Many on Gor do not believe the great ship of Tersites, the lame, scorned, half-blind, half-mad shipwright, originally of Port Kar, exists. Surely it is a matter of no more than legend. In the previous book, however, Swordsmen of Gor, we learned that the great ship, commissioned by unusual warriors for a mysterious mission, was secretly built in the northern forests and brought down the Alexandra to Thassa, the sea, beginning her voyage to the "World's End," hazarding waters beyond the "farther islands," from which no ship had returned. Rediscover this brilliantly imagined world where men are masters and women live to serve their every desire. John Norman, born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1931, is the creator of the Gorean Saga, the longest-running series of adventure novels in science fiction history. Starting in December 1966 with Tarnsman of Gor, the series was put on hold after its twenty-fifth installment, Magicians of Gor, in 1988, when DAW refused to publish its successor, Witness of Gor. After several unsuccessful attempts to find a trade publishing outlet, the series was brought back into print in 2001. Norman has also produced a separate, three-installment science fiction series, the Telnarian Histories, plus two other fiction works (Ghost Dance and Time Slave), a nonfiction paperback (Imaginative Sex), and a collection of thirty short stories, entitled Norman Invasions. The Totems of Abydos was published in spring 2012. All of Norman's work is available both in print and as ebooks. The Internet has proven to be a fertile ground for the imagination of Norman's ever-growing fan base, and at Gor Chronicles (www.gorchronicles.com), a website specially created for his tremendous fan following, one may read everything there is to know about this unique fictional culture. Norman is married and has three children.