All-Time SF/Fantasy Universes

Cafe Society
41

Hmmm…

Peter F. Hamilton’s Confederation in Pandora’s Star. To go to planet to planet, you take a train.
Stephen R. Donaldsons Gap. Not a fun place to be, true.
Dan Simmons’ Hegemony of Man in Hyperion.

42

OK. My top 5

  1. Middle Earth - For all the reasons stated above.
  2. TunFaire, the Cantard etc. Glen Cook’s Garrett - This place has everything. Dwarves, ogres, trolls, grolls, pixes, marines, centaurs, vampires, dark elves, mammoths, T-Rexs (thunder lizards), … As I read through the series the first time I was just constantly amazed by the things that kept coming up. And what makes it second was that the characters deal with it all in such a way so as to make it feel real, to give them weight. Like when Garrett saw the mammoth, a rarity so far south, he was both amazed and interested but scared as well.
  3. Star Wars - I liked the way he made swords and sorcery so futuristic. Plus the vistas were so amazing. I would so love to be a tourist at Kashyyyk.
  4. The Warlord - Like TunFaire this place had so much of everything. Travis Morgan would go from fighting of dinosaurs one month to dealing with super intelligent aliens the next. The writers, up to about issue 110, were just so full of all these neat ideas.
  5. The Deryni World - Again swords and sorcery that had a real feel to it. Especially with the Camber of Culdi series, it just felt 9th century.

Honorable mention - Riverworld - Everybody who ever lived and died wakes up on the shores of a river in a long river valley edged by impassable mountains. What a cool idea.

43

The Hitchhikers Guide universe - just cruise around looking for a party & a good drink.

44

Oooooh ! How did I forget that one ?!

Another would be the future universe in George RR Martin’s Tuf Voyaging and others in the same universe. Lots of sense of wonder, lots of history, lots of variety.

45

As I would want to explore multiple universes, I guess I would want to be in that little pocket universe Gay Deceiver from Number of the Beast.

This wonderful car would allow us to explore all of the multiverse.

46

Anne Bishop’s world in the Black Jewels Trilogy - The power dynamics between males and females is fascinating, as is the idea of the Jewels.

The pure wanktasticness of Storm Constantine’s Wraeththu world is interesting to me.

The world in Kate Elliott’s Jaran books - the fact that a planet such as Rhui can survive in the Chapalii ruled universe is amazing.

Sharon Shinn’s Samaria - dude, angels and humans living together.