Booking Through Thursday- Current Events

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted at A blog over at wordpress of the same name. This week's topic:

Current Events

One of those quick, easy questions that I ask periodically because the answer is always changing:

What are you reading right now? (And, is it good? Would you recommend it? How did you choose it?)

Right now I'm reading Outlaw of Gor.  I'm nearly halfway and I would have to say, Yes! I would recommend it... with some caveats.

First off, this is the second book in the series, so you really need to read Tarnsman of Gor before you read this one. 

Personally, I think this one is better than the first so far, but it's a bit different from today's fair and it certainly can't be considered PnR or UF.  It's really more Scifi/Fantasy taking place on Gor "The Counter Earth" a planet orbiting the sun directly opposite our own.  It's more sword and sorcery than Scifi although it's not long on the sorcery... Think Conan (although I've never read a Conan book).

The world building is quite extensive and some will find the content highly objectionable.  I've often heard this series described as soft core porn, but at a book and a half in, I've yet to see it.  Maybe at the time of original publication in 1967 I would have felt differently, but then I hadn't been born yet. I certainly wasn't reading back then.  I wouldn't call it a romance either although the first book did have a bit of a love story... it's really more action adventure.

Where the series causes controversy is in it's treatment of woman as objects and sex slaves. The rules governing Gorean society are extensive and well developed and honestly, it works for me in the fictional context, but I can totally understand why it might get under some people's skin.

If you like D/s style reads, you MIGHT like this, although again I caution that after a book and a half I've yet to see any sex.  There are a ton of books in the series tho, so I imagine at some point it will earn it's "pornographic" reputation.

I've heard about the Gor series for years and thought I'd give it a try.  I read the first book about a year ago and like it but put the series on the back burner. It has the same sort of feel as a Tarzan book... often rediculous but fun nevertheless.

In this particular case, I didn't know what I wanted to read next so I offered up an anonymous poll to my fellow GReeps and this is what won.  Much to their chagrin when they discovered that Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder was in the mix.  I'm not sorry tho :)