Re: Worldbuilding: Solar Systems

In article <1cgjef149fi0f.1rd5p2uqgh4pl.dlg@xxxxxxxxxx>,
Elizabeth <elizabeth-writing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What I thought was a throwaway sentence on my livejournal spurred a comment
that sent me researching solar system formation, which in turn brings me
here with a poll:

You are reading a novel marketed as fantasy. Due to the author's stunning
inability to convey setting, you are in chapter 2 and still not sure if the
book is set on Earth in the 20th or 21st century, possibly after an alien
invasion, or on an alternate Earth, or on some made-up planet elsewhere.

You come to a description of a character's T-shirt, which has a map of the
solar system, with "You are here" pointing to the second of seven planets.

Your reaction is:
a) "I guess it's not Earth."

That's a given, unless one suspects that the T-shirt is misleading.

b) "What happened to Mercury/Venus/the rest of the planets?"

You'd only have to get rid of either Mercury or Venus. There is current
debate over whether Pluto really should be classed as a planet or not.

c) "This world must orbit a colder star than our sun."/"I wonder when we'll
see the asteroid belt between here and the sun."

That doesn't follow. We don't know enough about how solar systems form
to automatically conclude that the second planet has to be closer in than Earth.

d) "This planet must be very different from Earth, so the author needs to
describe the setting better."

It would--at *least*--have different landform, so some description is certainly
called for.

e) "*Sol*ar system?"

/shrug Using it as a generic term.

f) "This is totally unrealistic and I'm not going to read any more."

I don't see that as neccesary.

g) other

Explain what happened to one of the planets closer to the Sun than Earth.

Give descriptions of the local star showing it different from Sol.

--
Hal Heydt
Albany, CA

My dime, my opinions.
.

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