World-Building

Edited by Ben Bova

This book is designed to give science fiction writers the background they need in real science to make their fiction read like fact. World Building is a blueprint in words, calculations, tables and diagrams to help writers transport readers from one world to another.

With Stephen Gillett's help, you'll be on solid ground, no matter what kinds of worlds you create for your science fiction.

World-Building explains science to help you make your fiction plausible. You'll give your worlds the pull of gravity, aware of the effects on inhabitants and the planets themselves. Mix elements and build planets with chemically credible, geologically accurate characteristics—and anomalies—that affect those who live there. Create planetary "engines," convincing atmospheres and fact-based weather patterns. Colonize a truly weird world: ancient Earth. Explore our neighboring planets and their satellites for SF possibilities. Light and heat your landscapes with the right types of stars. See how things might be on a "chloroxygen" world and other hypothetical places.

In this book, you'll follow calculations, read tables, view diagrams, learn what forces are at work in the universe, and see how you can harness them to give realism to the fantasy in your storytelling.

World-Building is a blueprint in words, filled with facts to help you write believable fictions that transport readers from this world to another... of your making.