This novel is important in the Gorean Saga, as events in this book are what kick off the war between the empires of Ar & Cos that dominate the books that follow this one.The novel follows the story of Tiffany Collins, a girl who works on a perfume counter on Earth, who is lured to do some modelling and in short order ends up kidnapped and spirited away to Gor. This is the third novel to follow the story of an earth woman brought to Gor, and they tend to be better studies of the counter-earths culture than the Tarl Cabot, or Jason Marshall centered stories I find.
Tiffany is swiftly renamed Sheila, and told that she is the Tatrix (Queen) of a pwoerful city called Corcyrus, which is engaged in a trade rivalry with the cities of Argentum and Ar. In fact, she is a dupe, a near physical double, captured specially to take the blame for the real Shiela. In effect she is a slave, but lives in luxury unaware of this, until that is the city falls to its rivals armies, and Tiffany/Shiela is left behind to fall captive as a proxy for the real Tatrix.
Her misadventures then include an escape, on the run, 2 captures, eventual enslavement and so on, I don't want to spoil everything for you. The characters are generally well written, and Tiffany is handled well, as she is slowly exposed to more of the society of this strange world she has been brought to, her curiosity warring with common sense as to how much of it she should experience for herself.
While some bits are contrived, the story ambles along well enough, though the dialogue is in Norman's usual: He said, She said style, which this reader finds annoying. Norman's style as usual at times goes wildly off topic to detail some aspect of Gorean society or history, while this does detract from the momentum of the story, it helps (especially if you have read any of the other books) to build up the presence of this world, and I find his mini lectures to be very informative.
