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I was standing at the Bus Stop yesterday, and saw a thin, 20ish looking, woman standing there reading a book. She had shoulder length black hair,wore a flowered blue slim dress that covered her shoes, and had a Toreador length little green jacket over it.
What really captured my attention was that she was reading "Hunters of Gor". For those of you not familiar with it, "Hunters of Gor" was written by a "C" grade author named John Norman. Well, actually, the stories aren't bad but about every several pages, he launches into a few sentences that reveal his hatred and frustration with women. In his books, about 26 of them, he has created an Earth like world on the other side of the sun from us, where almost all women are naked slaves. He does a pretty good job in describing the Gorean world; with it's huge birds and really nasty, huge reptiles.
There are even on line Gor groups, one of which I tried to join and they were just too weird for me; barking at me as if I were scum right away. Why even the BDSM folk I know felt them too weird.
My own curiosity finally overwhelmed me and I asked her if she was reading that Book for a Literature Class. She said, "No, I just like to read". I did not push it any more, but told her that if she likes that book, my favorite author, David Weber, wrote a really good series called the "Honor Harrington Series" and it has really strong feminine characters. She seemed really interested, and the arrival of my Bus gave me time to make a swift exit. I did not get the chance to ask her if she was a librarian. Muaahhhaaaaa!
Gwendolyn
Comments
Hunters of Gor
Surely you should not lambast others authors just because you dislike the Subject. How would you like it if people made the same comments about your stories.
Have you actually read the authors works.
Everybody has there favourite authors and subjects. What about the TG stories bent on displaying men as sissies and slaves?
Try not to judge others - lest the do the same to you.
Who is David Weber?
Huggs ELIZA
ELIZA
Snippy as Hell wasn't I?
My gosh, you've caught me up short! You are of course, completely right and I was wrong. I am sorry. He is not such a bad author. I just find his view of women to be grating.
There is no need to worry about my work. I am so far under the radar, that I don't even rate bad comments.
Gwendolyn
Gor
Hi, Susan.
I, too, read a Gor book once.
Well... most of one.
Now, Honor Harrington... I ~devoured~ that series. :-)
Thanks for bringing up those titles.. I think I have them in a box...
Time for a little spring re-reading!
Smiles,
Michelle
David Weber is one of the current top Sci Fi Writers
with around 15,000,000 books sold.
Besides the Honor Harrington Series Novels Gwen mentioned, there are some co-authored books and a spin-off series in which Honor Harrington is not the main character. There are, ( I think it is 5 ), anthologies, with stories by Weber and others in the same universe.
I highly recommend it.
In my opinion, it ranks with Robert Heinlein's 'Future History' series, and Ann McCaffrey's Dragon Riders series.
David has also written or co-written many more stories, including the one where I found my quote, below.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Weber
Never did even feel an attraction to the Honor Harrington series, dunno why. But In Fury Born, which is an greatly expanded version of Path Of The Fury, now that is a darn good book. Definitely in my Top Ten Sci-Fi reads.
As for the Gor books, yawn. . . .
KJT
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Author vs. Subject
While you can't take any particular section of text and use it to draw a conclusion about an author's personality, you can get a good indication by reading a large body of text.
Yes, it is possible for a skilled author to eloquently state an opinion that opposes his beliefs. In fact, it is an effective way to write a good tale that vividly displays both sides of the conflict.
On the other hand, I can't see someone writing an entire series like Gor without some taste for the 'naked female sex slave' ideals. Yes, it's possible. It would be extremely difficult to pull it off, though.
And, why would you want to? Why would an author spend so much time writing something that he finds personally distasteful?
Sure, it's a good idea to write a few chapters about the inner workings of a culture that you find distasteful in order to illustrate the motivations of your protagonist. It's entirely another matter to write an entire series of books.
As for the young reader... well, she may have tastes in that area. Maybe she wants to find a master, or maybe she would rather dominate some of those uppity males that are portrayed in the books. Maybe she reads it for the same reason that some people read the likes of Stephen King or H. P. Lovecraft.
Like Gwen, I am sort of curious. Still, little shocks me. I'm not one to throw stones or comment upon the mote in my brother's or sister's eye.
Ray Drouillard
Yeah, but if he found it to be a gold mine?
If the first book sold better than his other writing, he might try another, and another and ...
I'd be very surprised if John Frederick Lange, Jr. hasn't written other books under other pen names.
He has written one under his own name,
and 6 books as John Norman that are not part of the Gor canon,
according to Wikipedia ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Norman
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
I've read 17 of the 26
I've read 17 of the 26 books. I didn't finish "Slavegirl of Gor", even though it really meshes with who I am and what I want. ;-)
His attitude does get irritating A LOT, and some of what he describes is impossible, but he can spin a story well. The only thing is that he tends to use the deu ex machina (sp) to be really problematic.
----
May the Stars Light Your Path
Maid Joy
G
Actually, I like the Gor series. It's really hot and in a way, inspiring. He's trying to write his point of view without imposing his ideas on everyone else. I think that is really much more admirable than those bible-thumpers who went out of their way to call people like me as satan's worshippers and condemn me just because I'm not a christian.
Modern Feminism...
I'm a charter member, with a three-digit member number:
http://www.heartless-bitches.com/
Of course, it's a Canadian site, and we all know that it's colder in the Great White North...
Puddin'
-------------------
Canada is a country so square that even
the female impersonators are women.
--- Richard Benner
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Offended
Despite the edits, I still find your words characterizing this woman (who you blame for costing you your job) offensive.
I'm not disputing the facts of your situation, but your railing against her gender presentation, any meds you assume she may have been on, and her sexual orientation are totally inappropriate, especially on a website for people who aren't sexually "vanilla" in the first place.
If we don't have tolerance for people who are different from us, then why should anyone tolerate us in return?
I not only hang out at lesbian bars, where my crossdressing is well within their comfort factor, but I've had two very dear butch lesbian friends not associated with the bar scene (one, a work colleague who died young from recurrent breast cancer after a long battle, the other a nondrinker who would't go near a bar on a bet.)
In my experience, talking with women in the bars, they're people, just like everyone else. The butches are more like guys in many respects, and are easy to talk to, if you treat them as your equal. I've had some great chats on all subjects -- sports, building trades, women, you name it. As long as you're not challenging or criticizing their sexuality, it's amazing how friendly people can be.
Offended
shinieris,
I find your language deeply offensive and insulting.
You haven't spoken in a story, in character, or in reference to a story.
You have simply insulted women who are feminists, lesbian or gender-different.
Michelle
i'm sorry
I'm sorry Shinieris that you have been victrim of man-hater,and that other don't understand your anger(i don't know what edited out was but i hope i did not miss something important)
ps:now modern feminism consist of (in majority,because not all feminists are like that)man-haters and female supremacist.I hope i did not hurt anybody feelings ,if so please forgive me.
I might be wrong about this,
...but judging by your proclivity for using profanity when making reference to femininism, I think you might be sorely pressed to convince anyone; male or female, that you are chivalrous. Perhaps going into the woods and screaming instead of ranting aimlessly at a site that has nothing...absolutely nothing to do with your complaints! Oh, and have a nice day!
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Possa Dio riccamente vi benedica, tutto il mio amore, Andrea
Love, Andrea Lena
Most puzzled by young woman
Most women would find that series to be extremely insulting, and she was half done with the book and said she liked it. While I am in a very poor position to criticize, I found it really odd that she should be reading such a book and liking it.
Gwen
It seems odd...
...but sometimes different things appeal to different people you wouldn't expect them too. :-S To slightly misapply: "...There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,/And every single one of them is right..." Though perhaps not so appealing to most of the tribe. >.<
As to Mr. Weber, I had the very great honor ( X-D ) to meet him at my local SFF convention the year before last, where he was Guest of Honor (I can play with this one all day!). He's a very interesting person to talk to or just to listen to. He's got some fairly severe health issues, some of which derive from being overweight. He actually does most of his writing using voice recognition/dictation software, which I thought was a pretty nifty way of doing things. His wife, Sharon, is great, and they really do seem to be a good complement to each other, sort of emphasizing each others' strengths and covering for (most of) each others' weaknesses, from what I saw.
I've loved the Honor Harrington books for years, and I'm also enjoying his new Safehold series. I read some of the 163x stuff, but that was definitely Eric Flint's project, and I lost interest after the second book, when they seemed to lose control over the definitions of cannon and fanwerk. I only read Heirs of Empire of the Dahak series, but I enjoyed that one as well. :-)
/geek
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"
Gor
There is whole sims on Second Life dedicated to Gor. I know several people who play these sims and in some circles they are considered strange. I personally dont see the attraction to it. To each their on I guess.
I'm Leaving This Thread Open
BigCloset TopShelf
If this thread degenerates back into a battle of wills, I will remove this blog.
Slavery or loving service?
There is an aspect to my personality that I am at a loss to explain, and believe me I have tried with all my heart to do so. Then this morning I was listening to a Katy Perry song where some of the lyrics went, "don't blame me, I'm programed that way". She is right, try as I might, I can not seem to escape my programing, and am likely do die without knowing a Master. Of course, I ask myself, what is a master?
Later I was looking in the mirror, thinking that I wanted to die, and then came to my mind the question, "Is there one good deed left undone, one crying child left to comfort, one thing to say to someone to help them through the day?" If there is then my fulfilling my own need to depart is truly selfish. I stood there knowing full well that I am trapped in this life.
I was standing in line at the VA hospital yesterday when I noticed an old man struggling to get his shoe on. It just seemed right for me to help him with it. He was so crippled up that he could not reach his shoe, so he had been just pushing his foot in and curling the back of it down, ruining it. Well, I struggled with it for a moment and got it back in and his shoe on. When I stood, he seemed extremely grateful, way beyond what I had done in my own mind, and it seems that several other men were inexplicably impressed.
How can it be that we have gotten our society to a place that a simple and small act of kindness is viewed as so unusual? What have we become?
So, on my way out the door to go to the VA to volunteer again, I wonder. Is my need to be a slave simply a need to help others. One is supposed to be debasing, and the other is seen as honorable, yet such a short distance separates the two.
More to think about.
Gwendolyn
Like the space...
...between an electron and the nucleus in an atom, where sometimes, the probable distance is effectively zero, or even negative, but the two never really seem to meet. Is it perhaps the distance between intentions, both yours and the other party's?
In any event, I'm not unhappy that small acts are so appreciated, though you're right that it's sad that they aren't more common occurrences. Gratitude is a fading virtue, and attentive care for others, another. :-(
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"
Slevery or loving service
Brilliant insight Gwen.
I struggle with trying to understand the meaning of all my sub fantasies which I really would not like to come true, wondering what they represent; wondering as I do about the meaning of dreams. But I don't trust anyone enough to actually play the sort of games that turn me on, and I'm far too visually critical for me to come anywhere near my own standards for a damsel in distress. So what's it all about?
Well, I really like your suggestion.
As for John Norman, I think he is an appalling writer, and I don't think he spins a good yarn either - but he has had an idea which allows archetypechal primitive slavery to interpenetrate our modern era, and it's very rich ground for fantasy. But reading him is like a rollercoaster, trudging through bad amateur prose until sudddenly there's another wonderful BDSM scenario.
I met mixed groups on the web who followed Gorean lifestyles back a few years ago, in text-based virtual worlds. I couldn't get on with them because of the need to remember so much jargon, and spend hours telling masters that I am pouring paga while pouting and primping. I think some seemed to actually believe Norman's amazing ramblings though and seemed to think women genuinely were happy discovering their slave natures - women in general, that is. I think it made one of them really sit up and think when I mentioned Stockholm Syndrome.
That's what is disturbing about Norman - not his bad writing, but that he's an apparently very clever chap who really seems to believe some shockingly backward things. I think it may all be a spoof. But I also heard he was a lifystyle Dominant with ihs wife, so maybe they wrote chapters in bed after a good romp, staying in role, and never bothered much with style.
But for all their faults, they are interesting books.
AD
I'm not a sci-fi fan...
but I am a feminist and I also appreciate chivalry - however, women are still treated unequally in much of the world, and I don't mean only places like Afghanistan or Somalia. Even in the UK, and I'm sure much of the US, women are frequently paid less than men for the same work, and passed over for top jobs or sacked because they're pregnant. Garages and builders often treat women like children or worse when charging them for work done (or not done) because we don't understand and should go back to our knitting!
I don't believe one sex or gender is superior to another, they complement each other and we need to develop the potential of each individual to optimum levels if we are to move society forwards. Sadly it appears easier to move mountains than change attitudes.
Angharad
Angharad
100 percent true, Angharad, except I >are< a Sci Fi fan.
It happens here, too, though they say that before our present economic problems, the pay differential was getting better.
However now, the layoffs are predominantly male.
In my county, ~70% of layoffs are males, and there are now more women working than men in the county.
Sounds as if a lot of employers are taking advantage of whatever differential still exists in making some of their decisions on who to let go.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Moral judgement again
If the Gor books were posted here, and this were attached as a comment on one of the stories, I'd have to remove it. I think it's almost always a mistake to attribute the positions of characters in a story to the author unless the author actually says, yes, that's my idea.
Ayn Rand believed in the positivism of her characters but John Norman has never said he believes in the philosophy of natural male dominance, female submission except as a vehicle for sexual fantasy. So attributing the positions of his character to him would be a violation of the commenting rules here.
Norman has made some public comments about his books sales, and many of his fans delight in pointing out that some avowed feminist organizations were taking credit for his decline in sales during the late 80s and 90s. But right now, his books are all in print and he even added a 27th volume recently.
But Norman has not published here and this isn't a comment, it's a blog. Still, one should make a distinction between the work and the person or the writers of Dexter would all go to prison for serial murder.
I read two or three of the Gor books. After that, they bored me. The first one is a pretty good Edgar Rice Burroughs/Princess of Mars pastiche with some bondage fantasy worked in. The bondage fantasy proved to be the most popular part so Norman delivered for his fans, again and again and again. He's still doing so, or someone is in his name.
Aardvark has published a Normanesque novel here on BC called "Warrior of Batuk". It's a trip to read and watch the Termite Eater turn the Gorean cliches sideways by giving them a TG twist. I recommend the story, if for nothing else, Aardvark is a good writer.
I keep bringing up the subject of moral judgement during discussion of stories here because it is central. Most mainstream audiences regard all TG fiction as being morally suspect because they see all of it as being of a piece and that piece being erotica, if not pornography.
Seeing the shitty end of that stick so often, I made the decision that equating a moral judgement of a story character with some sort of position being supposed by the author would not be allowed here as comments on BC stories.
After 9.5 years, nothing has changed my mind about that policy.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thanks for mentioning the Great Termite Terror, Erin
I had the pleasure of test reading aardvark's HUGE Zhor story, his iwist on the Gor stories. Please give it a read if you have not.
I've read or tried to read a few Gor fan fics but they not my cup of tea.
Sorry the one commenter had such problems with a fellow employee but then office politics can be brutal. The best thing to do is learn and move on, unless you have a really great lawyer and one heck of a case. The truly egregious backstabbers get theirs in the end, at least I hope they do.
We are as much products of our genetics and how that interacts with our lives. I've known rational people how are radical feminists and assume all men are potential scum but in at least one case that woman had been abused/raped as a child by family. Someone I correspond with here frequently can tell you about being abused by trusted adult family members. I have know men with opposite view and many in between..
I love a could debate, it makes BC stronger but do avoid generalizations about whole classes of people. This woman from what the commenter said is a sorry piece of work but in no way are all women or even the majority that way and the same is true of men or else life would be hell on earth.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
>> in the end... They do...
My own lawsuit against a company which encouraged overtly Christian religious banners and posters on the walls and some of their particularly pious employees commented adversely on lesbians and gays in the workplace wound up with US$10K in my pocket and the former CEO and his former chief Director of Engineering stuffed into broom closet jobs until the dust settled so they could be swept neatly out the door.
It wasn't the money, but the notoriety and precedent that did them in. Once sued and settled, the next lawyer can look at a sealed court record, put two and two together, and give me a call to find out exactly what happened.
As I understand it, the company are now punctilious in regard to these issues to a fault, all their executives undergo mandated "Sensitivity Training," and employees are handed a booklet before hire.
One "squeaky wheel" can make a huge difference.
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Such seriousness
I had originally started the Blog as a sort of humorous commentary on the likelihood of the girl reading that particular author. Does each one of us have some thing deeply hidden that we keep private from others? When I saw her reading it, I was amused, but now I am disappointed in the seriousness that some took of what I wrote.
I know exactly why I read about 15 of the Gor books. I was married to a really rabid feminist who took 39 years to completely emasculate me and when she did, it was turned back on me as if I were the criminal pervert. Though I did nothing, in retrospect, I suppose I should feel thankful that I did not wind up a registered sex offender.
I am a deep contradiction, in that living as a woman, I have actually experienced the discounting and discrimination that women experience. I have also experienced the flutter in my body when a door is opened for me or when some hunk flirts with me in a way that I know that I am not in danger. Oh, what a thrill it is to be knocked over by the Bus driver only to be caught in the arms of a 6'7", 250lb Black Man. OH GAWD, I am squirming just thinking of when it happened.
I understand how many women feel when some bastard male ignores us when we try to have input on a project that is normally male territory. I still get quite incensed when I try to explain to someone that I can not put in a 200 amp service, when the drop wires are good for about 60 amps, so then he goes and gets a real electrician to tell him the same thing. OH, and I just spit when a girl friend of mine says,"Don't bitch Gwen, you asked for this", and then swats me on the butt.
I am also a feminist in that I want each woman I know to feel empowered to do what she wants to do.
So, why is it that I so want to be chained and laying in the bed of some huge hairy man? DAMFIKNOW? It just ain't fair.
Gwendolyn
Ah Gwen
You make me smile. I read a few Gor books way back. Sort of a Pythonesque boys own Ripping Yarns stuff, with an often somewhat silly male dominant bondage subtext tossed in. They are not a political treatise, just one guys (probably) Mitty type dreams. Hey we each have our own don't we. I'm pretty sure there'd be stuff on BC that would disgust me (certainly elsewhere) but the Gor stuff doesn't even come close.
Why would that woman read them? Hey why not. Just a story afterall.
Kristina
David Weber e-books
FYI, a number of David Weber's e-books are available as free downloads at Baen Books - Websubscriptions. These are in a number of different formats including mobi, epub, rtf and Sony. I haven't read any of his work but did check and at least one Honor Harrington title is available for free with other's on sale. I've purchase a few books by other authors there and downloaded a couple free ones. The free ones seem to be older releases and first books of series - put up as teasers. But hey, free is free. All are without DRM.
Jamie
Baen Books
All of the Honorverse books are available for free as ebooks. The Baen site has the first ten novels plus the anthologies, Shadow of Saganami, Crown of Slaves and a couple of hundred other books, all available as free downloads. You can also get the latest Honor Harrington novel, 'At All Cost' at The Fifth Imperium, along with all the others, and yes, this is perfectly legal and done with the blessings of Baen. It seems they have this funny notion that if they make a lot of their books freely available to people, it will encourage those same people to go out and buy their books. Well, it worked on me anyway.
The only Honorverse novel that isn't currently available for free, at least to my knowledge, is 'Storm from the Shadows'. Baen did release a promotional CD for Storm, but the final version of the novel wasn't ready at the time the CD was released.
I'm a big David Weber fan, particularly of the Honorverse, and I am also absolutely ecstatic that Baen has picked up PC Hodgell and will soon be releasing the fifth novel in her Kencryrath series (something many of us out there have been waiting for and praying would happen for almost 20 years). I guess I'm a little biased, but I encourage anyone who is a fan of science fiction and fantasy to check out what Baen has to offer in their free library, and if you find a book you really like, support them by purchasing a copy if you are able.
Scott
I cried for me.
I cried for a world that wouldn’t let her be.
-- from Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Bree
The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.
-- Tom Clancy
http://genomorph.tglibrary.com/ (Currently broken)
http://bree-ramsey314.livejournal.com/
Twitter: @genomorph
As you noted about Baen's E-Books
The whole idea of the free books was started by Eric Flint, who talked SF Publisher Jim Baen into letting him post a couple of his older out of print books online for free.
He felt, and says the sales proved it, that the free books let people who hadn't seen his books, or at least hadn't read them know about him, and sales on other in print books increased.
The unfortunately late Jim Baen felt the same way and convinced some of the other Baen writers to try it, and they reported similar boosts in sales of their in print titles.
Now, many of the books in the free library are pulled from the free library for a while, so they can be returned to dead tree print format for a while. And then, they may again be returned to the Free Library.
A number of the Honor Harrington series have been there and gone back into print over time.
My first real experience with the Honor Harrington series, which I'd previously avoided because of the jacket blurb comparisons to Horatio Hornblower, was when a bookstore owner convinced me to buy the 10th book, buy pointing out that that the e-versions of the first nine were on a CD bound into the back. ( There was a lot of other stuff there, too, though Marty hadn't mentioned them ). I was hooked.
The wwwBaen.com Free Library is just that and has many titles including a few old classics.
Scott, I just checked the Free Library, and currently only 5 Honor Harrington Universe books are in the library, out of the thirteen Weber books in it. But most have been at one time or another.
It’s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets we’ll have,
David Weber – In Fury Born
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
Baen's Books
Yep, I can understand Flint's logic. Particularly in a world where the science fiction/fantasy sections are shrinking in bookstores and authors are creating longer and longer series. I don't know how many times I am browsing a book store and find an interesting book that is the 3rd in a series, and the 1st being nowhere to be found. I may check a used book store for the earlier books, buy the chance of my ordering online is nil. However, if I can find the earlier material on-line, the chance of buying that 3rd book increases. Recently the Baen library allowed me to read a book 2 (I had 1, could never find more) in order to buy an omnibus of books 3 and 4.
And availability is a perfect tie-in to my experience with the Gor books. It was back in my university days when I was a voracious reader (1 book a day habit) and I read a lot of pulp. I was a subscriber to Gold Eagle (?) Press which monthly sent out six books in the Mack Bolan, Able Company, and Phoenix Team (funnily enough they were a wing of Harlequin). I had also moved to the big city to go to school and I found this great 2nd hand book. The Gor books were amongst those I found when dredging for those thin sci-fi books of the 60s. I probably got into the teens before I quit reading them, probably because that's how many were available at the book store. Honestly, the misogyny never really jumped out at me at the time, because there was just a lot of role your eyes goofiness in the books I was reading. I think the number of Gor books is what makes Norman stand out.
As for the Honor Harrington books, I just never got into them, even though I tried a couple. Over time I have read a lot of naval series and the first couple books triggered the thought that they story would proceed in a direction I did not need to go again.
Just looked myself
Looking at the currently available titles, I was very pleased to find a number of James Schmitz books. Arguably his best novel, The Witches of Karras, is not on the list; but some of his nearly as good books like Telzey Amberdon and T.N.T. - Telzey and Trigger are. The heroines of those books are a couple of delightful, attractive and (extremely) smart young women. Well worth the time reading.
Yuri!
Yuri!
Schmitz's Heroines
I think one of my favorite books is Mr. Schmitz's Legacy (original title: A Tale of Two Clocks). It was one of the big reasons that I found out more about what was "wrong" with me. I identified with Trigger in a way that I had NEVER identified with a hero/heroine before. I've got two Dead tree copies of the book (one with each title on it), and the version that you can get from Baen actually has been updated, technologically. If you can get the original version, it's kind of fun to see what he foresaw as the "Future".
There have been other books that I have loved over the years but that one will forever hold a special place in my heart.
I've been a big fan of the Baen site for a while. You can always find something there worth reading, and can open you to a series or writer that you may have never considered reading before.
And THAT's the real purpose of the site. To get you reading again. 'Course, it helps them if you buy THEIR books . . . ;)
Gor-ey Books
To be perfectly honest, I have never completely read a single Gor book. I had started to read one of them and was so appalled at the treatment of the female characters that I put it down and never picked up another one. I put the author on my do-not-read list. People recommended the books to me over the years but I just said thanks, but no thanks but they weren't my type of books. On the other hand, I have never read any of the Honor Harrington books either. Why? To be honest, it is still not my type of reading material. What is my type? Who knows. I have always preferred a transgendered plot more than anything. That is what I read mostly. Now, I don't look for them specifically but if I find one, I'll read it but I don't go out of my way looking for one. That is just how I stand on this subject.
Goldie