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Title: What Happened to the Story?
Review: Early John Norman novels were clever. The characters were contrived and the sex highly improbable but the stories often had clever narrative structure and wonderful pace. Witness of Gor has none of this. It's long and most of the first three quarters is given over to the sexual politics for which John Norman is famous. The repetition is dismal and would be comical if it weren't for the constant claim to be taken seriously. It's strange to have these novels turning up in lists of sado masochistic writing; they are more slerotic than erotic - except, I guess, for the John Norman tragics who can't get enough of the one thin message repeated again and again.And then, suddenly, the novel comes to life and it is genuinely riveting. The action is powerful enough to save the dismal sex and while it lacks the lapidary finish of many of the earlier novels, it is still worth the read.
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