Encyclopedia > Planets in science fiction
Planets in science fiction
During the first decades of science fiction, Mars was the most common planet and the most romanticized of our solar system whose surface conditions seemed closest to being amenable to life. Percival Lowell's idea about canals of Mars[?] was taken at face value then. Currently Mars in depicted mainly as a target of terraforming.
See Mars in fiction for more details on the red planet's numerous roles.
During the early-to-mid 20th century, Venus was also a popular subject. Venus is very similar to Earth in its size and surface gravity, and its surface is hidden by a thick cloud layer. Venus was usually depicted as a warm, wet, jungle- and marsh-covered world where life was plentiful, with often thinly-veiled allegories of the European colonization of Africa. Venus is in fact an inhospitable world -- the clouds are sulfuric acid, the atmosphere is hundreds of times thicker than Earth's, and the surface temperature could melt lead.
See Venus in fiction[?] for more details and particular works.
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Fictional planets Authors have created thousands of fictional planets. Most of them are nearly indistinguishable from Earth, which is why Brian M. Stableford[?] calls them "Earth-Clones". In these, differences with Earth life are mostly social (like Barrayar[?] in the science fiction of Lois McMaster Bujold). More physically unusual planets have been in the hard science fiction books.
Unusual Social environment
Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies. See Utopia, Dystopia.- Anarres Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (socialist)
- Barrayar[?] Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)
- Cetaganda[?] Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)
- Chthon[?] Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)
- Dorsai[?] Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai[?] series (soldier culture)
- Gethen[?]/Winter - Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)
- Gor - John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are sex-slaves; all are happy in their appointed roles)
- Orthe[?] Mary Gentle[?]'s Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)
- Pern - Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)
- Riverworld Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans of history)
- Rubanis[?] Valerian[?] series (ultra-capitalist)
- Sangre[?] Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)
- Shora[?] Joan Slonczewski[?]'s A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)
- Tiamat[?] Joan D. Vinge[?]'s The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.
Unusual Physical environment
Typical examples are one-climate planets - deserts, waterworlds, arctic conditions and especially jungles.- Abyormen[?] Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (temperature extremes)
- Arrakis - Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world)
- Ballybran[?] Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer
- Big Planet[?] Jack Vance
- Dhrawn[?] Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
- Dragon's Egg[?] Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
- Garth[?] David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
- Hekla[?] Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)
- Helliconia[?] Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)
- Hoth The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)
- Hydros[?] Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
- Ishtar[?] Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
- Kithrup[?] David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld)
- LV-426[?] - Aliens
- Lamarckia[?] Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
- Majipoor[?] Robert Silverberg (large planet)
- Medea[?] Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project
- Mesklin Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity[?] (superjovian)
- Nacre[?] Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Poseidon[?] Blue Planet Roleplaying game[?] (ocean world)
- Pyrrus[?] Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psionic animals)
- Regis III[?] - Stanislaw Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)
- Rocheworld[?] Robert Forward (double planet)
- Smoke Ring[?] Larry Niven's Integral Trees & Smoke Ring (gas ring around a neutron star)
- Solaris[?] Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (living planet)
- Tatooine - Star Wars movies (desert world)
- Tenebra[?] - Hal Clement's Close to Critical[?] (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
- Thalassa Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
- Zahir[?] Valerian[?] series (hollow planet)
Other
- Altair IV[?]- Forbidden Planet
- Arisia[?] - E. E. Smith's Lensmen[?] series
- Athse[?] Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest
- Barsoom - Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy[?] version of Mars
- Boskone[?] - Smith's Lensmen series
- Belzagor[?] Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth
- Cyteen[?] C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
- Darkover Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
- Epsilon 3[?] - orbited by Babylon 5
- Exxilon[?] - Doctor Who episode "Death to the Daleks"
- Gallifrey - Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Hegira[?] Greg Bear
- Hyperion[?] Dan Simmons (Hyperion and sequels)
- Qo'noS/Kronos - Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe
- Kashyyyk - Star Wars planet of Wookiees
- Krypton - Superman
- Lithia[?] James Blish's Case of Conscience
- Lusitania[?] Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
- Magrathea - The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Metaluna[?] - This Island Earth[?]
- Mongo[?] - Flash Gordon
- Oa - home of the Green Lantern Corps
- The Planet of the Apes originally a book by Pierre Boulle
- Reverie[?] - Bruce Sterling's Artificial Kid
- Skaro - Home planet of the Daleks
- Trantor - Galactic Empire series by Isaac Asimov - A planet-wide city
- Vulcan - Star Trek
- Z'Ha'Dum[?] - Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
In addition, some writers and scientists have speculated about artificial planets or planet-equivalents; see Larry Nivens Ringworld or Freeman Dysons Dyson sphere.
- Neil F. Comins[?]: What if the Moon didnt exist
- Stephen Gillette[?]: World-Building (Writers Digest Books)
- Brian Stableford[?]: The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places
- Worldbuilding Class in http://www.world-builders.org/ (http://www.world-builders.org/)
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