# I'm looking for sci-fi/fantasy stories set on non-spherical worlds. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963 "2012-11-05T15:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/21 "2012-11-05T18:11:55Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > It’s been a LOOOONG time, but I remember it being a sphere. Just that all the interesting stuff was going on _inside_ it. But I may be misremembering. If I’d thought of it while typing the OP, I would have written “stories not set on the surface of a spherical world.” Though then some wiseass would have mentioned Namor the Sub-Mariner and I’d have had to threaten something typically immature, unlikely, and violent. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/22 "2012-11-05T18:24:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > A few quick stipulations: > > 1. I’m only interested in stories set on a planet inhabited by living, mortal creatures. Tales set in Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and so forth are irrelevant. I’m not sure how important the word “planet” is, above. Sometimes whether it’s on a planet is undetermined, but so is the rest of the geography, to the extent that describing its existence as spherical is not likely to be correct. The best example might be Neverland: > [@JM Barrie](#): > > I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child’s mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still. Then there’s Matter, by Iaian Banks, which also doesn’t qualify, but only on a technicality: it’s a “shell world”, constructed by a long-dead alien race, consisting of many difference concentric spheres, with whole civilizations living on each level of the construction. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/23 "2012-11-05T18:26:46Z")
Mesklin from Hal Clement’s **Mission of Gravity**. The planet is extremely oblate – twice as wide at the equator than it is at the poles. It is inhabited. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/24 "2012-11-05T18:28:23Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I’m not sure how important the word “planet” is, above. Sometimes whether it’s on a planet is undetermined, but so is the rest of the geography, to the extent that describing its existence as spherical is not likely to be correct. I wrote “planet” because I wanted to exclude spaceships and space stations. And, honestly, things like asteroids. ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/25 "2012-11-05T18:28:39Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > It’s been a LOOOONG time, but I remember it being a sphere. Just that all the interesting stuff was going on _inside_ it. But I may be misremembering. You are misremembering. Gaia is a hollow wagon wheel shape, including hollow spokes that connect the hub to the rim. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/26 "2012-11-05T18:35:39Z")
Not sure if you’re looking for books to read or just possible examples, but Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series is set on a conjoined world separated by a ‘curtain’ which divides a technological society from a magical one. I read it in my early teens and enjoyed the first three books, but I wouldn’t recommend them to an adult. Because of the nature of the curtain, there is not only a North and South Pole, but also an East and West Pole. Beyond that, the setting is more of an inter-dimensional device rather than one that is specific to the nature of the world itself. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/27 "2012-11-05T18:40:12Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > Not sure if you’re looking for books to read or just possible examples, but Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series is set on a conjoined world separated by a ‘curtain’ which divides a technological society from a magical one. I was just cleaningout some old books, and I chanced across Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series, most of which I own in hardback. God, but they’re horrid. Not all of – the first three, centering on Stile, are at least readable, if something less than poetic – but the latter four are so awesomely wretched that it beggars description. And, yes, I do recall that Phaze was, in addition to being magic (of the very worse sort, but that’s another issue), a flat world. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/28 "2012-11-05T18:44:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Cyrus Teed and his Koreshans believed that we lived in a spherical buble of air inside an infinity of dirt, but I don’t know of anyone who wrote a story based on this arrangement > > [Koreshanity - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreshanity) I live about 10 miles from their old commune. It’s a state historical site and they have some really cool items on display, including an “inside out” globe of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/29 "2012-11-05T18:48:16Z")
Well, it’s a little bit of a spoiler even identifying the book in this case, so: Christopher Priest’s _Inverted World_ is a book you’d want to read if you’re looking for books of the type described in your OP. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/30 "2012-11-05T18:48:55Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > … I chanced across Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series, most of which I own in hardback. God, but they’re horrid. At the time, I thought the first book was actually interesting and read the next two somewhat perfunctorily. I was going to say that I wouldn’t necessarily even recommend them to tweeners, but considering the success of the Twilight series… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/31 "2012-11-05T18:55:42Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > At the time, I thought the first book was actually interesting and read the next two somewhat perfunctorily. > > I was going to say that I wouldn’t necessarily even recommend them to tweeners, but considering the success of the Twilight series… As I think on it, I remember enjoying the first three Adept books, and even the first seven Incarnations books, at the time. But the latter four of the Adept series and all the fricking Modes were so bad that they ruined the others by association (and their charms were always minimal anyway). It was the combination of too many puzzles and way too much pedophilia justification. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/32 "2012-11-05T18:59:45Z")
Some of Larry Niven’s Known Space stories take place on Jinx which is somewhat egg-shaped (the east and west poles stick out of the atmosphere). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/33 "2012-11-05T19:37:34Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > way too much pedophilia justification. This is one of those phrases in which the first three words are redundant. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/34 "2012-11-05T19:49:53Z")
Richard A. Lupoff’s _Circumpolar!_ takes place on (well, mostly _above_) a torus-shaped world, and features, IIRC, Lothar von Richthofen (the Red Baron’s brother) and maybe Amelia Earhart (there was a chick pilot; I remember that much) trying to be the first aviators to fly through the hole. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/35 "2012-11-05T20:11:17Z")
There’s also Stross’s “Missile Gap” about an Alderson disk. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/36 "2012-11-05T20:17:37Z")
Kay Kenyon’s _Bright of the Sky_ is set in a great flat world the size of a galaxy, bordered by immense walls, an endless river, and illuminated by a sky of fire (the titular Bright). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/37 "2012-11-05T20:26:00Z")
In Vernor Vinge’s Fire on the Deep, there is a solar system where so many habitats, inhabited asterioids, etc., were present that the solar system viewed from above looked like disk … think Saturn’s rings around the sun, only MUCH larger, with the objects in the ring MUCH closer totether, often physically connnected, and inhabited throughout, by a variety of spacegoing species and civilizations. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/38 "2012-11-05T21:19:00Z")
Looking at the Wiki article on [Alderson Disks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderson_disk), I see several works of fiction have been set on one. > [@](#): > > An Alderson disk (the Godwheel) was a prominent feature of Malibu Comics’ Ultraverse. The Godwheel was split between two societies, one which used technology and one which used magic (each occupied separate sides of the disk). Author Larry Niven designed the Godwheel and wrote stories surrounding certain events on it. > > A disk-shaped planet similar to an Alderson disk (though far smaller) served as the home world of the fantasy “Aysle” setting (or “cosm”) of West End Games’ Torg roleplaying game. In contrast with the Alderson disk, the Aysle “diskworld” works according to fantasy physics, including a “gravity plane” that bisects the disk laterally, so that opposite sides “fall” towards the plane. The diskworld of Aysle had a bobbing sun and multiple inner layers. Both sides of the disk were inhabited, as were the internal layers. > > The Alderson disk is discussed in Larry Niven’s “Bigger than Worlds” essay, 1974, which can be found in his Playgrounds of the Mind anthology. > > In Charles Stross’s Missile Gap, a copy of the whole Earth is placed on an Alderson disk built around a black hole by ASBs. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/39 "2012-11-05T21:50:00Z")
Quite obscure, but David Lake’s [Ring of Truth](http://www.amazon.com/The-Ring-Truth-David-Lake/dp/0879979356) is set on a “world” that is the inside of a spherical void within infinite solid matter. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > And Philip Jose Farmer’s _World of Tiers_: > [World of Tiers - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Tiers) Also, the Lavalite World from that series (world whose topology is based on that oozy stuff inside a lava lamp), ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963/40 "2012-11-06T00:57:26Z")
In _John the Balladeer_, a collection of the Silver John stories by Manley Wade Wellman, there is a story, “Further Down the Trail”, IIRC, in which the Earth is definitely not spherical, presumably flat. (To clarify, “Further Down the Trail” is really a collection of ultra-short fantasy stories.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-looking-for-sci-fi-fantasy-stories-set-on-non-spherical-worlds/639963.md?page=3)