This book offers a tour of “the known galaxy”, here defined as the region of interstellar space closest to Earth. The phrase “the known galaxy” has a particular resonance in science fiction, as it refers to the part of the Milky Way that from the perspective of a point in time centuries from now may have been explored and settled by human beings. In the known galaxy, there are gloomy ocean worlds illuminated by the light of exploding stars. There are worlds where precious gems could be as common as pebbles. There are planets eternally wandering between the stars like the Flying Dutchman. There are lava worlds, steam worlds, hot Jupiters, cold Jupiters and maybe even worlds like our Earth. The purpose of the book is to begin to give this region a sense of place, in the same way that Mars is now starting to be appreciated as a location rather than just a planet. In doing so, the book merges our current scientific knowledge of the known galaxy with speculative fiction and with older legends and myths.

A sense of place is the feeling that some locations have a special meaning. This emotional connection arises from a combination of cultural and environmental factors that make individuals care about a particular place. It is challenging to create a sense of place for distant locations that no human has visited and for which our current knowledge is limited. This book attempts to take a step in this direction, by dividing the known galaxy into a number of clearly described distinct regions, by providing scientific descriptions of the likely environmental conditions on the known planets of these regions, and by linking these planets to their literary and mythological context.

The book is aimed at fans of both science fact and science fiction. It combines a tour of real planets outside of our solar system with tales of their fictional counterparts. The combination of solid scientific facts and analysis with speculation and imagination will be appealing to readers who want to gain a feeling for these planets as places with a back story, rather than just as names somewhere out there in the sky.