Atlantean Tides

Virgin Planet, CHAPTER XVI, p. 115.

See:

Atlantean Astronomy
The Astronomy Of Virgin Planet
Religion, Astronomy And Society

Astronomy affects tides:

Atlantean tides vary but are "...always enormous..." (p. 115);
up to seven times Terrestrial;
a bore is like a tsunami;
shores are either cliffs or salt marshes fading into ocean;
estuaries are swamps, shifting between flooded and merely drenched;
seabirds seek stranded fish;
the damp wind smells of decaying kelp;
trees grow above high tide;
grass is amphibious;
there are feathered, flippered seal-equivalents;
a few women -

live in huts on high ground;
hunt and fish in pirogues;
catch rainwater;
are weaker families living where no one else wants;
have a neolithic culture;
earn trade goods as guides.

Solis Township

"The Chapter Ends."

Dornford Yates' novels, set in Austria in the early twentieth century, describe narrow winding cobbled streets with overhanging buildings such that, in one case, it would have been possible to pass a basket from an upper window to someone reaching across from the facing house.

In Poul Anderson's "The Chapter Ends," the far future Earth wallows in archaisms:

houses low, white and half-timbered;
roofs thatched or red-tiled;
smoking chimneys;
carved, overhanging galleries;
narrow, cobbled, twisting streets;
wooden clogs;
the ruined walls of Sol City;
wooded hills;
fields;
orchards;
distant sea;
farm buildings;
cattle;
winding roads;
marble and granite walls;
"...all dreaming under the sun..." (p. 196);
smells of leaf, earth, trees, salt, kelp and fish.

Jorun's Home Planet

"The Chapter Ends."

The planet is at the Galactic center where "...uncountable hosts of suns..." (p. 198) are visible;

it is a "grim world," niggardly by contrast with the life-covered Earth;

it has moors, crags and spindrift seas;

its features are also described as "...hills and tundras and great empty seas..." (p. 211);

because everyone controls cosmic energies, there is no need to live close to others;

from his home, Jorn sees only moors;

some nights are very dark because there are no visible lights on the planetary surface although (see above) there are many stars in the sky.

I would like it because I appreciate solitude and, at the same time, rapid communication and transportation mean that Jorun has easy access to company and to civilization.