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.\nCurrently 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.
Fictional planets
\nAuthors have created thousands of fictional planets.\nMost of them are nearly indistinguishable from Earth, which is why Brian M. Stableford calls them "Earth-Clones".\nIn these, differences with Earth life are mostly social (like Barrayar in the science fiction of Lois McMaster Bujold).\nMore physically unusual planets have been in the hard science fiction books.
Unusual social environment
\nTypical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies.\n:See: Utopia, Dystopia.\n*Anarres — Ursula K. Le Guin's Dispossessed (anarchist)\n*Athos — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos\n*Barrayar — Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series (feudal military culture)\n*Brontitall — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; planet of bird people who live in the ear of a statue after shoe shop disaster.\n*Cetaganda — Bujold's Vorkosigan series (genetically engineered culture)\n*Chthon — Piers Anthony's Chthon (prison planet)\n*Dorsai — Gordon R. Dickson's Dorsai series (soldier culture)\n*Gethen/Winter — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (hermaphrodites)\n*Gor — John Norman's Gor series (men are warriors; women are sex-slaves; all are happy in their appointed roles)\n*Magrathea — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; planet of wealthy customised planet builders.\n*Orthe — Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed (post-holocaust/medieval aliens)\n*Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (people ride genetically-engineered dragons)\n*Riverworld — Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series (all humans of history)\n*Rubanis — Valerian series (ultra-capitalist)\n*Sangre — Norman Spinrad's Men in the Jungle (cannibalism)\n*Shikasta — Doris Lessing's Shikasta (cosmic consciousness)\n*Shora — Joan Slonczewski's A Door into Ocean (waterbound culture)\n*Solaria - Isaac Asimov's Robot series. People grow up isolated, and eventually lead totally solitary lives, doing all their interactive via telepresence. \n*Tiamat — Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen (matriarchy/monarchy)
Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.
Unusual physical environment
\nTypical examples are one-climate planets — deserts, waterworlds, arctic conditions and especially jungles.\n*Abyormen — Hal Clement's Cycle of Fire (temperature extremes)\n*Arrakis — Frank Herbert's Dune (desert world)\n*Ballybran — Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer\n*Big Planet — Jack Vance\n*Dhrawn — Hal Clement's Star Light (high gravity)\n*Dragon's Egg — Robert Forward (life on neutron star)\n*Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)\n*Hekla — Hal Clement's Cold Front (ice age aliens)\n*Helliconia — Brian Aldiss (seasons last millennia)\n*Hoth — The Empire Strikes Back (arctic)\n*Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)\n*Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)\n*Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld)\n*LV-426 — Aliens\n*Lamarckia — Greg Bear's Legacy (Lamarckian evolution)\n*Majipoor — Robert Silverberg (large planet)\n*Medea — Harlan Ellison's worldbuilding project\n*Mesklin — Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (superjovian)\n*Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore\n*Placet — Fredric Brown's Placet is a Crazy Place\n*Poseidon — Blue Planet Roleplaying game (ocean world)\n*Pyrrus — Harry Harrison's Deathworld (high gravity and psychic animals)\n*Regis III — Stanislaw Lem's Invincible (inorganic evolution)\n*Rocheworld — Robert Forward (double planet)\n*Smoke Ring — Larry Niven's Integral Trees & Smoke Ring (gas ring around a neutron star)\n*Solaris — Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (living planet)\n*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.\n*Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)\n*Tenebra — Hal Clement's Close to Critical (high gravity and corrosive atmosphere)\n* Terminal, an artificial planet displaying extreme polar flattening in Blakes Seven.\n*Thalassa — Arthur C. Clarke's Songs of Distant Earth (waterworld)\n*Well World — Jack L. Chalker's Well of Souls series (surface divided in thousands of different ecosystems, each one with a different sentient race)\n*World of Tiers — Philip Jose Farmer's book series of the same name (world-sized stepped pyramid with a different environment on each step)\n*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"\n*Zahir — Valerian series (hollow planet)
Other
\n*Altair IV — Forbidden Planet\n*Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series\n*Ark — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Athse — Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest\n*Bajor — Star Trek\n*Barsoom — Edgar Rice Burroughs, heroic fantasy version of Mars\n*Belzagor — Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth\n*The Blue Sands Planet — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Boskone — Smith's Lensmen series\n*Bothawui — Star Wars cosmopolitan planet of Bothans\n*Caladan — House Atreides home planet before being ordered to take up occupancy of Arrakis. Herbert's Dune.\n*Centauri Prime — homeworld of the Centauri in the Babylon 5 universe\n*Cyteen — C. J. Cherryh's Cyteen series\n*Darkover — Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series (medieval culture and psi powers)\n*Discworld\n*Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5\n*Exxilon — Doctor Who episode "Death to the Daleks"\n*Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)\n*Garrota — The Strugatsky brothers\n* Gauda Prime - a planet on which the series Blakes Seven comes to an end.\n*Giedi Prime — House Harkonnen home planet. Herbert's Dune.\n*Gorgona — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Hegira — Greg Bear\n*Helicon - Home of Psychohistory founder, Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series\n*Hope — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Hyperion — Dan Simmons (Hyperion and sequels)\n*Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)\n*Kashyyyk — Star Wars planet of Wookiees\n*Krypton — Superman\n*Leonida — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Lithia — James Blish's Case of Conscience\n*Lusitania — Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead\n*Metaluna — This Island Earth\n*Minbar — homeworld of the Minbari in the Babylon 5 universe\n*Mongo — Flash Gordon\n*Narn — homeworld of the Narn in the Babylon 5 universe\n*Oa — headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps\n*Pandora — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Panta — The Strugatsky brothers\n*The Planet of the Apes — originally a book by Pierre Boulle\n*Ix — Frank Herbert's Dune (The machine planet)\n*Qo'noS/Kronos — Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe\n*Rainbow — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Reverie — Bruce Sterling's Artificial Kid\n*Rigel IV — The Simpsons Home Planet of Kodos & Kang.\n*Ruzhena — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Salusa Secundus — Frank Herbert's Dune (prison planet and training ground of the Padishah Emperors' Sardaukar)\n*Saraksh — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Saula — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Skaro — Home planet of the Daleks\n*Tagora — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Terminus - Home of the Foundation in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series\n*Texlahoma - depressive Earth analogue in Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X\n*Thyferra — Star Wars \n*Tissa — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Tleilax — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Bene Tleilaxu)\n*Trantor — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — A planet-wide city\n*Vladislava — The Strugatsky brothers\n*Vulcan — Star Trek\n*Wallach Ix — in Dune, the home of the Bene Gesserit.\n* "X" (planet) source of Alludium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom, in Duck Dodgers\n*Z'ha'dum — Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
\nIn 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
\n* Neil F. Comins: What if the Moon didn't exist\n* Stephen Gillette: World-Building (Writer's Digest Books)\n* Brian Stableford: The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places
Related articles
\n* Archive of fictional things\n* Artificial world\n* Desert planets\n* Extrasolar planet\n* Fantasy Worlds\n* Fictional country\n* Hypothetical planet\n* Terrestrial planet
External links
\n* Worldbuilding Class\n* The Multiverse Database
Category:Fictional planets
