SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hello, everyone.

I'm coming to this folder with what may be quite an unusual question, inspired by random Wikipedia browsing.

Have you encountered a book that featured a planet with some major anomaly? I'm thinking Saturn-style massive ring system, Uranus-style axial tilt, or any other aspect that'd cause a significant difference from the usual "Earthly" day-night cycle? As hinted, examples would be shadow-zones caused by ring system, extremely long day-night cycle, etc.

Thanks,
Tomas.

The world in The City in the Middle of the Night is tidally locked

The Three-Body Problem deals with a planet-star anomaly which leads to centuries of seasons. Not sure about day/night but the orbits lead to some bizarre evolution by the inhabitants of the planet.

That's a good one, Bill!

On the planet in the Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park, I think it's called Charn, they have seasons so long they last decades and decades, so many people alive can't remember the previous season.
Soldiers of Paradise
Sugar Rain
The Cult of Loving Kindness

Two gravity based anomalous planet books are the golden age classic Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement and the slightly younger relativistic Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward.

Bonnie wrote: "On the planet in the Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park, I think it's called Charn, they have seasons so long they last decades and decades, so many people alive can't remember the ..."

Another along this line is the Helliconia Trilogy by the famous British SF author Brian W. Aldiss.

Fantastic reputation but I haven’t got around to clearing it from my TBR pile yet.

Tomas wrote: "Hello, everyone.

I'm coming to this folder with what may be quite an unusual question, inspired by random Wikipedia browsing.

Have you encountered a book that featured a planet with some major an..."

Game of Thrones with it's long, long winters and summers

Sorry but I’m enjoying this. I’ve just read and enjoyed a three book series based on a rogue planet not orbiting a star and outside the galaxy.

The first of the trilogy; Dark Eden by Chris Beckett won the Arthur C. Clarke award in 2013.

Tony Rothman's Patra-Bannk in The World Is Round is enormous, slow-rotating, axially tilted and has far less mass than its size would indicate.

Colin Kapp's The Unorthodox Engineers has a gang of engineers trying to build stuff on various awful planets - volcano-ridden, permanent acid-dust-storms, black holes in close orbit etc.

Last go I promise.

How about the Shellworld in Matter by Iain M. Banks

Or the brilliantly weird world of Christopher Priest’s The Inverted World

Or spooky telepathic planet in Solaris by Stanisław Lem

And finally, not a planet exactly but a world; the multi award winning Ringworld by Larry Niven.

The Schism, by Catherine Asaro takes place on an interesting planet with 2 suns, I believe. There are interesting things that happen on the planet and to the people who live there due to the planetary configuration. I’m a little vague on the details, but I read it at least 12 years ago. It’s not the first book in the “series” but the earliest in the internal timeline and not a bad place to start.

Re *The Inverted World* (view spoiler)[have you read it, Richard? As it happens, I just did, and I'm not sure it qualifies for this thread, as the ending reveals that it's all a hallucination. But is it? I'm so confused... (hide spoiler)]

DivaDiane wrote: "The Schism, by Catherine Asaro takes place on an interesting planet with 2 suns, I believe..."

Let's not forget "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov!
It was expanded into a book, Nightfall, but the original story is probably best: Nightfall and Other Stories

Their system had multiple suns, such that there were numerous types and degrees of days, but only very rarely a true night (with stars).

Richard wrote: "Last go I promise...
Yes! if we look at engineered planets too, then you've got your ringworlds:
-Ringworld series - Larry Niven
-Lady of Mazes - Karl Schroeder. Interesting how they set up and maintained different cultures & nations there using "manifests" and the "narratives" when they visit the Archipelago.
-Culture novels - Iain M. Banks. Orbitals maintained by beneficient AIs:
https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/Orbital

Great recommendations so far, I'm taking notes! 🤩

Some more:

- We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and its sequels feature some unusual planets, e.g. gas giants with rings
- House of Suns features e.g. Dyson spheres and ocean planets, and post-humans who've been bio-engineered to live in such environments
- Red Sister starts a fantasy series set on (setting spoiler, don't click if you want to be surprised as you uncover it yourself) (view spoiler)[an ice planet far away from the sun, orbited by an artificial moon that is reflecting light and heat onto a small equatorial band which remains livable (hide spoiler)]
- To Be Taught, If Fortunate includes an ocean planet, a tidally-locked planet, etc.
- Skyward is set on an usual planet but it would be a big spoiler to describe what makes it unusual
- Leviathan Wakes: this series features pretty much all the unusual planets and a few moons in our own solar system, as well as space habitats
- The Fifth Elephant, and all Discworld novels, is set on a disc-shaped planet carried by enormous elephants standing on the back of a space turtle
- The Night's Dawn trilogy ending with The Naked God features an inhabited (by aliens) gas giant surrounded by an artificial habitat ring, a huge city that can fly through space, settled asteroids, Saturn itself which is orbited by thousands of habitats, planets with artificial moons, and other weird places
- The Enceladus Mission: Hard Science Fiction features Saturn's moons a lot, and ends with a novel set around Jupiter

Cheryl wrote: "Re *The Inverted World* [spoilers removed]"

I’ve read it a couple of times, not for many years now I’m afraid. I don’t remember it (view spoiler)[being an hallucination (hide spoiler)], I just remember enjoying it and being very interested in the mathematical nature of their world (broke out the graph paper at one point 😊)
Maybe I need a quick reread, as it’s only a short book.

Thanks for all the tips, I'll look at them over time and see if anything catches my attention. Of course, more suggestions are welcome, I'll be checking this thread every now and then even if I don't reply.

Adam Roberts' On is set on what seems to be an infinitely high cliff, but (view spoiler)[turns out to be the Earth but gravity's started working sideways thanks to a scientific oopsie. (hide spoiler)]

Re The Inverted World, there was originally a short story version which doesn't have the spoiler: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

Rudy Rucker's White Light (and Rene Daumal's Mount Analogue) both deal with an infinitely high mountain.

And do 2-D worlds like Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Sphereland: A Fantasy about Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe and The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two-Dimensional World count?

Genesistrine wrote: "Adam Roberts' On is set on what seems to be an infinitely high cliff, but [spoilers removed]

Re The Inverted World, there was originally a short story version which doesn't have the..."

Ooh, lots to add to my to-read lists... thank you!