had been presented as part of the plot. You could always maintain the fiction that Norman didn't really believe the things he was saying, that they were there for the sake of the story, the Gorean ambiance if you will. In the final chapter of this book, however, for the first time Norman seem to step out of the shadows to lecture the reader on how Gorean philosophy can be justified by Darwinian principles. The arguments are easy enough to refute but this is not the place for it.

The good news is that Tarl Cabot returns to the forefront in "Hunters of Gor," the 8th volume in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. However, the bad news is that instead of returning to the issue of the coming war between the Priest-Kings and the Others, author John Norman continues to explore his Gorean philosophy. It occurs to me that this means "Hunters of Gor" is a fitting follow up to "Captives of Gor," but I was never impressed by that volume in the first place. The arguments about the natural state of relations between men and women, on Gor at least, is developed within the context of Tarl Cabot's relationships with three women: Talena, the daughter of Marlenus of Ar, and who Cabot had abducted as a tarnsman in his first adventure on Gor; Vella of Gor, nee Elizabeth Cardwell, who had been a major player in Cabot's two greatest adventures in "Nomads of Gor" and "Assassin of Gor"; and Verna, the chieftess of the untamed panther women who roam the Northern forests. If you stop and think about it Norman has developed three distinct female types that he then explores in this story: Talena was raised as a Free Woman of Gor, Vella is a modern Earth woman turned into a Gorean pleasure slave, and Verna has never been tamed. Of course Tarl Cabot is the common denominator since he is the strong master who tamed all three women. In "Hunters of Gor" we follow Tarl Cabot's adventures in the north as he learns what has happened to these three women. But it seems to be that this is more a journey of self-discovery for our hero and that there are subtle distinctions to the repetitive scenes acted out with these three women. The only problem is that I visit Gor for the action and adventure rather than to have a pleasure slave chained to my bed. "Hunters of Gor" is a slight improvement over the previous volume, but still a disappointment compared to the great adventure story Norman had developed over the first half-dozen volumes.

This was always one of my favorites of the Gor books because of the constant misfortune befalling Tarl Cabot. Usually he is the master of the situations in which he finds himself, but that is not the case here. It makes for a welcome change, and sets up his rediscovery of his true self in the following book.

I actually figured out early on that the crazy shipbuilder in Port Kar designing a ship with a heavy prow was going to be making an icebreaker, so when "Beasts of Gor" took Tarl Cabot to the polar ice packs I was not surprised (just that the ship was not involved). The "beasts" of the title are first and foremost the Kurii, a.k.a. the Others, who are trying to wrest Gor from the control of the Priest-Kings and who establish a beach head in the north in Volume 12 of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. However, the term "beasts" also applies to the warriors of Gor who are fighting to defend their world and the slave girls who are used by the Kurii as beasts of burden.

John Norman's story starts in the canals of Port Kar, before taking Tarl Cabot to the taverns of Lydius, the tents of the Sardar Fair, and then north to the land of the red hunters. As I have said before, we are now in the part of the Gor series where each volume seems to come up with another example of a people descended from transplanted earthlings; in this case, Eskimos. I found the 1978 Gor novel to be fairly pedestrian, given the rest of the series. The epic war between the Priest-Kings and the Kurii develops very slowly in the series, and I have to admit that I was always disappointed that we were seeing more and more of the Others without ever getting a return visit from Misk the Priest-King. However, Norman is developing one of the Kurii as a key figure and something of a counterpart to Tarl Cabot, which is not a bad idea. The key thing is that by this time in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth series it is Norman's Gorean philosophy that is becoming more prominent than the action/adventure aspects of the series that got me hooked in the first place.

I actually figured out early on that the crazy shipbuilder in Port Kar designing a ship with a heavy prow was going to be making an icebreaker, so when "Beasts of Gor" took Tarl Cabot to the polar ice packs I was not surprised (just that the ship was not involved). The "beasts" of the title are first and foremost the Kurii, a.k.a. the Others, who are trying to wrest Gor from the control of the Priest-Kings and who establish a beach head in the north in Volume 12 of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. However, the term "beasts" also applies to the warriors of Gor who are fighting to defend their world and the slave girls who are used by the Kurii as beasts of burden.

John Norman's story starts in the canals of Port Kar, before taking Tarl Cabot to the taverns of Lydius, the tents of the Sardar Fair, and then north to the land of the red hunters. As I have said before, we are now in the part of the Gor series where each volume seems to come up with another example of a people descended from transplanted earthlings; in this case, Eskimos. I found the 1978 Gor novel to be fairly pedestrian, given the rest of the series. The epic war between the Priest-Kings and the Kurii develops very slowly in the series, and I have to admit that I was always disappointed that we were seeing more and more of the Others without ever getting a return visit from Misk the Priest-King. However, Norman is developing one of the Kurii as a key figure and something of a counterpart to Tarl Cabot, which is not a bad idea. The key thing is that by this time in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth series it is Norman's Gorean philosophy that is becoming more prominent than the action/adventure aspects of the series that got me hooked in the first place.

Grandmothers, who remember Carmen Miranda's saucy shaking, will adore you if they recieve these fruity postcards in the mail. Or write a recipe for the featured fruit on the back of a card sent to the cook in your life.
These cards are cheaply produced, both in terms of production and photography. Plain specimens of each featured fruit are stuck in the center of drab, pastel fields. These images could have been culled from encyclopedias.

"Fighting Slave of Gor," Volume 14 in John Norman's Chroncles of Counter-Earth, is the first of what is known as the Jason Marshall trilogy (because instead of Tarl Cabot the central character is now Jason Marshall). Over the apex of the series with "Nomads of Gor" and "Assassin of Gor," Norman's novels started a gradual but persistent move away from an emphasis on the action-adventure of the conflict between the Priest-Kings and the Others (now revealed to be the Kurii) and spent more and more time dealing with what is now known as the Gorean philosophy of gender roles. On the off chance that nobody understood the complementary relationship between the sexes that exists on Gor between male masters and female slaves, Norman takes a somewhat different approach with this trilogy, which actually focuses more on the male of the species.

Jason Marshall is in his mid-twenties and sitting in a cafe on Earth having a discussion on gender roles with Beverley Henderson. When she becomes the target of a Gorean abduction Jason tries to interfere and ends up brought to Gor as well and promptly enslaved. As the silk slave of the Lady Florence of Vonda, Jason is indoctrinated into the rules of his new world, becomes a pawn in the conflict between his mistress and her nemesis the Lady Melpomene, and ends up in the stables as the titular fighting slave. The intergalactic conflict between the Priest-Kings and the Others is replaced by the more mundane conflict of an attack by Glorious Ar upon the Salerian Confederation.

As an Earth male enslaved on Gor, Marshall serves as a surogate for the male reader in terms of learning the Gorean requirements for being a manly man. Of course, by the end of the novel the collar is on the other neck (literally) and the student becomes the teacher. "Fighting Slave of Gor" and the entire Jason Marshall trilogy are obviously going to be of considerably more interest to those who have not only read the books but have also invested in sleeping silks, Tuchuk tattoos and a slave collar (or two). I preferred Tarl Cabot on his war tarn Ubar of the Skies over anything that ever happened on his sleeping firs, but you know what they say about different strokes.

"Captive of Gor," the 7th volume in John Norman's Chronicles of Counter-Earth, was the first book in the series that I did not really enjoy. The reason was not because this is the first volume to be devoted primarily to Norman's Gorean philosophy of slavery as the natural condition of women, but simply because Tarl Cabot (or Bosk of Port Kar as he is currently known in the series) is not the main character in this novel. In "Captive of Gor" we are introduced to Elinor Brinton, who was a wealthy and powerful woman on Earth, but who is brought to Gor and made a plesure slave in the service of the slave merchant Targo. In other words, we have a modern "liberated" woman put into a condition of slavery where she is forced to learn the arts of providing pleasure to any man who purchases her for the night. The conflict between the Priest-Kings and the Others is behind Elinor's abduction, but that is ultimately a minor point in this 1972 novel. Norman tells essentially the same story in "Slave Girl of Gor" (1977) and "Kajira of Gor" (1983); for that matter, the story of Elinor Brinton is not that much different from what happened to Elizabeth Caldwell, transformed into Vella of Gor in the fourth Gor book, "The Nomads of Gor." Consequently, there is really no surprise to what happens in this novel and the style is not enough this time around to overcome the lack of substance. Gorean philosophy aside, "Captive of Gor" is a break in the developing narrative. There is nothing wrong with that, but Norman continues to abandon the epic story arc he created in the first six volumes in the ones that followed "Captive" as well.

The good news is that Tarl Cabot returns to the forefront in "Hunters of Gor," the 8th volume in the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. However, the bad news is that instead of returning to the issue of the coming war between the Priest-Kings and the Others, author John Norman continues to explore his Gorean philosophy. It occurs to me that this means "Hunters of Gor" is a fitting follow up to "Captives of Gor," but I was never impressed by the previous volume in the first place. The arguments about the natural state of relations between men and women, on Gor at least, is developed within the context of Tarl Cabot's relationships with three women: Talena, the daughter of Marlenus of Ar, and who Cabot had abducted as a tarnsman in his first adventure on Gor; Vella of Gor, nee Elizabeth Cardwell, who had been a major player in Cabot's two greatest adventures in "Nomads of Gor" and "Assassin of Gor"; and Verna, the chieftess of the untamed panther women who roam the Northern forests. If you stop and think about it Norman has developed three distinct female types that he then explores in this story: Talena was raised as a Free Woman of Gor, Vella is a modern Earth woman turned into a Gorean pleasure slave, and Verna has never been tamed. Of course Tarl Cabot is the common denominator since he is the strong master who tamed all three women. In "Hunters of Gor" we follow Tarl Cabot's adventures in the north as he learns what has happened to these three women. But it seems to be that this is more a journey of self-discovery for our hero and that there are subtle distinctions to the repetitive scenes acted out with these three women. The only problem is that I visit Gor for the action and adventure rather than to have a pleasure slave chained to my bed. "Hunters of Gor" is a slight improvement over the previous volume, but still a disappointment compared to the great adventure story Norman had developed over the first half-dozen volumes.

I got here after getting to Collins, after going through Dickens. This is an awful book, in my humble opinion. Why has it been resurrected? (Rhetorical) If you love Dickens, maybe you found Collins, and if you love Collins, then you and I are relevantly similar, so let me tell you, don't bother with this insipid tripe, or with "Doctor's Wife" for that matter. Unless you are simply obligated, because you are a gendered wannabe English professor, in some forsaken place, poor you.

I will have to agree that this is NOT Braddon's best work. However, it is not as bad as some of the other reviewers make it out to be. The biggest fault is that the story is quite slow to get going. If the reader can hang on and make it through about a third of the story, they will be rewarded with what we normally expect in sensation fiction. I was also somewhat put off by the little synopsis on the back of the book. It is very misleading. There is a lot more to the plot than what that little blurb suggests.
If you are new to Braddon, I would suggest starting with some of her other titles such as The Trail of The Serpent or Aurora Floyd.

During the 1860s Wilkie Collins, with his terrific The Woman In White, started the period of 'sensation' novels. These novels are rather over-the-type, almost slapstick-like mystery stories. Mary Elizabeth Braddon followed with her own flavor of sensation novels. While I love many of Wilkie Collins novels I was disappointed with Braddon's most famous work, Lady Audley's Secret. But when I ran into a copy of John Marchmont's Legacy I thought I'd give Ms Braddon a try. Was I disappointed? Well...

Firstly, the story is a typical Victorian era melodrama: family members squabbling over an inheritance, with certain members stopping at nothing to become rich. Ms Braddon does do a good job on the characterizations, and the ultimate mystery does build up to a good conclusion. The book is nicely structured (..unlike Lady Audley's Secret, where we find the story basically ending 100 pages from the finish).

However Ms Braddon is simply not a very good writer. Her prose is weak, especially compared to Wilkie Collins. Every third sentence ends with an exclamation point, which must be Ms Braddon's way of indicating high drama (?).

Bottom line: a unremarkable slice of Victorian literary history. Certainly not terrible, but nonetheless a far cry from Wilkie Collins material.