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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.
1 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.
1.1 Unusual social environment
Typical examples are prison planets, primitive cultures, political or religious extremes and pseudo-medieval societies.
- See: UtopiaSee Utopia (disambiguation) for other meanings of this word Utopia in its most common and general meaning, refers to a hypothetical perfect society. It has also been used to describe actual communities founded in attempts to create such a society. The adj, DystopiaThe term dystopia is often used to describe a fictional society, usually existing in a future time period, in which the condition of life is extremely bad due to deprivation, oppression, or terror. In Post-Modern social criticism the same term is used to.
- Anarres — Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula Kroeber Le Guin (born October 21, 1929), is an American author. While she has written novels, poetry, childen's books, and essays, she is best known for her science fiction and fantasy, which she has written in the form of novels and short stories.'s Dispossessed (anarchist)
- Armaghast — Dan SimmonsDan Simmons (born April 4, 1948 in Peoria, Illinois) is an author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel Hyperion and its sequel The Fall of Hyperion''. The other novels in this series, the "Hyperion Cantos," are Endymion and T's Hyperion Cantos (prison planet)
- AthosAthos can mean: In Greek mythology, one of the Gigantes, see Athos (mythology). A mountain and peninsula in Greece containing an ancient monastic state: Mount Athos. One of the title characters in the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: Athos ( — Lois McMaster Bujold's Ethan of AthosEthan of Athos is a science fiction novel which is part of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. It tells the story of Dr. Ethan Urquhart Chief of Biology at the Severin District Reproduction Centre on the planet of Athos, and his quest to Kline St (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)
- Hanon IV — (Primitive culture)
- 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 —
Some Fantasy Worlds are also depicted as alien planets.
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