Subject: "The Chieftan", or John Norman Returns

From: [email-masked] (David Leikam)
Date: 5 Nov 92 01:04:27 GMT

The Chieftan
                  Book One of the Telnarian Chronicles
                             by John Norman
                         review by dkl 10/21/91

   None of the leading lights of RASFR have, to my knowledge, bothered 
to review this seminal and important new fantasy work. Just as well: it 
not only gives me a chance to review it, but spares them a mild flame 
for having nothing better to do.

  John "Gor" Norman is very well-known (in the strict sense of the term) 
among sword-and-sorcery cognoscenti. His previous efforts in the field, 
chiefly the "Gor" novels, a/k/a Chronicles of the Counter-Earth, are the 
stuff of fannish legends, including the well-known fan play, "Buckets of 
Gor". 

  Yet, to the surprise of many, he seems to have ceased publication 
several years back. We used to be able to rely on these things: every 
year we'd have to pay income taxes, and we'd get a new Gor novel. The 
Gor novels stopped. Maybe there's hope for the taxes?

  Norman is back, sans Gor. Take heart, though: the fan of Norman's 
previous works will feel very much at home with this new series. Norman 
is still the same incisive, intriguing, witty, subtle and original 
writer he always was.

  Or as a currently popular, pithy saying has it:

  Not!

  Norman's new plot, what there is of it, allegedly details the history 
of a fictional star-spanning empire, as told in first person by an 
unknown narrator. This italicized reiteration of supposed history is 
interspersed with sequences of alternating first-person/omniscient 
present tense "action".

  This is, as always with Norman, mere window dressing for extensive 
harping on his favorite personal socio-political crochet. More on this 
anon.

  (It's kinda nice to be able to review a book without worrying about 
spoilers. There isn't enough of a story here to spoil, nohow. On the 
other hand, this means you have to actually read a book wherein plot, 
characterization, structure, writing, indeed everything, are sacrificed 
for a "pot of message.")

  Norman is the only author I know of, whose books can be sliced thinly 
along the spine, the pages shuffled together, a chunk pulled from the 
middle of the resulting stack and read as a novel, without losing a 
thing.

  What you will learn about, extensively, is slave-girls.  (Those of you 
previously acquainted with Norman would be unsurprised at this, if you 
hadn't quit reading the review after the first two paragraphs.)

  Women, you see, all women, in Norman's omniverse, secretly desire to 
be enslaved by men. This makes them "real" women.

  Ok, well, a crank idea, but maybe even one worth a little careful 
exploration by a thoughtful writer. Provocative, at least. Might make 
you think twice. Norman is not a thoughtful writer, and he ham-handedly 
bashes you over the head with the notion, over and over, for more than 
half of the book's wordage.  He did this before, with the Gor series, to 
the tune of some 14 or 15 novels.

  In the end, Norman is so implausible and pathetic about this, I can't 
imagine anyone taking it seriously enough to be offended. Even the most 
rabid of feminists are, I daresay, going to just walk away, giggling, 
from this one.

  It gets worse. Norman's linguistic style wouldn't challenge the 
average American-educated 4th grader, whether by construction or 
vocabulary. He also repeats himself. Norman often says the same thing 
several different ways. There's a lot of re-iteration in this book. I 
believe you will find that many passages strongly resemble previous 
passages. Often, an idea is presented which has been presented before. 
Reading this book gives me a diverting sense of deja-vu.

  Enough already: this is a lousy book, a kind of embarrassing, ill-
written personal bondage-fantasy without even enough pornography to be 
interesting. It could easily have BEEN another Gor novel with a few 
random search-and-replace passes through the word-processor. Pure, 
unreconstructed Norman.

  The book is dedicated to "those who disapprove of blacklisting." 
There's already a second novel in the series, which I spotted in the 
bookstore, dedicated to those who disapprove of censorship.

  Maybe this is a slap at Daw, who published the Gor crap, inasmuch as 
this one appears under the Questar label. If that's so, perhaps Norman 
confuses censorship with simple good judgment. Daw was overly lenient, 
if anything -- the last 10 or so Gor novels were pure drivel.

%A John Norman (pseudonym)
%T The Chieftan
%I Questar -- Warner Books, Inc.
%C New York
%D 1991
%G ISBN 0-446-36149-6
%P 294 pp.
%V Book One
%S The Telnarian Chronicles
%O Mass-market paperback US$4.50/CA$5.99

-- 
[email-masked] | My company doesn't know Usenet exists, and my boss
and other places,    | would have kittens if he thought I spoke for them.
even more unsavory.  | My opinions are better than theirs anyway.