Customer Reviews

The Green Odyssey

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This book is just plain fun. There are no deep issues here, other than the love story, just an adventure that sweeps you along for 150 pages. The main character is stranded on a foreign planet with no technology and when a space ship arrives he sees his ticket back to civilization. The story that follows is filled with ships that "sail" on grass instead of water, cannibals, pirates, moving islands, and, of course, a love interest. Put simply, the book is just a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the book is out-of-print. But if you're willing to find an old copy somewhere, it's worth the hunt.

This was Farmer's first novel. It disappeared for many years, and broke his heart when he was ripped off by his fly-by-night publisher and the manuscript was stolen. It's nice to see it back in print (and it's also available in its entirety on the web)-- it's not his best, but still very entertaining as a rollicking adventure with some fun ideas along the way. Farmer fans will want to read it to see where he began, and new readers will enjoy its simple virtues.

Alan Green was stranded on a barbaric, alien planet for two years. After his space vessel malfunctioned he was forced to seek refuge among the natives. He has survived as a slave, had a child, and even wed. But of course he wishes to return home.

Word of spacemen and a ship in a far off land reaches his village. The spacemen are scheduled to be executed and along with it, Green's hopes of getting off the planet will die with them.He realizes his chances to return home lie in liberating these men and escaping on their ship. But first, he must escape from his owners and face leaving his wife and children behind.

He must find passage across a completely flat plain with grass as high as your knees. The plain is as vast as an ocean. The people on this planet traverse the expanse in wheeled ships that have sails like a boat and function in a similar manner.

The plains are filled with animals, barbarians, and floating "islands". The dangers have been fueled by years of superstition and many prove to be quite true.

This was a really good sci fi story. Farmer has a wild imagination and he creates worlds that are dangerous, exotic, and believable. Highly recommended.

A Good SF novel about sailing over verdant alien plains with windrollers, giant vessels with wheels. A grand adventure.

The storyy is about a human astronaut who crashes on a distant world. This is millenia after the collapse of interstellar travel by humans. This world had evolved into a distinct culture, which has blended in with high tech remnants of it ancestors