Explore "The Green Odyssey" by Philip José Farmer on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Shortly after dawn the yacht set sail and sped toward Estorya, a / hundred miles west. The breeze was a strong thirty-five miles an / hour, precursor of the violent winds that roared across the Xurdimur / during the rainy season. Green set every inch of sail he had and took / over the helm himself. Steering was not as simple as it had been, / for traffic was getting heavy. In an hour he saw no less than forty / 'rollers, ranging in size from small merchants not much larger than / his own craft to tremendous three-decker 'rollers-of-the-line from / far-off Batrim, convoying even larger merchant vessels, high-pooped and / richly decorated. Then, as they came to within fifty miles of their / destination, small pleasure yachts appeared in increasing numbers. And / by the time they saw the white rocket-shaped towers that stretched from / horizon to horizon, Green was sweating at the manner in which craft / were shooting back and forth in front of him.
Miran said, "The entire nation is surrounded by these white towers and / by many fortresses interspersed between them. Inside the great circle / of towers the Estoryans have many rich farms on the plains. The city / proper, however, is built on three roaming islands that were captured / by their magic many centuries ago."