Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God

Gorel of Goliris

by Lavie Tidhar

It started out simple: Get to Falang-Et, find the mirror, find what truth it may hold. But nothing is simple for Gorel of Goliris... When Gorel forms an uneasy alliance - and ménage à trois- with an Avian spy and a half-Merlangai thief, things only start to get complicated. Add a murdered merchant, the deadly Mothers of the House of Jade, the rivalry of gods and the machinations of a rising Dark Lord bent on conquest, and things start to get out of hand.

Genres: Fantasy, Novella, Queer, Short Stories

85 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Lavie Tidhar was raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has travelled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu.

Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century.

Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist.

Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy.

He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012).

Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie.

His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.

Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011).

Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012).

He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog , and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there.

He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers).

Tidhar lives with his wife in London.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

On his quest to find his homeland, Goliris, Gorel the gunslinger goes to Falang-Et to find a magic mirror. Will he find the way home or death?

I've read a few Lavie Tidhar books before, A Man Lies Dreaming being my favorite. When I saw this "guns and sorcery" novella on Amazon, I broke my $2.99 ebook ceiling to buy it. It was worth it.

Gorel and the Pot Bellied God is a fantasy tale, owing quite a bit to the works of Fritz Leiber, and to a lesser extect Michael Moorcock and Jack Vance. Gorel is a gun-toting, drug-addicted mercenary in a fantasy world populated by all sorts of intelligent humanoid creatures, most of which Gorel has sex with at some point in the story. You heard. This is like the classic swords and sorcery tales, only with sex, drugs, and guns.

A lot of Gorel's background is mysterious but he had contact with a goddess at some point in the past, leaving him addicted to a drug called god dust. It's also not clear on how far away Goliris is, if it's on the same planet or even in the same dimension. That being said, Gorel is a fun character, conflicted, horny, and violent.

The core of the story draws from the fairy tale of the Princess and the Frog, only in this version, they have hundreds upon hundreds of human-frog hybrid babies, the Falang. Gorel heads into Falang-Et along the way, acquiring companions, killing things, and having inter-species sex.

The ending is bittersweet but Gorel isn't giving up on his quest. Good thing, since I want to read more of his adventures. Four out of five stars.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just didn't work for me.
I enjoy reading novellas and they can be a great way of trying out a new author, but this one actually felt like a long read becoming a trudge to get through.
The concept is interesting and I'm always a fan of fantasy takes on fairy tales and mythology with both bases covered here.
Sadly the main character , despite being a thief and an assassin just wasn't interesting , laboured sex scenes too embedded in symbology just added nothing of interest to the plot which was never gripping and a novella really has to grab you quick.
Not sure how well it represents the authors other work but I'm not sold on it.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lavie Tidhar created an alternate universe, sequel to the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale "The Frog Prince". I like the dark, atmospheric writing and the pacing helped keep me interested in Gorel's quest for the mirror that will take him back home.

Gorel of Goliris is a guy's guy, anti-hero, gunslinger, addict, touched by the Black Kiss and everyone, I mean, everyone wants to join his quest/sleep with him. It's been done before but this story does is well even though it doesn't stand out in terms of its characters. The writing is good and plot twists are interesting so most people will probably like this story.

I'm curious to see if the author can write more interesting women so I'll eventually read Osama.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's called a guns and sorcery book, and that's what we get. Gorel is an anti-hero. He's a gunslinger and kills for his own benefit. He's hooked on a drug called the God's Kiss, but nevertheless we side with him as he does have redeeming qualities.

Gorel was outcast from his lands a long time ago and he is trying to steal a mirror that will give him a way to find his home, and the story takes him to a city, where a frog-like race lives. The story is an adventure style tale, where Gorel's goal is to steal the mirror. He ends up meeting creatures along the way that eventually make up a band of thieves. Things don't go as planed, Gorel finds himself in the middle of game played by Gods, including the Pot Bellied God, and the ending is neither bad or good. It just is, for this anti-hero.

I liked it. It starts off slow but picks up and I thought the ending was satisfactory. This wasn't a great book, but it was a fun book. I guess there will be another book with the charactyer of Gorel coming out soon. I liked it enough that I'll seek that one out too.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird book. Maybe a case of the marketing being super incongruous with the actual book? It is far off from what I expected, in any case.

The setting and concept are interest. The communication of worldbuilding and the characterization of the Anthropomorphized creatures didn’t make sense to me, or else, they felt like it almost always does when people use animals-as-people: They want to make the perception of the animal and it’s nature the personality of someone. But people should be more complex then that and I think it almost always strays into weird/problematic areas… as it does here. There’s erroneous details that you wouldn’t expect as well. If the character is an animal the sensory information should be different than a person. Basically the characters just didn’t feel believable or even understandable. And then there was weird fuckin’ between “animals” that also added nothing.

The other major problem I had was sentence structure. The overall piece felt very bogged down because the writer was attached to run on sentences. Lots of commas and a shit ton of “and”s in the same way really monotonous first person writing can have. And then character dialogue was the main way you learned about worldbuilding, which seemed forced because there was no balance between that and “telling” techniques.

The dialogue was pretty good otherwise, though. Pretty weird.

I thought the mythology and fantastical elements were genuinely interesting. For those reasons, despite the fact I did DNF this halfway though, which would usually make me give something 1 star only—I’m giving it two stars. It has stuff going for it and maybe other people would be down with what it’s doing if they like the authorial voice.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lavie Tidhar has written in many genres, in addition to editing world science fiction anthologies. I have read some of his sci fi, his very enjoyable children's PI novel, Judge Dee reimagined short stories, and alternative history stories involving Hitler, and more. This novella is a rich fantasy retelling of an Aesop tale involving multiple species, gods, drugs, and interspecies sex.

I considered taking off a star for a narrative which was confusing at times and for a non traditional end to the quest (the gunslinger is on a quest for an object in order to achieve a further goal . That ultimate quest is not fulfilled, unless there is a sequel I don't know about. However given the imaginative characters, universe, and how I was caught up in the story, I stuck with 5 stars.

I highly recommend this author.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gorel just wants to find his way home. This reminds me Earl Dumarest.

Gorel carries two handguns. This reminds me of Roland of Gilead.

Gorel is an addict. This reminds me of Elric of Melniboné.

Much like Dumarest, Gorel finds himself far from home with no knowledge of how to return. Legend speaks of a mirror that may answer his desire. A well known fairy tale is the crux of this quest.

A very alien world. Filled with strange races.

There were several sexual encounters. Guess the different species have the right equipment. Hmm.

The modern cursing seemed out of place.

Not a favorite.

[Mike Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six Guns and Sorcery

A perfect take on six guns and sorcery. Meddling gods, deceptive sorcerers, innocent victims, and a a dispossessed anti-hero on an impossible quest.

[Cristina Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

As minhas primeiras leituras fantásticas terão sido as mitologias – histórias de deuses poderosos que, num único gesto, criavam mundos, moldavam humanos e erguiam fortalezas. Seres em tudo semelhantes aos humanos, com caprichos, desejos e vinganças, cujas vidas oscilavam entre tragédias gregas e novelas, mas onde as histórias eram contadas do ponto de vista minúsculo do humano, esmagado pela magnificência dos deuses.

Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God fez-me recordar algumas dessas mitologias, começando por contar a criação de uma civilização através da interacção romanceada e idealizada entre uma rapariga e um Deus. Mas pouco nessa interacção é tão inocente e belo quanto as lendas contam, antes uma versão poetizada de uma realidade tenebrosa e deprimente.

A história centra-se em Gorel, um mercenário que, antecipando-se a uma guerra, vai criando alianças onde mais lhe convém, alianças que poderão ser tão efémeras quanto as necessidades da viagem. Assim formam um pequeno grupo heterogéneo, quer em género, quer em espécies, em que cada elemento tem os seus motivos obscuros para participar na demanda, mas nem por isso deixam de partilhar carícias no frio da noite.

A demanda! O objectivo da viagem de Gorel é não mais que um objecto, um espelho, que poucos ouviram falar e muitos julgam um mito, a que Gorel desconhece a forma ou função, mas não o possível valor. Por essa razão não se contém em interrogar e matar quem possa ter qualquer informação que o levará ao destino.

O mundo descrito exala magia, mas não uma magia de magos ou fadas, antes uma magia natural e corrompida, que vai impregnando a civilização descrita. As aparentes inocência e beleza vão-se desvanecendo, mostrando uma civilização viciosa e degradada, centrada numa mitologia aparentemente ingénua, que esconde uma realidade claustrofónica. No final, o mercenário mostra-se honrado (ainda que “humano”, com as suas falhas), e o que é inicialmente mais belo, torna-se asqueroso.

Ainda que tenha gostado bastante da transfiguração dos elementos ao longo da história, faltaram, a meu ver, outras personagens ou maior conhecimento da personagem principal. A Gorel desconhecemos quase sempre os pensamentos ou sentimentos, e as suas motivações são irreconhecíveis sentindo-se uma névoa que nos separa da acção. Talvez esta névoa separadora tenha ajudado na criação do sentimento mitológico, mas não é constante – história vai intercalando momentos bastante movimentados e palpáveis, com outros melancólicos, o que dificulta a maior coesão do texto.

Mas não me interpretem mal. O que aqui refiro são detalhes – esta é uma boa história, que se destaca em tom e estilo, uma beleza corrompida num livro de aspecto gráfico coerente. De capa rígida, o design é da autoria de Pedro Marques, destacando-se a capa de entre os belos exemplares da PS Publishing, e o detalhe dos separadores no interior.

Originalmente em https://acrisalves.wordpress.com/2014...

[Larou]

Gorel & the Pot-Bellied God is subtitled as a “Sword & Guns novella” – I admit that I do not know whether that term was coined by Tidhar or whether he found it somewhere else but it is as compelling as fitting for this slim, but very impressive work. Lavie Tidhar is Sergio Leone to Fritz Leiber’s John Ford, and he is to Michael Moorcock what Tsui Hark is to King Hu. Which is to say, he’s read the classics, most likely devoured, even absorbed them, and now re-imagines them with a great amount of awareness of their tropes, irony and playfulness, plus an added pinch of weirdness. Well, more than a pinch in this case, more like a huge heap of it. Lavie Tidhar’s imagination is as fertile, as swampy and as steamy as the South-Eastern Asia inspired setting Gorel & the Pot-Bellied God takes place in; the novella is a bit like a Malaysian jungle – full of fetid, decomposing things and you’re likely to tread into something unpleasant with every step,but it is also seething with all kinds of bizarre lifeforms, teeming with sounds and bright, intense colours. This is a slim but brilliant work that places itself firmly in a tradition (or, in fact, several), yet bends and twists it into something quite unique and very fun to read.

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. The comparisons with King's Dark Tower and Howard's Conan are inevitable, but to go even further back, there is a distinct flavour of Lieber's Lankhmar and Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique series in here, all mixed up in a proto-Asian setting, and with added sex, drugs and violence. There is mystery about the beginnings of this tale, and mysteries to follow, and I eagerly anticipate reading more. For such a slim volume, there is a great deal in here to enjoy.

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've encountered Gorel before in audio form (Buried Eyes, on the audio fiction podcast Podcastle) and I've been wanting to read more Lavie Tidhar, but despite its short length, I did keep getting somewhat confused and lost in this novella. I still have no real idea of what was going on, but this does feel like a component in a larger story. Perhaps with more knowledge of the character and setting, it would work better.

[Caleb Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one; I'm looking forward to the book of further Gorel stories coming out later this year. The setting reminds me more of old "sword and planet" SF than fantasy, which is not surprising, since I believe one of Tidhar's influences in writing this was C. L. Moore. The atmosphere is wonderfully sleazy, with enough sex and drugs to make even a frog-person brothel keeper blush.

[Nick Sayce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book. Dark, funny and full of characters which in no way shape or form adhere to the usual dull good looking hero of fantasy novels
Even though its only a Novella it has that much detail, story and fully developed characters it could be a book of epic proportion.
This is a book which stays true to the saying "quality not quantity"!! . Highly recommended.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a few books by Tidhar and I always feel like he has a lot of interestingly weird ideas, but he just throws them all out there and they never quite come together satisfactorily in the end and I came away from this story with the same feeling. Gorel is a gun-slinging, lone cowboy type, travelling through a world populated by living gods and widely different sentient species of water, land and air, who all fuck each other, which is…a choice, that lead to some frankly disturbing scenes later on. While that might be my own petit bourgeois prudishness, I also had the impression that I was reading a story in the middle of a series, which as far as I can tell, is not the case. There were many references to Gorel’s backstory, but never fully explained how he lost his home country, what happened to it and why he cannot find it again, is it even real? Which is fine, I didn’t need to know any of that, but I felt like I was supposed to, I just wasn’t paying close enough attention. A little bit obscure, a little bit disgusting, but still intriguing.

[milo in the woods · Rating 2 out of 5]

i like the world-building in this universe and i also like the high fantasy setting. i don't, however, enjoy the characters or the writing. i will probably avoid this author in the future, i took pretty serious issue with the way that the women in this little story were written.

i also thought it was pretty naff that there's no real point to this story. none of the characters get any interesting development, and whilst there is a fun small twist at the end, it doesn't make up for the stilted dialogue and basic character dynamics. it was dense and it was boring and it really was not for me.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Guns & Sorcery, a that’s exactly what that means. It has the feel of Sword & Sorcery mixed with Trigun. It is also a sequel to a fairy-tale, keeping the creepy feeling those often have. It’s delightfully weird and like Clark Ashton Smith’s work, and has great depth in the themes. It does have sex and drugs, which some won’t like. These really define the character of Gorel, an outsider out for himself and a sort of roguish avenger of his family’s curse. As the title implies, there is a frog god, something which reminded me of Robert E. Howard and C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry stories.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

New find - Guns and Sorcery - basically in the whole swords and sorcery genre with monsters, mixed races, gods and magic, a wandering "barbarian" but Gorel uses guns rather than a sword. A good read.

[Daný · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audiobook and perhaps because of that found it an odd and somewhat difficult to follow story. I think it would be easier to keep track of what’s going on in A written version.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy shit! What a wild ride this story was. Weird and woolly, suspenseful with amazing timing, writing is clear and forceful. Not for the faint of heart or those easily offended, but I highly recommend.

[Andrée · Rating 2 out of 5]

This needs more pictures - it reads like the script of a 'comic' - and not an entirely original one either

[Bill Strangely · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed and rich world, perfectly presented as a lived-in mystery. The story itself is compelling and rings true, and the whole leaves you thirsting for more.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Too much going on. The world is vivid, but I got lost.

[Kaitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written, short story encompassing everything good about a mythological quest - romance, adventure, and drama. Filled with unique characters to make it seem new and interesting.

[Christy McDaniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please note that my relatively low rating of this novel is related more to personal tastes than the skill of the author or the quality of the writing. I picked this up after it was suggested by a friend during a conversation about Lord Dunsany and "world-building." While I like Dunsany and read him again from time to time as an avenue for accessing Lovecraft's influences, etc., I have an admittedly low tolerance for this type of fantasy (e.g. I avoid HPL's Dream Cycle stories like the plague; I find them mind-numbing). It takes a *lot* for me to stick with any story that begins "in the land of so and so, the so and so people..." If you enjoy fantasy of that nature, however, this is a well-crafted tale and worthy of your consideration. I just had difficulty caring about any of the characters.

[Tom Loock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Came as part of a "Surprise Me"-package of ten PostScript-titles on sale.

I've read (and very much enjoyed) Lavie Tidhar's Bookman-trilogy, but this one just doesn't do it for me. I can see why some readers will be excited though. Maybe it's because I find frogs disgusting?

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable. An immersive and detailed novella which manages to bring sympathy to the brutal protagonist
And a small coterie of ambiguously motivated other characters.

I'll read more of this author.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A touch of Conan, a little bit of "Dark Tower" and some rock'n roll! Excellent short read in a weird world.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wild fantasy mix that's like a combination of Conan, The Man with No Name and Jon Carter, in a fantasy setting with SE Asia links.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm rating this months after the fact, so details will be sparse. There was lots of adventure, sex and weirdness. Would recommend.