The Solar System is much cozier than here. The planets are closer together. Being in "space" is like being atop a high mountain. The air is thin and cold, but breathable and survivable, although you probably want an airship if you plan to navigate the luminiferous ether, and having access to an alchemist who can speed things along wouldn't hurt. Science in general works more like the way people in the 19th century thought it did. In fact, the culture and decor are pretty much Victorian as well.
The planets are more or less like nations, and interplanetary intrigue looks a lot like Ruritarian romance. Adventures are almost certain to involve at least one hop from one planet to another. In addition to humans, there are alien natives on every world in the system, some like flora and fauna, some fully sentient.
This genre is adjacent to 'rainbow fantasy'. It's normal for the protagonists to have extraordinary powers. And, although the fate of nations and worlds may be at stake, our heroes are unlikely to come to serious harm. For example, if they lose a fight, they'll almost certainly be captured and imprisoned, rather than killed.
One element I'd probably drop from these materials are the long narratives of space-flight. I'm not even sure how much I really enjoy reading nautical tales about tying knots and learning self-reliance; I know for certain I don't want to dwell on time spent in transit while I'm at the gaming table.
Novels
Arabella of Mars, Arabella and the Battle of Venus, and Arabella the Traitor of Mars by David Levine
Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle
Larklight, Starcross, and Mothstorm by Phillip Reeve & David Wyatt
Radiance by Catherynne Valente
The Revolutions by Felix Gilman
Sun of Suns, Queen of Candesce, Pirate Sun, The Sunless Countries, and Ashes of Candesce by Karl Schroeder
Graphic Novels
The Brass Sun by Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard
The Space Race of 1869 and The Moon King by Alex Alice
Games and Other Materials
Mega Man V (Game Boy)
Mickey's Space Adveture (Commodore 64)
National Geographic Atlas of Our Universe by Roy Gallant
Twilight Calling by Tom Moldvay
Thank you so much! I've been trying to find this kind of thing for my Wormgod's Harvest setting.
ReplyDeleteOh that's awesome! If you can find a copy (at a library or otherwise) the art in the Nat Geo book is really inspiring. It's a mix of realistic images of the planets, images of mythology surrounding the planets, and speculation about possible alien animal life. I know I read it some, but I DEFINITELY looked at all the pictures.
DeleteGreat list. I would also add the "Chronicles of Pandarve" cycle of Don Lawrence's Storm comic and humbly submit my own Baroque Space.
ReplyDeleteSome science fantasy (Omega Men and the numerous planets of the Vegan System from DC Comcics) and older science fiction like Captain Future and the works of Leigh Brackett and CL Moore would be good additions, perhaps. Much of this outdated science fiction is chronicled at The Old Solar System website.
In retrospect, I'm not sure how I managed to link to your post on Ruritanian romance without also mentioning your Baroque Space project, since, yeah, I find it very influential.
DeleteMoore and Brackett always deserve more praise, and I appreciate the link. I know that planetary romance enjoyed a sort of heyday in the pulp era.
_Radiance_ would make a pretty wonderful CoC-style interplanetary fantasy game (and like many CoC games, it's stumbled a little in sticking the landing).
ReplyDeleteI think this came up elsewhere, but those National Geographic books were foundational for me. Leigh Brackett seems like a good fit, as Trey says.
There's a new Weimar Cthulhu book out, isn't there? It would probably be a good starting point for a horror version of Radiance.
DeleteFinal Fantasy IV features the protagonists traveling to the moon, and it's sequel features traveling to the other moon. In both cases no space suit involved.
ReplyDeleteFlotsam by RJ Theodore is more "sky piratey", but features airship travellers on a literally broken world assisting far more traditional aliens (alien insects in flying saucers).
Treasure Planet is the platonic ideal of the genre, and should be on any list. Every one of them. All lists. But especially this list.
Hmm, I should try to learn about some of the non-SNES Final Fantasy games. I did like all the airship travel in FF VI.
DeleteMan, I haven't thought about Treasure Planet since I still had a VHS player, but you're right, it's probably the only film treatment we've got too look at.
It's been... gads... almost 30 years since I played it, but the old Phantasy Star video game series probably fits this paradigm, too!
ReplyDeleteI never had a Sega, but a quick image-search later, and I think I see what you mean. Thanks for the tip!
DeleteWow, hey, this stuff is all mostly . . . N for NEWish? Revolutionary. Spending less time on the boat is also a great move. I wonder if there are environments where the boat itself is the "planet" and you just ride your little kingdom around to tour different islands in the sky. Or for that matter start with a castaway situation, you were on the boat but it crashed and now it's all goats, locals and coconut counting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mean I don't want to discount the older stuff. I think of it like a "secret weapon," like I can look to it for ideas to mine. But I'm sort of enjoying this recent mini-trend of new planetary science fantasies.
Delete"Boat so big it IS a planet" makes me think of Bloth's ship on Pirates of Dark Water...
You also make a good point. If there are ships in space, then logically there must be shipwrecks in space.
It's hard scifi, and so different from this other stuff, but Stephen Baxter's Raft has humans shipwrecked in an ultra high-gravity dimension. Also I guess there's Larry Niven's Smoke Ring / Integral Trees set inside gas cloud in regular space.
Well, dang. Now I gotta read all these.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely check the recommendations people have been giving too. The thing about any list like this is that it's highly personal. It's stuff I know about and feel inspired by.
DeleteAnyone else looking at it will see things on it they don't really care about, and will think of inclusions they wish they could add.
(And I guess if I collaborated with someone to make the list, then MAYBE we'd both get everything we wanted on there with no vetoes, but for sure, each of us would be unimpressed with at least one of the other person's choices.)
A little late with this but I think you might find Colin Greenland's "Harm's Way" (1993) interesting. At least historically. It's probably about time that I gave it a re-read. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6363721-harm-s-way)
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