The Green Odyssey

After crash landing on a primitive and barbaric planet, Earth astronaut Alan Green becomes a slave to the Duke of Tropat and paramour to the duke's termagant wife, all while married to a gorgeous slave woman named Amra. Green has one daughter with Amra, but her other three children are each from different "owners" who bought and sold her over the years.

When Green learns that two Earthmen recently landed near the distant city of Estorya and were taken prisoner as "demons," he strikes a deal with a trader, Miran, to hide aboard his ship on his next voyage across the vast, grassy plain of Xurdimur. For on this world, boats travel not only by sea, but also over land using a series of large wheels.

It is Green's plan to free the imprisoned show more Earthmen before they are executed during an upcoming festival, then return with them to Earth aboard their ship.

After a perilous escape from the duke and duchess, Green disguises himself as a monk and boards Miran's ship—only to be confronted by Amra and her children, who he had planned to leave behind for they would never be able to adapt to life on Earth.

During their trek across Xurdimur, Miran cleverly evades an attack by pirates, but a day or two later, his ship collides with one of the fabled roaming islands that levitate across the plains of their own volition. Many of Miran's crew are killed in the crash. Most of the survivors are slaughtered shortly after by the savage cannibals inhabiting the island. Although wounded, Green evades capture, but is separated from Amra and the children. He soon learns that they were imprisoned by the natives.

No sooner does he rescue them than Green encounters a disheveled Miran who also survived the collision. In the middle of the night, they manage to steal a smaller boat from the island and continue across the plain to Estorya. Will Green be able to liberate his fellow Earthmen before Miran betrays him to the authorities? Will their ship be undamaged and able to depart this godforsaken world and if so, will there be enough room for Amra and the children?

The Green Odyssey was Philip José Farmer's first novel-length publication and is more fantasy-adventure than science fiction. While the setting has a few unique elements, the characters are two-dimensional. Overall, the story is reminiscent of the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs and seemed to be a precursor to Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series in which an Earth astronaut named Adam Reith crash lands on a barbaric alien world named Tschai and after acquiring several companions, ventures off across the planet to find the means to return to Earth. show less

The Green Odyssey is a bit of a mixed bag. At times, it’s a fun adventure story set on a different planet, but with the sensibilities of a swashbuckling pirate novel. On the other hand, the writing was lacking for the most part and the characterization was pretty weak.

Alan Green is an Earth man who found his way onto a distant planet that is about the 15th century equivalent of Earth in terms of technology and culture. When he learns that astronauts from Earth have landed on the planet and have been taken prisoner, he sees this as an opportunity to get off the planet. Alan is a really poor character. He’s hard to like because he has no problem abandoning his wife and child to leave the planet. His attitude toward his family and also show more the people of the planet make him not particularly likeable. I never found myself rooting for Alan.

There were some fun action adventure elements to the novel, filled with cannibals, escapes from difficult situations, floating islands, rocket ships, etc. It’s written at a good pace and for the most part is a fun novel. The quality of the writing is a bit underwhelming, but the world building is very strong. So, in the end, it was a decent novel, but not one that stands out.

Carl Alves – author of Reconquest Mother Earth show less

My first Philip José Farmer book. I liked it, considering it was written 56 years ago. It is more fantasy as SciFi and hter are e lot of nice concepts used. Writing style (when you can judge that in a translation) is nice. I was eager to finish the book, so it wasn't boring.

I've seen Philip José Farmer's name lots of times, when I was browsing the sci-fi shelves of libraries and bookstores, but haven't read anything from him. That's strange as he had written over 50 books and I used to devour SF books. Nevertheless “The Green Odyssey” was the first I read from him. I am afraid I may not read another one for a while, as I didn't really like it.

The story was one of a dozen and the writing was too technocratic for me. Over and over I though I was reading the manual of a machine that happened to be the ecosystem of a planet. I am one of those few people who do read manuals when they get a new machine or equipment, but when I am reading a novel that's not what I expect. The three things that saved the show more novel from being and utter bore: the colorful local wife of the traveling hero, the occasional humor and the fact that the story was interesting enough that I wanted to know the end.

The story in a nutshell: a technician gets stranded on a planet where humans live on the technological level where Earth was a thousand or more years ago. At the beginning of the journey he is slave, but most of the novel follows his journey through freedom. He is trying to get to another city, because he learned that two human astronauts from Earth are held captive there. He is hoping they can get him back to his home planet. The voyage is adventurous as he and his fellow travelers encounter cannibals, pirates, dangerous animals, but also find the technical means to free the other earthlings.

It could have been a fun little book if the machinery and living system would have been written by a human and not a machine. show less

Fun classic SF. This was an early work by Farmer. It's not his best but still a good read.

Il primo testo pubblicato sotto forma di romanzo da Farmer è una veloce ma gustosa variazione sul tema dell’uomo solo su un pianeta ed in una società aliena. Per un incidente, l’ittiologo Green naufraga su un mondo che vive una specie di medioevo e dovrà fare i salti mortali – anche logici, talvolta – per cercare di liberarsene. La lettura del libro richiede poche ore ed è perciò adatta alla stagione, ma il lavoro dell’autore per costruire una civiltà extraterrestre si fa apprezzare: forse il finale non è proprio imprevedibile, ma le spiegazioni che lo accompagnano non sono per nulla scontate e prefigurano tematiche del Farmer maturo. Certo, fa sempre un po’ impressione immaginare le astronavi ancora come fusi puntati show more verso il cielo - il romanzo è degli anni ’50 – ma dà anche una sensazione di tempi eroici che non dispiace per nulla. show less

Alan Green is niet direct een held. Hij is gesteld op rust en vrede net als iedereen. Niet dat hij echt bang is voor de heetgebakerde jachthond Alzo, net zo min als hij dat is voor de net zo heetgebakerde eigenaar van de hond, de mooie hertogin Zuni. Tenslotte is het goed uit te houden op deze achterlijke en gewelddadige planeet.. mits je vierentwintig uur alert blijft! Maar Alan heeft een probleem: hij is moe en hij heeft heimwee. Als hij hoort van een ander stel gestrande ruimtereizigers van de Aarde besluit hij hen en hun ruimteschip te gaan zoeken. Hij boekt een passage op de zeilwagen van een inhalige handelskapitein en gaat op weg. Onderweg heeft hij niet alleen te maken met de streken van de kapitein en aanvallen van piraten maar show more ook met rond zwervende eilanden die alles verslinden dat op hun pad komt… show less