# Science Fiction novel where Earth isn't united **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 31, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366 "2025-03-31T00:32:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/1 "2025-03-31T00:32:52Z")
Is there a novel that has humans in space, with FTL, and dealing with aliens that still has different countries on Earth? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/2 "2025-03-31T00:53:03Z")
For values of all of the above, sure. The “Troy Rising” series of books (story incomplete but no future novels in the works) starting with “Live Free or Die” hits all of the above. > **[Live Free or Die: Troy Rising I: Ringo, John: 9781439133972: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133972)** > > Live Free or Die: Troy Rising I \[Ringo, John\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Live Free or Die: Troy Rising I Granted, there’s rapid unification coming up after the first book, or at least merging of structures due to the requirements of the circumstances. Similarly, there’s the Dahak series, starting with Mutineer’s Moon, where there are still distinct nations and friction between them, being forced into a unified structure (and eventual government) by the requirements of having an alien threat incoming, most of which is part of the second book in the series. > **[Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series): David Weber: 9780671720858: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856)** > > Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series) \[David Weber\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/3 "2025-03-31T00:55:18Z")
The “[Old Man’s War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man%27s_War)” series by Scalzi. Earth is maintained as a sort of nature preserve for farming soldiers and colonists by the Human government that controls all the other colony planets. The distinction between soldiers and colonists are largely built on national origins of each on Earth, and this plays a role in the larger narrative of the series. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/4 "2025-03-31T01:03:44Z")
[Worldwar series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar_series) by Harry Turtledove Starts during WW2 ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/5 "2025-03-31T01:08:09Z")
It doesn’t really come up in the games that much, but this is the case in Mass Effect. Humanity is represented on the interstellar level by the Systems Alliance, which is a sort of super-EU type polity made up of several dozen nations, but less than half of Earth’s nations are members. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/6 "2025-03-31T01:12:21Z")
Poul Anderson’s After Doomsday has FTL, contact with many aliens but the USA and France (and presumably other nations) still exist ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/7 "2025-03-31T01:14:17Z")
The whole 2001 novel series (and the movies 2001 and 2010) deal with first contact in the 2000s where the Cold War is still raging. ---
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/8 "2025-03-31T05:03:18Z")
I loved the Worldwar series. I was looking for something where human are in space. There are plenty of aliens coming to the Earth books. ---
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/9 "2025-03-31T05:08:09Z")
I liked the Old Man’s War series but the Earth nations didn’t seem to have any conflict. I guess what I’m looking for is different countries out in interstellar space competing against each other. ---
**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:** [March 31, 2025, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/10 "2025-03-31T05:49:09Z")
In the Vorkosigan series Earth still has separate nations. In Timothy Zahn’s _Spinneret_ Earth still having separate nations i s a major plot point, especially since the aliens treat the UN as the representative of Earth despite it not being officially in charge. _Life Probe_ by Michael McCollum is an edge case since they don’t have FTL; looking for data on how to achieve it is the main point of the Life Probes in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/11 "2025-03-31T13:21:13Z")
> [@LoneRhino](#): > > I guess what I’m looking for is different countries out in interstellar space competing against each other. Okay, it’s not “interstellar space”, but there’s “Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet”, which posits there’s still a cold war between the East and West, as humans move out into the solar system. > **[Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_Foster_Rides_the_Gray_Planet)** > > Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet is a young adult science fiction novel written by Harold L. Goodwin under the pseudonym Blake Savage. The novel was originally published by Whitman in hardcover in 1952 and reprinted in the United Kingdom later in the same year as Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet (note the spelling of "gray/grey"). There were two subsequent American reprints under different titles: another hardcover edition as Assignment in Space with Rip Foster in 1958 and a paperback edition... ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/12 "2025-03-31T14:45:03Z")
_Gateway_ by Frederik Pohl. The five superpowers in the time the book is set are the United States, the Soviet Union, an expanded China, Brazil, and Venus. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/13 "2025-03-31T15:29:20Z")
> [@LoneRhino](#): > > I loved the Worldwar series. I was looking for something where human are in space. There are plenty of aliens coming to the Earth books. The ending of the Worldwar series has the US show up in orbit of the alien home world with an interstellar ship, with the Imperial Japanese having developed interstellar travel as well and the implication that the Soviet’s, Nazis, and British are close behind. I always thought it would have been interesting to see another series pick up at this point, or shortly after, with the WWII factions each at the head of a small interstellar empire. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/14 "2025-03-31T15:42:14Z")
There’s always Jerry Pournelle’s _CoDominium_ series. Massive colonization between competing countries with everything dominated by the US/USSR working in “tandem.” ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/15 "2025-03-31T16:02:01Z")
The Bobiverse series has an Earth that’s not united, aliens, and FTL communication, but not FTL travel (so far – I’m not done with it). That’s assuming FTL means “faster than light”. The Accidental Time Machine has a disunited Earth, aliens of a sort (super-advanced humans) and space travel, but not FTL travel. Ah, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a disunited Earth (temporarily, and then again), FTL travel, lots of aliens. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/16 "2025-03-31T16:09:18Z")
In Poul Anderson’s _The Star Fox_, although Earth is unified under a world Federation the signatory nations still retain some original quasi-sovereign rights (similar to the states vis a vis the federal government). Enough that a group of space privateers can get a (probably) valid letter of marque issued to them by France; valid enough that they can’t be extradited from French territory at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/17 "2025-03-31T17:57:47Z")
Ken MacLeod’s recent Lightspeed Trilogy has three major power blocks who all have space travel, except it’s so secret most of the world doesn’t know! It starts with another secretive project to utilise the obscure maths required for space travel by a small team who don’t know others have already solved the problems and have their own, much larger secret projects. I really should read vol 3 to see how it all finishes. ---
**Author:** ![LoneRhino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lonerhino/32/1311_2.png) [@LoneRhino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LoneRhino)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/18 "2025-03-31T20:11:13Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Ah, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a disunited Earth (temporarily, and then again), FTL travel, lots of aliens. Very temporarily. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/19 "2025-03-31T20:13:58Z")
Haha! Until the fourth or fifth book of the trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366/20 "2025-03-31T20:23:24Z")
I can think of a lot of examples but almost all are situations where interstellar travel was introduced to Earth by spacefaring extraterrestrials. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-novel-where-earth-isnt-united/1016366.md?page=2)