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Contents

Publication History
Cover Overview
Reviews and Previews
Chapter Overview
Word Cloud   [NEW]  
First Chapter Preview   [NEW]  
Cover Gallery (year)
Cover Gallery (edition)

Publication History

To follow...

TopCover Overview

Here is an overview of the most important covers of Nomads of Gor. Click on any cover to see the book.

English Paperback Covers

Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Printing - 1969   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - First Printing - 1972   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - First Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Masquerade Edition - First Printing - 1997   Nomads of Gor - New World Publishers Edition - First Printing - 2001   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Edition - First Printing - 2007   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Ultimate Edition - 2013  

English eBook Covers

Nomads of Gor - Powell Edition - First Printing - 2001  

English Audio Book Covers

Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Library Audio CD Version - 2011  

Foreign Covers

Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - First Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - French Opta Edition - First Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Argentinean Lidium Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Japanese Sogen Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Spanish Ultramar Edition - First Printing - 1989   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - First Printing - 1993   Nomads of Gor - Russian Armada Edition - First Printing - 1995   Nomads of Gor - Czech United Fans Edition - Part 1 - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Russian Eksmo Edition - First Printing - 2003   Nomads of Gor - German Basilisk Edition - First Printing - 2009  

TopReviews and Previews

(See also: Reviews)

Chapter Overview

Here is an overview of the 28 chapters in Nomads of Gor:

1. The Plains of Turia
2. I Make the Acquaintance of the Wagon Peoples
3. The Spear Gambling
4. The Outcome of Spear Gambling
5. The Prisoner
6. To the Wagon of Kutaituchik
7. La Kajira
8. The Wintering
9. Aphris of Turia
10. Love War
11. Bells and Collar
12. The Quiva
13. The Attack
14. Tarnsmen
15. Harold
16. I Find the Golden Sphere
17. The Yellow Pool of Turia
18. The Pleasure Gardens
19. Harold Finds a Wench
20. The Keep
21. Kamchak Enters Turia
22. Kamchak's Feast
23. The Battle at the Wagons
24. The Wagon of a Commander
25. I am Served Wine
26. The Egg of Priest-Kings
27. The Sparing of the Home Stone of Turia
28. Elizabeth and I Depart From the Wagon Peoples

TopWord Cloud

The image below shows the most often used words and terms within Nomads of Gor. The larger the size, the more often the word or term occurs in the text.

Nomads of Gor - Word Cloud

TopFirst Chapter Preview

Nomands of Gor (Gorean Saga 4)

1

The Plains of Turia

"Run!" cried the woman. "Flee for your life!"

I saw her eyes wild with fear for a moment above the rep-cloth veil and she had sped past me.

She was peasant, barefoot, her garment little more than coarse sacking. She had been carrying a wicker basket containing vulos, domesticated pigeons raised for eggs and meat. Her man, carrying a mattock, was not far behind. Over his left shoulder hung a bulging sack filled with what must have been the paraphernalia of his hut.

He circled me, widely. "Beware," he said, "I carry a Home Stone."

I stood back and made no move to draw my weapon. Though I was of the caste of warriors and he of peasants, and I armed and he carrying naught but a crude tool, I would not dispute his passage. One does not lightly dispute the passage of one who carries his Home Stone.

Seeing that I meant him no harm, he paused and lifted an arm, like a stick in a torn sleeve, and pointed backward. "They're coming," he said. "Run, you fool! Run for the gates of Turia!"

Turia the high-walled, the nine-gated, was the Gorean city lying in the midst of the huge prairies claimed by the Wagon Peoples.

Never had it fallen.

Awkwardly, carrying his sack, the peasant turned and stumbled on, casting occasional terrified glances over his shoulder.

I watched him and his woman disappear over the brown wintry grass.

In the distance, to one side and the other, I could see other human beings, running, carrying burdens, driving animals with sticks, fleeing.

Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents; they, too, had fled; farther to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads moving from side to side, continually testing the wind; beyond them I saw one of the tumits, a large, flightless bird whose hooked beak, as long as my forearm, attested only too clearly to its gustatory habits; I lifted my shield and grasped the long spear, but it did not turn in my direction; it passed, unaware; beyond the bird, to my surprise, I saw even a black larl, a huge catlike predator more commonly found in mountainous regions; it was stalking away, retreating unhurried like a king; before what, I asked myself, would even the black larl flee; and I asked myself how far it had been driven; perhaps even from the mountains of Ta-Thassa, that loomed in this hemisphere, Gor's southern, at the shore of Thassa, the sea, said to be in the myths without a farther shore.

The Wagon Peoples claimed the southern prairies of Gor, from gleaming Thassa and the mountains of Ta-Thassa to the southern foothills of the Voltai Range itself, that reared in the crust of Gor like the backbone of a planet. On the north they claimed lands even to the rush-grown banks of the Cartius, a broad, swift flowing tributary feeding into the incomparable Vosk. The land between the Cartius and the Vosk had once been within the borders of the claimed empire of Ar, but not even Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, when master of luxurious, glorious Ar, had flown his tarnsmen south of the Cartius.

In the past months I had made my way, afoot, overland, across the equator, living by hunting and occasional service in the caravans of merchants, from the northern to the southern hemisphere of Gor. I had left the vicinity of the Sardar Range in the month of Se'Var, which in the northern hemisphere is a winter month, and had journeyed south for months; and had now come to what some call the Plains of Turia, others the Land of the Wagon Peoples, in the autumn of this hemisphere; there is, due apparently to the balance of land and water mass on Gor, no particular moderation of seasonal variations either in the northern or southern hemisphere; nothing much, so to speak, to choose between them; on the other hand, Gor's temperatures, on the whole, tend to be somewhat fiercer than those of Earth, perhaps largely due to the fact of the wind-swept expanses of her gigantic land masses; indeed, though Gor is smaller than Earth, with consequent gravitational reduction, her actual land areas may be, for all I know, more extensive than those of my native planet; the areas of Gor which are mapped are large, but only a small fraction of the surface of the planet; much of Gor remains to her inhabitants simply terra incognita.*

* For purposes of convenience I am recounting directions in English terms, thinking it would be considerably difficult for the reader to follow references to the Gorean compass. Briefly, for those it might interest, all directions on the planet are calculated from the Sardar Mountains, which for the purposes of calculating direction play a role analogous to our north pole; the two main directions, so to speak, in the Gorean way of thinking are Ta-Sardar-Var and Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, or as one would normally say, Var and Ki-Var; ‘Var’ means a turning and ‘Ki’ signifies negation; thus, rather literally, one might speak of ‘turning to the Sardar’ and ‘not turning to the Sardar’, something like either facing north or not facing north; on the other hand, more helpfully, the Gorean compass is divided into eight, as opposed to our four, main quadrants, or better said, divisions, and each of these itself is of course subdivided. There is also a system of latitude and longitude figured on the basis of the Gorean day, calculated in Ahn, twenty of which constitute a Gorean day, and Ehn and Ihn, which are subdivisions of the Ahn, or Gorean hour. Ta-Sardar-Var is a direction which appears on all Gorean maps; Ta-Sardar-Ki-Var, of course, never appears on a map, since it would be any direction which is not Ta-Sardar-Var. Accordingly, the main divisions of the map are Ta-Sardar-Var, and the other seven; taking the Sardar as our “north pole” the other directions, clockwise as Earth clocks move (Gorean clock hands move in the opposite direction) would be, first, Ta-Sardar-Var, then, in order, Ror, Rim, Tun, Vask (sometimes spoken of as Verus Var, or the true turning away), Cart, Klim, and Kail, and then again, of course, Ta-Sardar-Var. The Cartius River incidentally, mentioned earlier, was named for the direction it lies from the city of Ar. From the Sardar I had gone largely Cart, sometimes Vask, then Cart again until I had come to the Plains of Turia, or the Land of the Wagon Peoples. I crossed the Cartius on a barge, one of several hired by the merchant of the caravan with which I was then serving. These barges, constructed of layered timbers of Ka-la-na wood, are towed by teams of river tharlarion, domesticated, vast, herbivorous, web-footed lizards raised and driven by the Cartius bargemen, fathers and sons, interrelated clans, claiming the status of a caste for themselves. Even with the harnessed might of several huge tharlarion drawing toward the opposite shore the crossing took us several pasangs downriver. The caravan, of course, was bound for Turia. No caravans, to my knowledge, make their way to the Wagon Peoples, who are largely isolated and have their own way of life. I left the caravan before it reached Turia. My business was with the Wagon Peoples, not the Turians, said to be indolent and luxury-loving; but I wonder at this charge, for Turia has stood for generations on the plains claimed by the fierce Wagon Peoples.

For some minutes I stood silently observing the animals and the men who pressed toward Turia, invisible over the brown horizon. I found it hard to understand their terror. Even the autumn grass itself bent and shook in brown tides toward Turia, shimmering in the sun like a tawny surf beneath the fleeing clouds above; it was as though the unseen wind itself, frantic volumes and motions of simple air, too desired its sanctuary behind the high walls of the far city.

Overhead a wild Gorean kite, shrilling, beat its lonely way from this place, seemingly no different from a thousand other places on these broad grasslands of the south.

I looked into the distance, from which these fleeing multitudes, frightened men and stampeding animals, had come. There, some pasangs distant, I saw columns of smoke rising in the cold air, where fields were burning. Yet the prairie itself was not afire, only the fields of peasants, the fields of men who had cultivated the soil; the prairie grass, such that it might graze the ponderous bosk, had been spared.

Too in the distance I saw dust, rising like a black, raging dawn, raised by the hoofs of innumerable animals, not those that fled, but undoubtedly by the bosk herds of the Wagon Peoples.

The Wagon Peoples grow no food, nor do they have manufacturing as we know it. They are herders and, it is said, killers. They eat nothing that has touched the dirt. They live on the meat and milk of the bosk. They are among the proudest of the peoples of Gor, regarding the dwellers of the cities of Gor as vermin in holes, cowards who must fly behind walls, wretches who fear to live beneath the broad sky, who dare not dispute with them the open, windswept plains of their world.

The bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike creature. It is a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long, wicked horns that reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate in fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears.

Not only does the flesh of the bosk and the milk of its cows furnish the Wagon Peoples with food and drink, but its hides cover the domelike wagons in which they dwell; its tanned and sewn skins cover their bodies; the leather of its hump is used for their shields; its sinews form their thread; its bones and horns are split and tooled into implements of a hundred sorts, from awls, punches and spoons to drinking flagons and weapon tips; its hoofs are used for glues; its oils are used to grease their bodies against the cold. Even the dung of the bosk finds its uses on the treeless prairies, being dried and used for fuel. The bosk is said to be the Mother of the Wagon Peoples, and they reverence it as such. The man who kills one foolishly is strangled in thongs or suffocated in the hide of the animal he slew; if, for any reason, the man should kill a bosk cow with unborn young he is staked out, alive, in the path of the herd, and the march of the Wagon Peoples takes its way over him.

Now there seemed to be fewer men and animals rushing past, scattered over the prairie; only the wind remained; and the fires in the distance, and the swelling, nearing roll of dust that drifted into the stained sky. Then I began to feel, through the soles of my sandals, the trembling of the earth. The hair on the back of my neck seemed to leap up and I felt the hair on my forearms stiffen. The earth itself was shaking from the hoofs of the bosk herds of the Wagon Peoples.

They were approaching.

Their outriders would soon be in sight.

I hung my helmet over my left shoulder with the sheathed short sword; on my left arm I bore my shield; in my right hand I carried the Gorean war spear.

I began to walk toward the dust in the distance, across the trembling ground.

(Republished with kind permission of E-Reads.)

TopCover Gallery (year)

Here is a cover gallery showing all the editions and printings of Nomads of Gor, sorted by year of publication. Click on any cover to see the book.

Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Printing - 1969   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Second Printing - 1971   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Third Printing - 1972   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - First Printing - 1972   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fifth Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Canadian Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fourth Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - Second Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Sixth Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - First Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Seventh Printing - 1975   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eighth Printing - 1975   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Nineth Printing - 1976   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Second Printing - 1976   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Tenth Printing - 1977   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Twelfth Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - Third Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - First Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eleventh Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Korean Mofumsa Edition - First Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Second Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Thirteenth Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fourteenth Printing - 1980   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Third Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Sixteenth Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fifteenth Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Argentinean Lidium Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Japanese Sogen Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Hybrid Printing - 1983   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Third Printing - 1983   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Fourth Printing - 1984   Nomads of Gor - French Opta Edition - First Printing - 1984   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Seventeenth Printing - 1985   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Fourth Printing - 1985   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eighteenth Printing - 1987   Nomads of Gor - Spanish Ultramar Edition - First Printing - 1989   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - First Printing - 1993   Nomads of Gor - Korean Lantern Edition - First Printing - 1994   Nomads of Gor - Russian Armada Edition - First Printing - 1995   Nomads of Gor - Czech United Fans Edition - Part 2 - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Czech United Fans Edition - Part 1 - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Masquerade Edition - First Printing - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Masquerade Edition - Second Printing - 1998   Nomads of Gor - New World Publishers Edition - First Printing - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - First Version - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Peanut Press Edition - First Version - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Powell Edition - First Printing - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Russian Eksmo Edition - First Printing - 2003   Nomads of Gor - Russian Eksmo Edition - Second Printing - 2004   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - Third Printing - 2006   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Edition - First Printing - 2007   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - Second Version - 2007   Nomads of Gor - German Basilisk Edition - First Printing - 2009   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - First Version - 2010   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - Second Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Direct Download Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Playaway Audio Edition - First Printing - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Library Audio CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - MP3 CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Library MP3 CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Orion Edition - First Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Audio CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - Third Version - 2013   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - Third Version - 2013   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Edition - Second Printing - 2013   Nomads of Gor - Bootleg Editions - First Version - year   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - Second Printing - year  

TopCover Gallery (edition)

Here is a cover gallery showing all the editions and printings of Nomads of Gor, sorted by edition. Click on any cover to see the book.

Nomads of Gor - Russian Armada Edition - First Printing - 1995   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Printing - 1969   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Second Printing - 1971   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Third Printing - 1972   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fourth Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fifth Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Sixth Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Seventh Printing - 1975   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eighth Printing - 1975   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Nineth Printing - 1976   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Tenth Printing - 1977   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eleventh Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Twelfth Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Thirteenth Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fourteenth Printing - 1980   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Fifteenth Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Sixteenth Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Seventeenth Printing - 1985   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - Eighteenth Printing - 1987   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Canadian Printing - 1973   Nomads of Gor - Ballantine Edition - First Hybrid Printing - 1983   Nomads of Gor - German Basilisk Edition - First Printing - 2009   Nomads of Gor - Bootleg Editions - First Version - year   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Audio CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Direct Download Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Library Audio CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - Library MP3 CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Brilliance Audio Edition - MP3 CD Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Russian Eksmo Edition - First Printing - 2003   Nomads of Gor - Russian Eksmo Edition - Second Printing - 2004   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Edition - First Printing - 2007   Nomads of Gor - E-Reads Edition - Second Printing - 2013   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - First Version - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - Second Version - 2007   Nomads of Gor - Digital E-Reads Edition - Third Version - 2013   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - First Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Second Printing - 1976   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Third Printing - 1983   Nomads of Gor - German Heyne Edition - Fourth Printing - 1984   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - First Printing - 1993   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - Second Printing - year   Nomads of Gor - French J'ai Lu Edition - Third Printing - 2006   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - First Version - 2010   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - Second Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Kindle Edition - Third Version - 2013   Nomads of Gor - Argentinean Lidium Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Korean Lantern Edition - First Printing - 1994   Nomads of Gor - Masquerade Edition - First Printing - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Masquerade Edition - Second Printing - 1998   Nomads of Gor - Korean Mofumsa Edition - First Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - New World Publishers Edition - First Printing - 2001   Nomads of Gor - French Opta Edition - First Printing - 1984   Nomads of Gor - Orion Edition - First Version - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Peanut Press Edition - First Version - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Playaway Audio Edition - First Printing - 2011   Nomads of Gor - Powell Edition - First Printing - 2001   Nomads of Gor - Japanese Sogen Edition - First Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - First Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Second Printing - 1979   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Third Printing - 1982   Nomads of Gor - Star Edition - Fourth Printing - 1985   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - First Printing - 1972   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - Second Printing - 1974   Nomads of Gor - Universal-Tandem Edition - Third Printing - 1978   Nomads of Gor - Czech United Fans Edition - Part 1 - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Czech United Fans Edition - Part 2 - 1997   Nomads of Gor - Spanish Ultramar Edition - First Printing - 1989  
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