Witness of Gor, is in my opinion, the best Gor book to date. It constitutes a return to Norman's early adventure style of writing (which, to me, is lost in the middle chapters of Magicians of Gor), a more clearheaded and judicious representation of his own philosophy of human nature, and the introduction of both a new setting and a new slate of characters, while bringing back earlier ones and letting the reader know of their fates. The treatment of the protagonist, an earth woman brought to Gor as a slave girl, as having no name, and for all practical purposes, no earth identity, accomplishes a stroke of genius. That is, this device lets even the male reader see through her eyes as the "witness of Gor". The reader shares her naïveté in this new world precisely because he or she lacks her history and is thus unable to see her from a distance, critically. Instead, the reader must view things and learn things as she sees them and learns them.
Further, Norman goes beyond the usual philosophic discourses on dominance-submission as the paradigm, which governs male-female relationships, and uses instead a critical ethical dilemma to present honor as an ethical issue. And indeed, the story itself turns upon this ethical issue, in a day when soft politicians, diplomats, public servants and the philosophical ethicists who advise them renounce the very concept of honor, precisely because honor is not negotiable. In this book, Norman emerges not only as a first-rate storyteller-once again-but as the deeply insightful philosopher of human nature and morality that he is.
This latest offering in the Gor series has several further characteristics that make it exquisite. First, he sets the story in the Voltai Range, in the impregnable city of the robber-Ubar, Rask of Treve, a part of Gor of which readers have heard, but never experienced. Second, he pulls the series out of the morass that was "Magicians of Gor", and sets it once again on the road of heightened suspense and adventure to an epic climax in the struggle for dominance of the great city of Ar by the Island Ubarates, Tyros and Cos. Setting the story against that backdrop itself ties up a major loose end from Magicians of Gor and brings the series back to life for those who suffered through the loss of Ar's legions in the delta of the Vosk, the disappearance of its mighty Ubar, Marlenus, and the crass and treacherous rule of his daughter, Talena, as the proxy of Cos. Third, Norman shows here the best character development of any of the books. The figure of "The Tarsk"-the "depth warden" or pit master, he who governs Treve's deep and cavernous prisons-is the deepest, most thoughtful, and most sensitively developed character of the entire series. This massive twisted figure, deformed from birth, but of high intelligence and great cunning and strength, a master of the board game Kaissa as well, becomes the most sympathetic character of the story. Thus the reader suffers with the depth warden when he violates his oath of honor to preserve his integrity in another matter of honor. One actually finds oneself hoping long before the possibility arises in the plot that this great and grave figure does not commit suicide over his actions in the midst of this dilemma. And I note: only someone who himself has a profound sense of honor recognizes that violations of honor necessarily result in one's death, even if that means at one's own hand. Fourth, only an exciting and improbable twist of fate brings the heroine (and the reader) from the dank and dangerous depths of Treve's fortress prison to a surprise, nail-biting conclusion far from that setting. I cannot wait for Prize of Gor, the finale, or at least the sequel.
To sum up, this Gorean tale contains the greatest depth of character development and philosophic thought to which the author has yet risen. He also tells a great story, one that I could barely put down.
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