DW

Barbarous Accent

Revisado: 02-01-25

This was a better performance than Captive of Gor. The characterization of Judy/Dina/etc. is a lot more sympathetic than that of Elinor Brinton, may the Priest-Kings blast her shapely bones, and thus the story moved along without the frenetic inner dialog of a spoiled brat bimbo. Not that Judy is not, in her way, cut from the same piece of rep cloth (“I was an ENGLISH major! A POETESS!”)

My complaint about the performance is a minor one, but it is a consistent one with non-Ralph Lister readers. The fact that Lister has read the preponderance of the Gorean Saga audiobooks means that his pronunciation of the various place names, personal names, and other Gorean terms should be held to be the standard. That the other readers haven’t seemed to bother to listen to and emulate his pronunciations implies either laziness, arrogance, or both.

Neither Joy Lerner nor any of the other non-Ralph Lister narrators seems to have realized that the article “a” before the word Ubar means that the initial syllable is pronounced “YOO”, not “OO”. So confident, however, is Ms. Lerner in her pronunciation, that she “corrects” the original text, changing “a Ubar” to “an OO-bar”, and “a Ubarate” to “an OO-berit”.

Other sins include rendering tharlarion as “THAR-lian”, tabuk as “tuh-BOOOK”, pasang as “piss-AING”, and paga as “PAAAH-guh”. Also jarring is her habit of treating the hyphens in words like ka-la-na and Ko-ro-ba as an indication to pronounce every syllable with equivalent stress, and with a palpable pause between them. “KOH. ROH. BAAH.” “KAH. LAH. NAAH.”

As I said, these are minor gripes. My other dissatisfaction, equally minor, is that Ms. Lerner can do only three voices: bratty female, simpering female, and snarling male. This becomes problematic whenever there is more than one character of the same sex in conversation. Unless the speaker is specifically identified, it becomes sometimes difficult to keep track of which character is supposed to be speaking.

The best I can say about the narration is that it’s a hundred time better than Witness of Gor.

Ah, well. It’s still a good story, even if not entirely consequential to the overall narrative. The first message, encrypted as a sequence of colored beads and buried in a slave girl’s subconscious, ultimately made no difference at all, as the second message, encrypted in a simple ribbon scytale (Beasts of Gor) made the first one superfluous.

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Tarl’s Redemption

Revisado: 01-24-25

As I write this review, I have finished all but three of the Gorean sagas. The only ones not yet sampled are Smugglers, Dancer, and Treasure, the first two because I have not yet gotten round to them, the latter because it is not yet available as an audiobook. I dearly hope that John Norman will write one more Tarl Cabot novel before he shuffles off to the Cities of Dust, but this seems unlikely. I suspect that Warriors of Gor will be the last Tarl Cabot novel, for better or worse.

With that in mind, I have special regard for Marauders, the novel in which Tarl Cabot, after having recollected his honor in the previous story, regains it in Torvaldsland, and, to my mind anyway, rightfully rejoins the caste of Warriors.

There is a lot to like about Marauders. I’ve listened to it many times, and the first chapter is an especial comfort during low points in my own life. That a man like Tarl, even he, can be brought so low, both physically and emotionally, and yet triumph so completely, is magnificently encouraging.

One thing I love about the Gorean novels in general, and Marauders in particular, is the degree of detail Norman incorporates into the cultures of Gor. He has obviously deeply researched Viking history in writing his Torvaldlanders, just as he has researched other cultures and histories, such as Mongol and Turkic hordes, Bedouin tribes, indigenous North American tribes, Japanese, African, and classical Greco-Roman cultures to write his other novels. The Torvaldlanders are clearly historical Scandinavian Northmen, but plausible as a culture transplanted to an alien planet and allowed to flourish without the benefit of modern weapons and technology. Bloody savages, rapists and plunderers they may be, just as the Vikings were, but they are compelling and sympathetic characters all the same.

Only one thing about this reading of Marauders annoyed me, who am a great fan of Ralph Lister’s performances in every other respect. In Assassins, Raiders, and Hunters, the voice of Samos of Port Kar is much as I would expect from such a character: predatory, sly, and imperious. In Marauders, and in every successive novel, make him sound less like a dangerous pirate captain, and more like a plump merchant, more like Mintar from Tarnsman. It is a minor annoyance, but it still irks me somewhat.

In any event, Marauders is a perennial favorite, and one I will probably come back to again and again.

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Deserving of the Collar

Revisado: 01-21-25

In the 1997 film As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson’s character, a romance novelist, is asked “how do you write women so well?”

“I think of a man,” Nicholson replies “then I take away reason and accountability.”

Had John Norman been asked the same question, I suspect he might have added honor, courage, self-awareness, humility, and integrity to the male virtues absent in his heroine in Captive of Gor.

Elinor Brinton is a despicable woman: superficial, self-centered, vain, and most of all, petty. We the listeners are given the dubious opportunity of living inside the mind of this creature for over sixteen hours, getting ample testimony in the case of why this woman deserves the brand and collar.

It’s a good story, and Norman, in his first of many endeavors of telling it from the point of view of a female narrator, has done a good job in moving the story along despite it being carried in the wildly careening vehicle of Elinor’s narrative.

My only criticisms of this audiobook concern the narrator. To be fair, this is not entirely Lexi Maynard’s fault. She gives a manful (pun intended) effort to tell the story with an array of different male and female voices and accents, but in the end they all sound the same, like a California girl imitating Eastern European accents as well as she is able.

I did get annoyed at the many Gorean terms that sounded wrong (pasang comes out “puh-SAYNG”, Asperiche becomes “Ass-pur-itch”, Ute becomes “Yoot”, and so on (even English terms are mispronounced: I cannot count the number of times virile men are described as being “viral”).

The real problem, as with many of the audiobooks, is that I have been spoiled by the inimitable Ralph Lister. He has become the voice of Gor, the definitive authority on the pronunciation of Gorean words and place names (although even he sometimes goofs: is Talena pronounced “TA-le-na” or “ta-LE-na”?), and any deviation by other narrators is jarring.

As to that, WHY did Audible not contract Ralph Lister to at very least voice the last chapter, ostensibly penned by Tarl Cabot? It would have been a nice dessert, making up for a not entirely satisfying meal.

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Secrets of a Master Closer, from the Master himself.

Revisado: 12-06-23

A foundational course on how to sell, from first introductory cold sales call to cold hard cash in hand, Mike Kaplan takes the reader on a ride through the eight steps of a successful sale, guides the prospective salesman past the obstacles and pitfalls of objections, and outlines what sort of personality traits are essential to succeed in every sales transaction (and in life, for that matter).

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On my way to a hundred million

Revisado: 10-29-23

I started listening to this book soon after I listened to his first book, $100M Offers. I was so impressed by that book that my expectations were exceedingly high for this one.

I am astounded at how quickly and furiously the ideas have been bubbling up in my head as I’m listening. Just yesterday, I got the idea that will probably change my business and my life. Thank you Alex. I’ll be seeing you soon.

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Immediate return on investment

Revisado: 10-18-23

I had never heard of Alex Hormozi before yesterday. I came across his books on Audible while looking for The Full Fee Agent, Chris Voss’s sequel to his fantastic Never Split the Difference, the only book on Negotiation any sane person should ever need.

Well, long story short, I was underwhelmed by the lackluster narration in the sample of Full Fee Agent, so I idly clicked on the $100M Offers page, listened to the sample, and thought hmm. This is interesting. I immediately bought both this and Hormozi’s second book, $100M leads, and am listening to the first now. After less than an hour of listening, skipping back, re-listening, and pondering, I can confidently state that the material in only just the first forty minutes of this audiobook is worth well in excess of the money I spent. It has given me so many ideas for growing my own business (I am a copywriter, coach, and consultant), that I am bursting to put into practice. I can only imagine what ideas will start flowing once I digest the remainder of this book, AND all the free courses, AND all the free downloads, AND the other book with all of ITS courses and downloads.

This book is pure gold, so glad I bought it, and SO glad I now know Alex Hormozi. I look forward to the day my company grows to the point where he might feel like investing in it, and helping me take it to the next level.

Thanks, Alex! See you around.

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Ninety-seven percent satisfied

Revisado: 06-16-23

I have listened to all of the Gorean Saga audiobooks narrated by Ralph Lister as Tarl Cabot in most of them, as a mariner on the great ship in Mariners of Gor, and as an anonymous Kur chronicler in Kur of Gor. I have not bothered with any of the books with female narrators, not because I have anything against female narrators in general, but just that I found their voices in the samples irritating.

This, then, along with the other two in the Jason Marshall trilogy (Rogue and Guardsman of Gor) is the only non-Ralph Lister-narrated Gor audiobook I own. It is not badly done. Jeremy Arthur doesn’t possess the broad repertoire of character voices that Lister brings to his narrations, but he does a decent job.

With one exception. I really, really wish that Audible had ensured that all its narrators were consistent in their pronunciation of Gorean terms. After listening to eleven books by Lister, getting comfortable with his pseudo-Bristol-inflected pronunciation of Gorean words, it was a bit jarring to hear those same terms pronounced in Arthur’s broad American accent.

It was not a huge thing, but my teeth were set on edge every time the word “tharlarian” (thar-LA-ri-an) was rendered “thar-LARRY-un”, “kaissa” (ka-IS-sa) came out “KAY-suh”, and most egregiously (and most prolifically) “Gorean”, properly with the accent on the first syllable (“GOR-e-an”), is alway rendered by Arthur “go-REE-un”, as if what is referred to is not the Counter Earth, but the Land of the Morning Calm.

Again, not a big thing, but it does detract from the excellence of the overall narration, and it could have been easily avoided with just a little closer oversight by Quality Control at Audible Inc.

In all fairness, Ralph Lister is not blameless. In the “Pani Trilogy” (Seordsmen, Mariners, and Rebels), Lister mangles one Japanese name and term after another, rather reminiscent of his work in Shōgun, one of the first audiobooks I ever bought, and the first of Lister’s I had ever heard. As a longtime resident of Japan, and fluent in Japanese, I get a tiny bit irked when I hear the language mispronounced.

Also, in the last two books narrated by Lister, one gets the impression that Tarl Cabot has trouble remembering the pronunciation of the name of his own former companion, Talena. In every book prior to Avengers and Warriors, the name of the daughter of Marlenus is pronounced “TA-le-na”, but starting from Avengers, it has suddenly become “ta-LE-na”.

Perhaps I am picking nits, but one of the pleasures of listening to a good audiobook is when the narration is in accord with the narration inside one’s head. Even when the voices are on point, if the pronunciation of names and terms are not what one knows they should be, it is like the occasional sour note asserting itself in an otherwise fine musical performance.

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What a difference

Revisado: 09-19-22

I bought this title shortly after returning David Goggins’ execrable “Can’t Hurt Me”, and after finishing a marathon trident trifecta of Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s Extreme Ownership, Dichotomy of Leadership, and Leadership Strategy and Tactics.

I wasn’t sure why Goggins’ book rubbed me so hard the wrong way, until I started listening to American Sniper.

One word: humility. Jocko and Leif were the commander and platoon chief of one of the most successful task units in one of the toughest war zones in Iraq. The books were chock-full of mea culpas and lessons learned, all about subjugating one’s ego and being humble to more effectively help the team achieve victory.

Chris Kyle was the most effective, deadly sniper in US military history. His career was just as distinguished those of Jocko and Leif, on whose team he was. But like his leaders, Chris fills his book with aw shucks humility and “I’m not such a great shot, I just worked hard and was damned lucky. I certainly was never as great as Carlos Hathcock!”

Contrast this to Goggins, who also talked about his various fuckups, but always in the context of how great he is, how much he overcame, and all of the amazing things he did. His endless characterization of himself as “the hardest motherfucker God ever made”. Okay, I admit it. Goggins has had a tough life, overcome some impressive obstacles, and done some incredible things. I guess bragging about it is just his shtick, and it makes him money. It just isn’t my thing.

Maybe a musical metaphor will make it clearer. Jocko is the Ozzy Osborne of Navy Seals. Hardcore heavy metal, with powerful bass and growling lyrics. Alternatively War Pigs and Iron Man.

Chris Kyle is more George Strait. Good old Texas boy, the humble King, all about God, Family, and Country, givin’ it all he got.

David Goggins, on the other hand, is Jay-Z. Sure he’s talented, but so alternatively cocky and whiny about it that he’s impossible to listen to. I listened to the end, then sent it back to Audible and got this title instead.

Much better decision.

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Conan the Canadian

Revisado: 11-20-21

I had kind of mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, the stories are great, and the narrator did, as another reviewer said, really put his heart into it. Many points for effort.

However, I found myself getting distracted by his Canadian accent, and somewhat idiosyncratic (to my ears at least) pronunciations of several words. It would not be a problem except for how often these words appear in the text, such as ancient (“AIN-chi-unt”) and hideous (“HID-juss”). I shuddered every time Conan climbed onto the “ruff” (roof) or splashed across the “crick” (creek).

The melodramatic voices he chose for the various characters was a bit chuckle-worthy as well. I could not help imagining Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, clad in leather jerkins and fur boots, their swords and poniards (PAWN-yerds) ready to do battle.

It was also amusing to hear Conan start out speaking vaguely like the Austrian bodybuilder who portrayed him in a number of films, then losing that accent as the stories progresses.

I suppose I am just spoiled by narrators like Ralph Lister, whose nuanced and energetic performances really add life to whatever they read.

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Best translation I have encountered.

Revisado: 05-27-16

I read Go Rin no Sho for the first time when I was just a lad of fifteen, and have read and reread it many times since then. It has informed and enriched my martial arts practice considerably. The translation I had was Thomas Cleary's, published by Shambala, but until listening to this translation I never knew what I had been missing all these years. The translator, of course being Japanese, imbues the text with a layer of nuance that, sorry to say, had been absent from other translations. His prose is at the same time elegant and concise, and I could really feel Musashi speaking through him, with very little if anything lost in the translation. What a pleasure as well to hear it narrated by a Japanese man with proper pronunciation of the language, something that bugged me incessantly when listening to the audiobook of James Clavell's Shogun: the fact that Clavell's grasp of Japanese was shaky at best was exacerbated by the Narrator's hideous pronunciation and diction. I will definitely seek out other titles by this translator and narrator.

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