https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GorBasic BitsSpoiler free for all chapters after the first couple.
Got my hands on the paperback of this book last week. Read it here and there. I recall seeing it or some of the many sequels (30+) in the book store when I was a kid. Was not aware that is was "controversial" in any way. Found that out later looking up sequels. Anyways...
ToG is a "sword and planet" story in a vein similar to Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Princess of Mars" books. Gor is a planet in our solar system that is hidden from observation by various means. The Priest-Kings run the shop and bring folk/cultures from Earth to Gor every once in a while for their own ends. The society & geography of Gor is sort of a truncated Eastern hemisphere analog with a caste system overlay. Technology is controlled by the mysterious preist-kings. The greatest constraint being reducing war tech to that of medieval times. There are different critters and the warrior caste may ride giant hawks (the "tarn" in tarnsman) or lizards. There are several high castes, who are sort of an aristocracy, as well as low castes. And then there are slaves. Castes have creeds/codes they are supposed to keep.
The protagonist (Tarl Cabot) is an earth-man descended from
another earth-man who was taken some years back. Tarl ends up being the sort of Secret King / Champion We've Been Waiting For sort of fellow. He is spirited away to Gor, trained up Rocky-style in a matter of weeks and becomes the best swordsman on Gor. All that is set up to his Gor-shaking adventure.
Tarl is given all this martial training, book-learning, language-immersion and such that he is made one of the warrior caste. Then he is given the task (with only himself, his tarn, and a slave girl) of bringing down the most powerful polity on Gor. Planned to take him a few days at most. Sounds legit.
Hijinks ensue. The tone is one of naivete, dissipation, and crude savagery. Tarl tries to apply his somewhat-fuddy mid 20th century Englishman ethics, morality, and understanding in the course of his adventure. This does not blend well with the realities of culture and practice on Gor. In a fashion similar to "Lucifer's Hammer," which has a bit of a 'bawmp, ditty bamwp-bawmp" 1970s "What's your sign wanna come to my key party" vibe; ToG has more of a late 1960s "We're over all our sexual hangups and ready for 'people...having promiscuous sex with many...partners...in a consequence-free environment.'"
Controversy at eleventyFor all of that, I'd rate ToG strong PG-13. All the "sex scenes" are a few lines without any detail and perfunctory at best. Same with the scenes that contain nekkid folk. About as titillating as reading a chemistry lab notebook. The PG-13 is explicitly mentioning the sex & nekkid bits. It gets a strong PG-13 because of the overall tone.
Sex! Slavery!! Women in slavery!!! Women in slavery, sometimes having sex more or less willingly with their slave owners or high-status men!!!! Women in slavery, sometimes having sex more or less willingly with their slave owners or high-status men...sometimes preferring that state of affairs to being cloistered up in a burka as a high-caste woman!!!!!
Oh, the hugemanatee!
Your typical manatee-sized and/or overeducated feminist is going to hate most of the book for this, alone. Women are not in positions of much power and many times are in subservient positions wearing a slave-collar or a burka.
Gor Subculture (Back here in reality-land on Earth)This is not just a Rule 34 sort of deal. It goes WAY beyond that, from what I read about it. Put simply, there are folk who try to put Gor culture into practice. Oh, not the riding giant hawk-creatures while fighting with swords while dodging between castle/fortress/city towers bit, because that would be cool. No, the silly caste/master/slave bit. I'll let the reader delve for more detail.
Book RatingI would give ToG a 6/10. Reads like an enthusiastic first novel and not something to inspire 30+ sequels. I plan on reading #2 and #3 to see if writing gets better. If not I'll drop it. If the "erotic" (as reading a phone book) bits get clinical in detail, I'll drop it (even if the writing improves). The best thing about ToG is that it might cause a SJW head to explode. I suppose one could walk about town carrying a copy in a conspicuous manner and forego the reading of it.
