Planets in science fiction
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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)
- Beowulf - David Weber's Honorverse. Very liberal sexual mores.
- 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)
- Hades - David Weber's Honorverse. Prison planet where none of the native wildlife can metabolized by humans.
- Hanon IV — Star Trek: Voyager (Primitive culture)
- Hebron — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Jewish ethnic)
- Lagash — Isaac Asimov's Famous Short Story "Nightfall" The Planet has a Day That Lasts for thousands of year inhabitants go crazy at nightfall
- Magrathea — The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; planet of wealthy customised planet builders.
- Mejerr — Vandread (female-only society)
- 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)
- Omega — Robert Sheckley's The Status Civilization (a prison planet)
- Qom-Riyadh — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (Moslem)
- Rimmerworld Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf spends 600 years on a planet by himself. He creates clones of himself (originally to make a girlfriend). The planet is populated by millions of clones who eventually imprison the original Rimmer.
- 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)
- Salusa Secundus — from the Dune Chronicles. Nuked-out "hell world" used as a training environment for super-soldiers.
- 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.
- Talark — Vandread (male-only society)
- 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)
- Aquarius — Giant waterworld that caused the Biblical Great Flood. From Final Yamato of the Space Battleship Yamato series.
- 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. (toxic world. Inhabitants must form a symbionic relationship with a spore in order to survive.)
- 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 series (Metallic/Mechanical)
- Dagobah — Star Wars (swamp, 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)
- Ego the Living Planet — Marvel comics (living planet)
- Endor — the forest-moon in Return of the Jedi
- 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)
- Gamilon/Gamilus — Polluted homeworld of Leader Desslock the Gamilon/Gamilus Empire — Space Battleship Yamato
- Garth — David Brin's Uplift War (weird biology)
- Giedi Prime — Frank Herbert's Dune series (surface covered in upwelling oil, homeworld of House Harkonnen)
- God's Grove — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (forest world,Worldtree)
- Grayson — David Weber's Honorverse. Toxic, heavy metal environment.
- 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.
- Htrae — Red Dwarf (a backwards version of Earth).
- Hydros — Robert Silverberg's Face of the Waters (waterworld)
- Hyperion — Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos (one of 9 labyrinth planets, Time Tombs)
- Ireta - Anne McCaffrey's Planet Pirate series. Inhabited by both people and dinosaurs.
- Ishtar — Poul Anderson's Fire Time (periods of intense heat)
- Kamino — Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (ocean)
- Kashyyyk — A forest world caused by a terraforming accident where gigantic trees and furry, sentient Wookiees to maintain them evolved at an accelerated pace, Star Wars (particularly Knights of the Old Republic)
- Kharak — Homeworld (desert planet) destroyed by an enemy race after space travel is developed
- Kithrup — David Brin's Startide Rising (waterworld rich in heavy metals, which form part of the biochemical structure of its life. Mildly toxic to non-native life. also the "retirement" home of a neurotic race with enormous psi power)
- 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)
- Monea — Star Trek: Voyager (waterworld)
- Mor-Tax — the aliens' true homeworld in the first season of War of the Worlds (described as a garden planet)
- Nacre — Piers Anthony's Omnivore
- Namek and New Namek — Akira Toriyama's Dragonball (temperate land where trees are scarce, but water and grass abondant)
- 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)
- Resurgam — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (desert with buried alien artefacts)
- 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 (Mostly covered by living ocean)
- 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.
- Pern — Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. Deadly spore capable of eating ANYTHING (except rock and metal) rains down on planet for fifty years every 200-400 years.
- Tatooine — Star Wars movies (desert world)
- TallonIV from metroid prime, asteroid carrying mutating chemical crashed 25 years prior causing end of Chozon civilisation there and horrible changes in flora and fauna, chemical may come from one center metroid-like creature
- 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)
- Ursa Minor Beta nearly always Saturday afternoon The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Vladislava — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe (extremely turbulent atmosphere)
- 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"
- Yellowstone — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, the site of Chasm City and Glitter Band habitats
- Zahir — Valerian series (hollow planet)
- Zeelich, a planet in Little Big Adventure 2. It is covered by a thick layer of gas clouds and beneath lies a sea of lava. Vegetation and civilisation is recurrent only on mountains above the cloud layer.
Other
- Aiur — jungle planet in Starcraft the computer game
- Altair IV — Forbidden Planet
- Ahnooie-4 where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) decides to put a repulsive blob out of its misery
- Arisia — E. E. Smith's Lensmen series
- Ark — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Arlia — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Astra — A Marvel Universe) planet where humanoid aliens possess magnetic and molecule-controlling powers that enable them to have every power on metal
- 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
- Bog— where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) avoids pools of toxic chemicals under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases
- Botany — an Earth-like world portrayed in Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series.
- 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.
- Caprica — destroyed home planet of the Battlestar Galactica, one of the 12 home worlds
- 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
- Dragon World — the Earth from the anime Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, Dr. Slump, and Neko Majin Z.
- Epsilon 3 — orbited by Babylon 5
- Exxilon — Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks
- Freeza Planet 79 — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Gallifrey — Doctor Who (main character's home planet)
- Garrota — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Gauda Prime — a planet on which the series Blakes Seven comes to an end.
- Giedi Prime — home planet of the Harkonnen Dynasty from Dune
- Giganda — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Gloob, above which spaceman Spiff (Calvin) has a malfunction in his hyper freem drive and is blasted with a deadly frap ray by the aliens
- Gorgona — The Strugatsky brothers
- The Great Kai Planet — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Harvest — a farm planet in the video game series Halo
- 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, Noon Universe
- Jurai — The seat of the powerful Juraian Empire in the anime Tenchi Muyo.
- Kaitan — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Padishah Emperors)
- Kanassa — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- Kashyyyk — Star Wars planet of Wookiees
- Kosmos — A planet in the Marvel Universe from which a criminal sludge-like alien escapes to hide on Earth where he kills The Wasp's father and fights Ant-Man
- Krypton — Superman
- Lar Metaal — Planet which shifts location in space every 1,000 years. Homeworld of Queen Promethium, Maetel and possibly Emeraldas — Galaxy Express 999, Queen Millenia, Maetel Legend
- Legis XV — location of Scott Westerfeld's Succession Series
- Leonida — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- 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
- Mok, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) undergoes water torture (his mother washes his hair)
- Mongo — Flash Gordon
- Morthrai — destroyed world of the aliens in the second season of War of the Worlds
- Narn — homeworld of the Narn in the Babylon 5 universe
- Nihil, Latin word for 'nothing', additional planet of Earth's solar system in the novel Beyond the Spectrum. Due to a flaw in space, the planet is invisible except at close range, although it can see most of the other planets. The inhabitants attempt to conquer Earth during the 30th century.
- Oa — headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps
- Ork — homeworld of the humanoid alien Mork in the television situation comedy Mork & Mindy.
- Pandora — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Pant — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- The Planet of the Apes — originally a book by Pierre Boulle
- Ix — Frank Herbert's Dune (The machine planet)
- Plootarg, where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) crashes after being zorched by a Zarch spacecraft
- Q-13 where Spaceman Spiff (Calvin) faces despicable scum beings with his mertilizer beam and mordo blasters
- Qo'noS/Kronos — Klingon homeworld in the Star Trek universe
- Qar'To — a planet established in the first season of War of the Worlds to be in the same system as that of the invading aliens (Mor-Tax) and has sent a synth to assassinate the Advocacy
- Rainbow — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Reach — a military stronghold planet in the video game series Halo, in the Epsilon Eridani system
- Reverie — Bruce Sterling's Artificial Kid
- Rigel IV — The Simpsons Home Planet of Kodos & Kang.
- Ruzhena — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Salusa Secundus — Frank Herbert's Dune (prison planet and training ground of the Padishah Emperors' Sardaukar)
- Saraksh — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Saula — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Sigma Octanus IV, a colony planet in the Halo series, significant because the Halo's "coordinates" were discovered there
- Skaro — Home planet of the Daleks
- Sky's Edge — Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space universe (Earth-like planet in a perpetual state of war between settler families)
- Synnax — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — The birthplace of Gaal Dornick, it was in a stellar system orbiting a region called the 'blue drift'.
- Tagora — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- 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
- Tirol — Homeworld of the Robotech Masters —Robotech
- Tissa — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Tleilax — Frank Herbert's Dune (home of the Bene Tleilaxu)
- Trantor — Galactic Empire and Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov — A planet-wide city
- Tralfamadore in the books by Kurt Vonnegut, home to the phlegmatic Tralfamadorians.
- Twinsun from the Little Big Adventure games, a planet which is lighted by two suns (which are fixated). It has three climates: the poles are hot and desertic, the equator is cold and artic (in opposite to planet Earth), and between them lie temperate lands.
- Vegeta and New Vegeta — Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z
- 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
- X-13 where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) is captured and brought before the Zorg despot
- Yayla — The Strugatsky brothers, Noon Universe
- Z'ha'dum — Home of the Shadows in Babylon 5
- Zanshaa — Walter Jon Williams's Dread Empire's Fall (Shaa Imperial Capital)
- Zark, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) has several adventures escaping sinister aliens
- Zartron-9 home of the awful bug beings who blast spaceman Spiff (Calvin) while he reboots his saucer's computer and tries to recalibrate his weapons
- Zog, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) makes a (very rare) perfect 3 point landing
- Zok, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) is marooned
- Zokk, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) bounds across the landscape given the low gravity
- Zorg, where spaceman Spiff (Calvin) sets his gun on deep-fat fry to blast aliens
In addition, some writers, scientists and artists have speculated about artificial worlds or planet-equivalents; see Larry Niven's Ringworld, Freeman Dyson's Dyson sphere or Christian Waldvogel's Globus Cassus.
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
- Globus Cassus
- Fantasy Worlds
- Fictional country
- Hypothetical planet
- Terrestrial planet
- Planets of Star Wars
External links
- Worldbuilding Class (http://www.world-builders.org/)
- The Multiverse Database (http://www.multiverse-db.com/)