Favorite sci-fi settings?

[Toolbox]

One thing I would like to see as well in a series or film is the portrayal of what uninhabitable planets with truly alien environments would look like...imagine being in the atmosphere of a gas giant, or a moon like Io with gesyers of sulpher dioxide "snow".

The only media I can think of that incorporates a place like this as a main story bit is Dune, and it does it so fantastically I can't connect to it or be immersed. there's a giant worm for gods sake, and everyone needs to use the sand from the planet for interstellar travel for a reason I assume isn't explained.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

truly alien environments

There's also Titan-like worlds, with seas of hydrocarbons. Or ice-covered ocean in worlds like Europa.

here's a very long webpage with more examples of alien places: Fabulous Locations - Atomic Rockets

everyone needs to use the sand from the planet for interstellar travel for a reason I assume isn't explained.

It's "the spice" that's a drug that enhances perception of space so guild navigators can conduct travel.

It's made by the giant worms somehow, which is why it's only from Arrakis.

 

[Toolbox]

It's "the spice" that's a drug that enhances perception of space so guild navigators can conduct travel.

It's made by the giant worms somehow, which is why it's only from Arrakis.

Color me surprised. But again it's something that is kept mostly a mystery with only vaguery put forth, I assume. It's better than overly explaining a fictional concept, but it's still too acid-trip writing to me.

 

[TurdFondler]

One thing I would like to see as well in a series or film is the portrayal of what uninhabitable planets with truly alien environments would look like...imagine being in the atmosphere of a gas giant, or a moon like Io with gesyers of sulpher dioxide "snow".

Arthur C Clarke makes a pass at this in the rest of the Space Oddysey trilogy if I'm remembering right. Lem's Solaris is kind of sort of bordering on the idea.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Science fiction based on outdated science.

One such I read, Celestial Matters, is set in a world where Hellenistic civilization survived, and Hellenistic science was right about pretty much everything (just followed out to its logical conclusions). The world is geocentric and ships follow Aristotelian physics, that is to say they revolve in circles with thrusters pushing them further from or closer to the world center. Medicine is based on humoral theory, so people use syringes of biles and blood as stimulants and depressives; a blood transfusion makes the recipient giddy, a yellow bile transfusion makes them domineering and nasty. The central theme of the book was that both Hellenistic and Taoist science are correct, but the two sides of their Warhammer 40K style permawar have to cooperate to understand them.

Planetary romances (like John Carter of Mars) are more fun than space operas. Old stuff from an era where it seemed plausible that Mars and Venus could have borne life and civilizations.

I miss old gray/green aliens and flying saucers.

 

[skjora]

I'm a bit in love with the setting of Niven's "The Integral Trees" after having recently read it. It's set on a world shaped like a donut, a ring of gasses and liquids leached of a gas giant planet circulating a neutron star. This donut is obviously in free fall and has little felt gravity at any given point, so tidal effects are what passes for gravity. "Lakes" are floating blobs of liquid, and the eponymous trees are enormous ∫-shaped trees with two tufts and no roots, where the tufts are shaped by the tides.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Space Truckers has a cool sci-fi setting where space travel looks plausible, the culture of space travel takes after trucker culture (working joes, kind of redneck vibe, wearing caps and eating in diners) with truck-like ships (maybe more realistic than the spaceships you usually see).

 

[Jetpack Himmler]

I'm very much a fan of the 80s futurist aesthetic of Super Dimension Fortress Macross where it envisions what the far-off year of 2009 would look like in 1982. Most of the mech design is beautiful, especially the iconic VF-1 Valkyrie and the SDF-1 in Do You Remember Love. It helped inspire a setting I'm working that blends sci-fi and alternate history. TL;DR version is that a new continent appears in the Pacific in 1844 [1] and an alien invasion similar to H.G. Wells' War of Worlds happens in 1899 with Earth microbes killing the invaders. Humanity reverse engineers their technology ala Macross so the 1920s to 1950s look like a fusion of diesel punk and raygun gothic. A larger invasion force appears in 1953, which draws humanity into a near-apocalyptic war ends in a pyrrhic victory for Earth.

Humanity survives and salvages the alien wrecks to rebuild civilization. Earth has more or less recovered by "present day" (199X) and even established a presence in space with bases on Luna and Mars, as well as asteroid mining. So there is a shiny "cassette futurist" aesthetic to it with from remnants from the diesel punk era still around. Imagine Blade Runner and Akira, but much cleaner and brighter. However, it is very much culturally similar to the 1980s with a cold war between two blocs: the Allied Nations and the Eurasian League. Consumer electronics are still at around early 90s with cellphones being a rarity and the civilian Internet nonexistent.