Space: Desert Planets

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The "desert planets" I think of are Arrakis, Anarres, Geta, and various versions of Mars all the way back to Barsoom. I suppose Tatooine is a desert planet, but I think you could say the same about Vulcan. Really, though, I see both of them as stage sets. "It was raining on Mongo that afternoon," as the old joke has it.

The old joke is full of it, though. I've ranted on that point before.

Ironically, for all that Mongo is the classic setting for 'sword and planet' stories (except possibly Barsoom), Mongo is actually a relatively believable habitable world. It has multiple biomes, oceans and forests and deserts and jungles, cold polar regions and mountains and valleys, it's a fairly well-realized world.