Online Encyclopedia
Planets in science fiction
The exploration of other worlds is one of the most enduring themes of 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 is 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.
- Anarres — Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (anarchist)
- Armaghast — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (prison planet)
- Athos — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos (male-only society)
- Barrayar — Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)
- Brontitall — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of bird people who live in the ear of a statue after shoe shop disaster.
- Cetaganda — Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)
- Chthon — Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)
- Coruscant — Star Wars (planet-wide city, seat of Galactic Republic and Empire)
- 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)
- Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
- Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of wealthy customised planet builders.
- Orthe — Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)
- Pacem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (base of Catholic church)
- Parvati — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (reformed Hindus)
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)
- Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)
- Riverworld — Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans of history)
- Rubanis — Valerian series (ultra-capitalist)
- Sangre — Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)
- Shikasta — Doris Lessing's Shikasta (cosmic consciousness)
- Shora — Joan Slonczewski 's A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)
- Solaria - Isaac Asimov's Robot series. People grow up isolated, and eventually lead totally solitary lives, doing all their interactive via telepresence.
- Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
- Xindus - Star Trek: Enterprise
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)
- Acid — Total Annihilation (Corresive oceans with forests of explosive gasbag plants)
- Arrakis — Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world, sole source of Melange)
- Atlantis — Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy (waterworld)
- Ballybran — Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer
- Bespin — Star Wars (gas giant with habitable atmospheric layer)
- Big Planet — Jack Vance
- Core Prime — Total Annihilation (metallic with a gigantic computer at its core and a landfill-covered satellite)
- Cybertron — Transformers (Metallic/Mechanical)
- Dagobah — Star Wars (jungle, Yoda's hideout)
- Dhrawn — Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)
- Dragon's Egg — Robert Forward (life on neutron star)
- Echronedal — Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games (a fire storm forever sweeping round an unbroken equatorial continent)
- Erna — C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (psychically malleable quasi-sentient natural forces)
- Far Away — Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star (triangle of stratospheric mountains, sterilized by solar flare, Starflyer alien )
- Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
- God's Grove — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (forest world,Worldtree )
- Hekla — Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)
- Helliconia — Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)
- Hoth — The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)
- Homeworld of The Micronauts, actually a chain of worldlets connected which resembles the ball and stick molecular model.
- Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
- Hyperion — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (one of 9 labyrinth planet s, Time Tombs )
- Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
- Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet)
- Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld)
- LV-426 — Aliens
- Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)
- Manaan — Star Wars (ocean)
- Majipoor — Robert Silverberg (large planet)
- Mare Infinitus — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (waterworld)
- Maui-Covenant — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (motile isles )
- Medea — Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project
- Mesklin — Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (superjovian)
- Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place
- Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)
- Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic 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)
- Sol Draconi Septem — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (glacier covered)
- Solaris — Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (living planet)
- Star One. A star with a single planet holding the Federation's main computers in Blakes Seven, situated between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. Planet destroyed in an intergalactic war.
- Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)
- Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)
- Terminal — an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blakes Seven.
- Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)
- T'ien Shan — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (mountain world, toxic surface clouds)
- Well World — Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)
- World of Tiers — Philip José Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)
- Yavin 4 — Fourth moon of the gas giant, Yavin; Rebel Alliance stronghold located in the ruins of an ancient Massassi temple (abandoned long ago) from "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope"
- Zahir — Valerian series (hollow planet)
Other
- Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
- Altair IV — Forbidden Planet
- Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
- Ark — The Strugatsky brothers
- Athse — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest
- Bajor — Star Trek
- Barsoom — Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy version of Mars
- Belzagor — Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth
- The Blue Sands Planet — The Strugatsky brothers
- Boskone — Smith's Lensmen series
- Bothawui — Star Wars cosmopolitan planet of Bothans
- Caladan — House Atreides home planet before being ordered to take up occupancy of Arrakis. Herbert's Dune.
- Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe
- Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series
- Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)
- Discworld — not quite a planet, as it's flat and supported by giant elephants
- Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
- Exxilon — Doctor Who episode "Death to the Daleks"
- Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Garrota — The Strugatsky brothers
- Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blakes Seven comes to an end.
- Giedi Prime — House Harkonnen home planet. Herbert's Dune.
- Gorgona — The Strugatsky brothers
- Hegira — Greg Bear
- Helicon - Home of Psychohistory founder, Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
- Hiigara — Homeworld (lost Kushan home planet)
- Homeworld — Scott Westerfeld 's Succession Series (Risen Imperial capital)
- Hope — The Strugatsky brothers
- Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
- Kashyyyk — Star Wars planet of Wookiees
- Krypton — Superman
- Legis XV — location of Scott Westerfeld 's Succession Series
- Leonida — The Strugatsky brothers
- Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience
- Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead
- Metaluna — This Island Earth
- Minbar — homeworld of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe
- Mongo — Flash Gordon
- Narn — homeworld of the Narn in the Babylon 5 universe
- Oa — headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps
- Pandora — The Strugatsky brothers
- Panta — The Strugatsky brothers
- The Planet of the Apes — originally a book by Pierre Boulle
- Ix — Frank Herbert's Dune (The machine planet)
- Qo'noS/Kronos — Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe
- Rainbow — The Strugatsky brothers
- Reverie — Bruce Sterling's Artificial Kid
- Rigel IV — The Simpsons Home Planet of Kodos & Kang.
- Ruzhena — The Strugatsky brothers
- Salusa Secundus — Frank Herbert's Dune (prison planet and training ground of the Padishah Emperors' Sardaukar)
- Saraksh — The Strugatsky brothers
- Saula — The Strugatsky brothers
- Skaro — Home planet of the Daleks
- Tagora — The Strugatsky brothers
- Terminus - Home of the Foundation in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series
- Texlahoma - depressive Earth analogue in Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X
- Thyferra — Star Wars
- Tissa — The Strugatsky brothers
- Tleilax — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Bene Tleilaxu)
- Trantor — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — A planet-wide city
- Vladislava — The Strugatsky brothers
- Vulcan — Star Trek
- Wallach Ix — in Dune, the home of the Bene Gesserit.
- "X" (planet) source of Alludium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, in Duck Dodgers
- Z'ha'dum — Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
- Zanshaa — Walter Jon Williams's Dread Empire's Fall (Shaa Imperial Capital)
In addition, some writers and scientists have speculated about artificial planets or planet-equivalents; see Larry Niven's Ringworld or Freeman Dyson's Dyson sphere.
Books
- Neil F. Comins : What if the Moon didn't exist
- Stephen Gillette : World-Building (Writer's Digest Books)
- Brian Stableford : The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places
Related articles
- Archive of fictional things
- Artificial world
- Desert planets
- Extrasolar planet
- Fantasy Worlds
- Fictional country
- Hypothetical planet
- Terrestrial planet