During the Dark Ages, people will look back to this time as the Golden Age. The Pax Galactica reigns - a long period of peace and prosperity (at least on the surface). The rise of industrial or financial or political powers, the eventual triumph of one and the establishment of a federation, a union, an alliance, or an autocratic empire of worlds, dominated usually from Old Terra.Įxamples: the Trantorian Empire novels of Isaac Asimov, the Nicholas Van Rijn novels of Poul Anderson, THE HELMSMAN by Bill Baldwin, CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein, THE WITCHES OF KARRES by James Schmitz, THE REDISCOVERY OF MAN by Cordwainer Smith, BIRTHRIGHT: THE BOOK OF MAN by Mike Resnick.Ĭommerce between worlds an established fact, and adventures while dealing with worlds in and out of the Empire. Implacable aliens in the cosmos who must be fought. The problem of mutual relations and the solution, usually in the form of treaties or defensive alliances. This can be for common defense, cultural reasons, economic reasons, or by conquest. For whatever reason the indepenent human and/or alien worlds unite. The rise of contact and commerce between many human-colonized worlds or many worlds of alien intelligences that have come to trust and do business with one another. Nourse, THE MARTIAN WAY by Isaac Asimov, HIGHER EDUCATION by Pournelle and Sheffield, ISLANDS IN THE SKY, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SKY by Arthur C. Note that the performance of available rocket engines will affect the rate of exploration.Įxamples: TALES OF KNOWN SPACE by Larry Niven, SPACE CADET, FARMER IN THE SKY, THE ROLLING STONES, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, PODKAYNE OF MARS, BETWEEN PLANETS, 'Logic of Empire' by Robert Heinlein, SPACE DOCTOR by Lee Corey, HIGH JUSTICE, EXILES TO GLORY, 'Tinker' by Jerry Pournelle, LIFEBOAT aka DARK INFERNO by James White, SCAVENGERS IN SPACE by Alan E. Stories of the first colonies on such worlds, their problems internal and external, their conflicts with the parent world (maybe even a war of independence), interplanetary commerce, spaceship trade lanes, space pirates, asteroid mining, the weird wonders of the Outer Planets.

Stories of the first efforts to set up terrestrial bases on the planets. Initial voyages to Luna and the planets of the solar system.

Rimworld ideology leader role