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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Shared Worlds </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 6 September 2019. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=shared_worlds'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=shared_worlds'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=shared_worlds'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=Wu-RobotsTime1.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/Wu-RobotsTime1.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>Stories and novels written by different hands but sharing a setting are in this encyclopedia called shared-world stories. They are usually (but not always) published as contributions to original-<a href="/entry/anthologies">Anthology</a> series, in turn usually (but not always) edited by the creator(s) of the original setting, who also controls the "bible". This "bible" is a set of rules controlling a shared world by defining the roles, actors, venues, genres, plots and significance of any story written within that world, and is usually shaped in the first instance by the owner(s) and/or creator(s) of the shared world in question, although it may often be augmented by later contributors, who may or may not own a share of the enterprise. A mature "bible" – like that for Jerry E <a href="/entry/pournelle_jerry">Pournelle</a>'s <b>War World</b> – will almost certainly accrete, over the years, an onion growth of supplementary speculations, genealogies, tables, maps and ancillary tales; but at heart it remains a set of instructions, a kind of genetic code, for writing stories.</p> <p>It could be argued that the first shared-world anthology to make a significant impact on the Western World was the Christian New Testament, and that the authors of the various pieces which were eventually assembled under that name used the Old Testament as their "bible". It is, of course, understood that the Old Testament typologies which the authors of the New Testament felt impelled to match served for them as profound adumbrations of a Story which was True; but the point is made to underline the fact that the concept of pooling a vision of the Universe did not originate (as has been asserted by some) in the <b>Thieves' World</b> anthologies (published from 1979) created by Robert <a href="/entry/asprin_robert_lynn">Asprin</a>. Beneath and beyond the commercial shared-world enterprises of today lies a vision of (and perhaps a nostalgia for) a human Universe in the hands of a Creator, whose Book we obey (and share).</p> <p>If we place <a href="/entry/round_robin">Round-Robin</a> novels to one side as being forms of collaboration, we find that the first relevant shared-world enterprises were probably the Christmas Annual anthology/special issues produced by popular magazines and publishers in the UK after about 1860. The most significant shared-world anthology thus produced was probably <i>Mugby Junction</i> (anth <b>1866</b> chap) edited by Charles <a href="/entry/dickens_charles">Dickens</a>, a special Christmas issue of <i>All the Year Round</i>, a self-contained volume entirely given over to two frame narratives plus six stories (the most famous being Dickens's own "No. 1 Branch Line, the Signalman") set at the eponymous railway stop; it involved five writers, four of them following Dickens's instructions. Other examples of the form include <i>Beeton's Christmas Annual</i> (anth <b>1880</b>), which contained Max <a href="/entry/adeler_max">Adeler</a>'s "Professor Baffin's Adventures" (vt "The Fortunate Island" in <i>The Fortunate Island and Other Stories</i>, coll <b>1882</b>), a long <a href="/entry/lost_races">Lost-Race</a> tale that served as the centrepiece of a series of linked stories over-titled <b>The Fortunate Island</b>, and was quite probably a source for Mark <a href="/entry/twain_mark">Twain</a>'s <i>A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court</i> (<b>1889</b>); and some of the parodic journal <i>Truth</i>'s Christmas Numbers, including <i>The Spookeries</i> (anth <b>1893</b> chap), <i>Munchausen</i> [<i>sic</i>] <i>Up to Date</i> (anth <b>1894</b> chap), <i>Phon-Photopsy-Grams, or Speaking Likenesses</i> (anth <b>1897</b> chap), <i>Nineteen Hundred and Seven</i> (anth <b>1900</b> chap) and <i>Interview with the Departed</i> (anth <b>1908</b> chap).</p> <p>Again ignoring <a href="/entry/round_robin">Round-Robin</a> collaborations, the first shared-world anthology in <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a> was <i>The Petrified Planet</i> (anth <b>1952</b>) edited by Fletcher <a href="/entry/pratt_fletcher">Pratt</a>, which contained long stories by Judith <a href="/entry/merril_judith">Merril</a>, H Beam <a href="/entry/piper_h_beam">Piper</a> and Pratt. These stories were set on the world of the title, were written according to a primitive "bible", and were the first to engage upon what would become a central activity of sf shared-world writers: world-building. While almost any premise, however loose, can become the basis of a shared world, in sf the essential shared world is literally a <i>world</i>, and the "bible" serves as a manual for world-building (or, in less rigorously constructed collaborations, for <a href="/entry/planetary_romance">Planetary-Romance</a> excursions). <i>A World Named Cleopatra</i> (anth <b>1977</b>) edited by Roger <a href="/entry/elwood_roger">Elwood</a> from a concept by Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>, <i>Medea: Harlan's World</i> (anth <b>1985</b>) edited by Harlan <a href="/entry/ellison_harlan">Ellison</a> and <i>Murasaki</i> (anth <b>1992</b>) edited by Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a> and Martin Harry <a href="/entry/greenberg_martin_h">Greenberg</a> are examples of planet-building exercises, and all stand close to the heart of sf. Marion Zimmer <a href="/entry/bradley_marion_zimmer">Bradley</a>'s <b>Darkover</b> sequence is an example of the planetary-romance shared world.</p> <p>In the meanwhile, however, the <a href="/entry/star_trek">Star Trek</a> television series began to generate adaptations of individual episodes, these first tales by James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a> being simple fleshing-out of scripts rather than contributions to a shared-world enterprise (although of course in script form they adhered to series continuity); but the <b>Star Trek</b> owners soon ran out of adaptable stories, and the first original novels within the world – Mack <a href="/entry/reynolds_mack">Reynolds</a>'s children's book <i>Mission to Horatius</i> (<b>1968</b>) and James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a>'s adult novel <i>Spock Must Die!</i> (<b>1970</b>) – soon appeared. It is not known if Blish was tied to an extensive "bible" for the writing of this novel, but certainly later original stories – from <i>Spock Messiah!</i> (<b>1976</b>) by Theodore <a href="/entry/cogswell_theodore_r">Cogswell</a> and Charles A <a href="/entry/spano_charles_a">Spano</a> Jr onward – were shaped according to a "bible" that became more and more strict as the years passed. Over a similar timespan, the approximately 140 <a href="/entry/doctor_who">Doctor Who</a> ties also appeared, though many of these have been adaptations – as have been most novels tied to television series. (The simple distinction between an adaptation and a shared-world story should perhaps be made explicit: an adaptation is the reworking of an existing story or script; a shared-world tale is a narrative written according to the set of instructions, or agreements, which generate that particular setting.)</p> <p>There is a general assumption – which may or may not be well founded – that almost all shared-world novels tied to television or film series are <a href="/entry/sharecrop">Sharecrops</a>, and can therefore be defined as work-for-hire contributions to "franchised worlds". In this encyclopedia, however, our focus is on the literary nature of shared worlds rather than on issues of ownership, and thus we have barely used the term "franchised"; it may be noted in passing that most franchised worlds are in fact shared-world enterprises written to strict "bibles" by authors whose disenfranchisement is generally all too evident.</p> <p><b>Star Trek</b> and <b>Doctor Who</b> are examples of shared-world series whose inspiration lies in media other than the written word; the now vast <b>Star Wars</b> novel sequence – early contributors being L Neil <a href="/entry/smith_l_neil">Smith</a> and Timothy <a href="/entry/zahn_timothy">Zahn</a> – belongs in this category, as does the <b>Dark Futures</b> sequence edited by David <a href="/entry/pringle_david">Pringle</a>, which constitutes one of the very few sf sequences based on a role-playing game (see <a href="/entry/game-worlds">Game-Worlds</a>) whose authors (although the books were sharecropped) were able to write with apparent autonomy. Shared worlds based on <a href="/entry/comics">Comics</a> include many novels about <a href="/entry/judge_dredd">Judge Dredd</a> from <a href="/entry/2000_ad">2000 AD</a> – some, such as John <a href="/entry/grant_john">Grant</a>'s <i>Judge Dredd: The Hundredfold Problem</i> (<b>1994</b>; rev vt <i>The Hundredfold Problem</i> <b>2003</b>), taking surprising liberties with the character.</p> <p>Since the 1980s, two rough categories of shared worlds have become popular. Stories written for the <b>Darkover</b> and <b>Witch World</b> settings by hands other than Marion Zimmer <a href="/entry/bradley_marion_zimmer">Bradley</a>'s and Andre <a href="/entry/norton_andre">Norton</a>'s typify the class of shared-world enterprises which are based on a setting already created by an author for his or her own use, and subsequently made available to other writers (see <a href="/entry/closed_universe">Closed Universe</a> and <a href="/entry/open_universe">Open Universe</a> <i>for brief analysis of the generally very restrictive nature of that availability</i>). The above-cited franchises officially began with the respective anthologies <i>The Keeper's Price and Other Stories</i> (anth <b>1980</b>) edited by Bradley and <i>Tales of the Witch World</i> (anth <b>1987</b>) edited by Norton; both had several successors. Other shared worlds of this sort include Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a>'s <b>Robot City</b> (the Asimov estate subsequently allowed three late-1990s novels by other hands set in the <a href="/entry/foundation_series">Foundation</a> universe), Larry <a href="/entry/niven_larry">Niven</a>'s <b>Man-Kzin Wars</b> (see <a href="/entry/known_space_series">Known Space</a>), Jerry <a href="/entry/pournelle_jerry">Pournelle</a>'s <b>War World</b> and Fred <a href="/entry/saberhagen_fred">Saberhagen</a>'s <b>Berserker</b> (see <a href="/entry/berserkers">Berserkers</a>). The second category concerns the shared-world setting created – either alone by its inventor, or by creative personnel working for hire for a packager such as the Byron <a href="/entry/preiss_byron">Preiss</a> enterprise, or as a communal enterprise on the part of those who plan to write within its terms – as a pure and original shared world without any preceding text to sanction or constrain it, and only a "bible" for its initial guide. Robert <a href="/entry/asprin_robert_lynn">Asprin</a>'s <b>Thieves' World</b> is of this sort. Others include: <b>Liavek</b>, edited by Emma <a href="/entry/bull_emma">Bull</a> and Will Shetterly; the <b>Fleet</b>, run by David A <a href="/entry/drake_david_a">Drake</a> and Bill <a href="/entry/fawcett_bill">Fawcett</a>; <b>Temps</b>, <b>The Weerde</b> and <b>Villains</b>, edited by members of the Midnight Rose collective (Neil <a href="/entry/gaiman_neil">Gaiman</a>, Mary <a href="/entry/gentle_mary">Gentle</a>, Roz <a href="/entry/kaveney_roz">Kaveney</a> and Alex <a href="/entry/stewart_alex">Stewart</a>); <a href="/entry/wild_cards">Wild Cards</a>, supervised by George R R <a href="/entry/martin_george_r_r">Martin</a>; <b>Time Machine</b>, one of several which were controlled by Byron <a href="/entry/preiss_byron">Preiss</a>; and Abaddon Books' The <a href="/entry/afterblight_chronicles_the">Afterblight Chronicles</a>. There are many more.</p> <p>Since such enterprises became common, the concept of the shared world has generated large masses of mediocre work, often written for hire, without much evidence of joy, or taste, or thought. But that is happily not a universal rule. Some shared worlds begin in comradeship and continue to demonstrate the pleasures of sharing. The collegial shared world is a model of the sf community at play. Good shared worlds of this sort may, we can hope, in due course drive out the bad. 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