Dare Book

There are very few books that I have read a third time--this has become one of them. I picked up a British edition of this book in paperback, by "Quartet Books" from 1977. The original book by Farmer was published in 1965. One reason I was interested in this book when I first read it in the 70s is that it was about one of the greatest historical mysteries of all time--the complete disappearance of the tiny English colony of Roanoke, North Carolina, sometime between 1587 and 1591. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, was among the missing. According to Farmer, the mystery is solved! Along with several other groups of Earthpeople, they were transported to another planet--which they called "Dare" after the family which included baby Virginia. In the story, hundreds of years have elapsed and the humans have developed their agrarian society in an uneasy relationship with the Wiyr, the natives of the planet. The "Darians" call these natives "horsetails" as they are humanoid--but have a long tail. As the natives also go about in the nude, the Darians consider them no better than "beasts of the field." So it's a situation that resembles that of the European settlers and the "American Indians" in the New World. The difference is that the horsetails may have knowledge and abilities beyond the Darians' understanding. Farmer is the author who is regarded as the man who introduced sex into science fiction back in the 50s--and that happens in this book, as our hero young Jack Cage develops an intimate relationship with a sensuous horsetail woman. This could not only make Jack a despised outcast, but could trigger a war...This is a **** book, but if it could have been developed a little more, it would be a *****! Whatever did happen to Virginia Dare and the Roanokians???