Wanting to read some old space adventures, I picked a Jack Vance book pretty much at a whim. Can't go wrong with Jack Vance, right? He's one of the big names.

I have to say, City of the Chasch is pretty bad.

Not offensively terrible, but the prose is mid-tier fanfic level at best, and there is no plot. It's just things happening with no coherent direction anywhere to be seen.
I have similar feelings about Edgar Borroughs, but at least he was 50 years earlier.

#SciFi #PlanetaryRomance

Is Horizon Zero Dawn a Planetary Romance game? 🤔

The planet in question is Earth, and it's inhabitants humans. But it has the pre-modern society, spectacular landscapes, ancient ruins, giant (robot) monsters, and weird science. And endless daring swashbuckling!

#scifi #PlanetaryRomance

Mastodon doesn't really seem to be the place to have meaningful discussions, but maybe some interesting thoughts could come out of this anyway:

Aside from not having regular space travel (though maybe airships), are there significant differences between #PlanetaryRomance and #SpaceOpera? Are there really differences in stock characters, stock plots, and archetypes?
Couldn't Dune just as well (or even more) be called Planetary Romance than Space Opera?

#scifi #worldbuilding #writing #fiction

Yesterday's links:

Star Wars in MgT2
https://www.happyjacks.org/theimperialmarch/

Planetary Romance on Mars RPGs
https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2020/01/19/gaming-on-mars-a-mostly-complete-list-of-barsoomian-role-playing-games/

D12 magic library pests
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/06/d12-magic-library-pests.html

#TTRPG #StarWars #Traveller #PlanetaryRomance #Mars #Table #MagicLibrary

Das Planetenschloss, Teil 25.

Heute: Ein gestrandetes Tiefseetier aus Waseerdampf. Wer stellt die Fragen in mir? Mordpläne.

http://lazermeduza.de/planetenschloss/das-planetenschloss-25/

#sff #planetaryromance #swordandplanet #fortsetzungsroman

Das Planetenschloss, Teil 24

Heute: Explosionen über einem nächtlichen Wald. Wort und Fleisch. Ein Schloss aus Farben.

http://lazermeduza.de/planetenschloss/das-planetenschloss-24/

#sff #planetaryromance #swordandplanet #fortsetzungsroman

"Das Planetenschloss", Teil 19.

Heute: Durch den Fahrstuhlschacht. Der Weg nach innen führt nach draußen. Ein Engel klebt an der Kabine.

http://lazermeduza.de/uncategorized/das-planetenschloss-19/

#sff #planetaryromance #sciencefantasy #fortsetzungsroman #pnpde #literatur