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Planetary romance[1] (other synonyms aresword and planet,[2][3][4][5] andplanetary adventure[6]) is a subgenre ofscience fiction orscience fantasy in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place against the background of a future culture where travel between worlds byspaceship is commonplace; others, particularly the earliest examples of the genre, do not, invokingflying carpets,astral projection, or other methods of getting between planets. In either case, it is the planetside adventures that are the focus of the story, not the mode of travel.[7]
A significant precursor of the genre isEdwin L. Arnold'sLieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905).[8]
InScience Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (1985), editor and criticDavid Pringle namedMarion Zimmer Bradley andAnne McCaffrey as two "leading practitioners nowadays" for the planetary romance type of science fiction.[9]
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction mentions two caveats as to the usage of the term. First, while the setting may be in an alien world, if "the nature or description of this world has little bearing on the story being told," as inA Case of Conscience, then the book is not a planetary romance. Second,hard science fiction tales are excluded from this category, where an alien planet, while being a critical component of the plot, is just a background for a primarily scientific endeavor, such asHal Clement'sMission of Gravity,[8] possibly with embellishments.Allen Steele writes that while the label "space opera" has been posted on any story away from Earth, it stands apart from "planetary romance", which he describes as a "close cousin" of "space opera".[1]
the Planetary Romance, also called Sword and Planet stories
Das Subgenre derSword-and-Planet-Romane (oderPlanetary Romance) [The subgenre ofSword-and-Planet-novels (orPlanetary Romance)]
The protagonist of "sword and planet", sometimes referred to as "planetary romance," fantasy, is [...]
a genre that some callsword and planet and that others describe asplanetary romance
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