Traveller:More Reading
Traveller, and the universe it inspired, came from many sources. This is a list of book, authors, movies and other media that both inspired and was the inspiration for Traveller and the Third Imperium.
- Please also see: Deciphering the Text Foundations of Traveller by Michael Andre-Driussi is a discussion of the sources that inspired Traveller.
Primary Inspiration Sources
These books and movies were the Science Fiction that served as the primary influence on the original Traveller authors. They are all older SF, many from the 50s and 60s. Many of these works are deservedly called Science Fiction Classics.
Books
- https://www.librarything.com/author/herbertfrank Frank Herbert]
- Bolos series
- Retief series
- Retief: Envoy to New Worlds;
- Retief: Galactic Diplomat;
- Retief's War;
- Retief and the Warlords;
- Retief: ambassador to space;
- Retief: seven incidents of the Corps diplomatique terrestrienne;
- Retief of the CDT;
- Retief's Ransom;
- Retief: Emissary to the Stars;
- Retief at Large;
- Retief Unbound;
- Retief: Diplomat at Arms;
- Retief to the Rescue;
- Retief: The Return of Retief;
- Retief in the Ruins;
- Retief and the Pangalactic Pageant of Pulchritude;
- Reward for Retief;
- Retief and the Rascals
- Alexis Panshin
- Anthony Villiers series
- Star Well
- The Thurb Revolution
- Masque World
- Rite of Passage
- Dumarest of Terra series - A 33 book collection of pure pulp
- 1: The Winds of Gath ISBN 978-0441893027;
- 2: Derai;
- 3: Toyman;
- 4: Kalin;
- 5: The Jester at Scar ISBN 978-0441385362;
- 6: Lallia ISBN 978-0441710836;
- 7: Technos ;
- 8: Veruchia ISBN 978-0441861811;
- 9: Mayenne ISBN 978-0879970543;
- 10: Jondelle;
- 11: Zenya ISBN 978-0879971267;
- 12: Eloise ISBN 978-0879971625;
- 13: Eye of the Zodiac ISBN 978-0879971946;
- 14: Jack of Swords ISBN 978-0879972394;
- 15: Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun ISBN 978-0879972653;
- 16: Haven of Darkness;
- 17: Prison of Night ISBN 978-0879973469;
- 18: Incident on Ath ISBN 978-0879973896;
- 19: The Quillian Sector;
- 20: Web of Sand ISBN 978-0879974794;
- 21: Iduna's Universe;
- 22: The Terra Data ISBN 978-0879975333;
- 23: World of Promise 978-0879975791;
- 24: Nectar of Heaven ISBN 978-0879976132;
- 25: The Terridae;
- 26: The Coming Event ;
- 27: Earth is Heaven ISBN 978-0879977863;
- 28: Melome ISBN 978-0879978310;
- 29: Angado ISBN 978-0879979089;
- 30: Symbol of Terra ISBN 978-0879979553;
- 31: The Temple of Truth ISBN 978-0886770594;
- 32: The Return ISBN 978-0936071831;
- 33: Child of Earth ISBN 978-1607255765
- The Demon Princes series - The Kirth Gersen Series
- Star King
- Palace of Love
- The Killing Machine
- The Face
- The Book of Dreams
- Tschai -Planet of Adventure
- City of the Chasch
- Servants of the Wankh
- The Dirdir
- The Pnume
- Emphyrio
- The Dragon Masters
- The Alastor Series
- Trullion: Alastor 2262
- Marune: Alastor 933
- Wyst: Alastor 1716
- The Many World of Magnus Ridolph
- Ports of Call
- Lurulu
- Maske: Tharey
- The Five Gold Bands
- From the Earth to the Moon,
- In the Year 2889,
- Around the World in Eighty Days
Non-Sci-Fi Books
- Hornblower series
- (The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, Flying Colours, The Commodore, Lord Hornblower, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower, Hornblower and the Atropos, Hornblower in the West Indies, Hornblower and the Hotspur, Hornblower and the Crisis)
- Aubrey/Maturin series
- (Master and Commander, Post Captain, H. M. S. Surprise, The Mauritius Command, Desolation Island, Fortune of War, The Surgeon's Mate, The Ionian Mission, Treason's Harbour, The Far Side of the World, The Reverse of the Medal, The Letter of Marque, The Thirteen Gun Salute, The Nutmeg of Consolation, The Truelove, The Wine-Dark Sea, The Commodore, The Yellow Admiral, The Hundred Days, Blue at the Mizzen)
Movies
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Andromeda Strain
- The Forbidden Planet
- Star Wars: A New Hope - The Original Star Wars movie came out in May 1977, and Traveller arrived in July 1977.
- Silent Running
Television
Secondary Inspiration Sources
These collections are later items recommended by the Traveller community. While they were not around when Traveller was originally written, they do reflect the themes and ideas of both Traveller and the Third Imperium.
Books
- Ian M. Banks
- Culture series (Consider Phlebas ISBN 0-333-44138-9; The Player of Games ISBN 0-333-47110-5; Use of Weapons ISBN 0-356-19160-5; Excession ISBN 1-85723-394-8; Inversions ISBN 1-85723-763-3; Look to Windward ISBN 1-85723-981-4; Matter ISBN 978-1-841-494173), Against A Dark Background ISBN 1-85723-179-1)
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- Miles Vorkosigan saga (Cordelia's Honor; Young Miles; Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem; Miles Errant; Miles, Mutants and Microbes; Miles in Love; Vorkosigan's Game, Komarr, A Civil Campaign)
- C. J. Cherryh
- Company Wars trilogy (Downbelow Station ISBN 8-470-02376-4; Heavy Time ISBN 0-446-67653-5; Hellburner ISBN 0-446-67653-5)
- Era of Rapprochement series (Serpent's Reach ISBN 0-88677-088-2; Merchanter's Luck ISBN 0-88677-139-0; Forty Thousand in Gehenna ISBN 0-932096-26-3; Cyteen ISBN 0-446-51428-4; Rimrunners ISBN 0-446-51514-0; Tripoint ISBN 0-446-51780-1; Finity's End ISBN 0-446-52072-1)
- James S. A. Corey
- The Expanse series (Leviathan Wakes ISBN 978-0-316-12908-4; Caliban's War ISBN 978-1-841-49990-1; Abaddon's Gate ISBN 978-0-316-12907-7; Cibola Burn ISBN 978-0-316-21762-0; Nemesis Games ISBN 978-0-316-21758-3; Babylon's Ashes ISBN 978-0-356-50426-1)
- Also a Television series: The Expanse
- Becky Chambers
- Wayfarers series (The Long Way to a Small, Angry PlanetISBN 978-0062444134, A Closed and Common Orbit ISBN 978-0062569400, Record of a Spaceborn Few ISBN 978-0062699220)
- Gordon Dickson
- Childe Cycle series (Dorsai!; Necromancer; Soldier, Ask Not; Tactics of Mistake; The Final Encyclopedia; The Chantry Guild)
- David Drake
- Hammer's Slammer's series (Hammer's Slammers; At Any Price; Counting the Cost; Rolling Hot; The Warrior; The Sharp End ; Paying the Piper);
- Republic of Cinnabar Navy series (With the Lightnings, Lt. Leary Commanding, The Far Side of the Stars, The Way to Glory, Some Golden Harbor)
- Joe Clifford Faust
- Angel's Luck trilogy (Desperate Measures ISBN 0345350200; Precious Cargo ISBN 978-0345360885; The Essence of Evil ISBN 0-345-36089-3)
- Harry Harrison
- The Stainless steel rat series:
- Bill the galactic hero series.
- Jonathan Moeller
- The Silent Order series (9 books)
- Richard Morgan
- Takeshi Kovacs series (Altered Carbon ISBN 0-575-07390-X; Broken Angels ISBN 0-575-07550-3; Woken Furies ISBN 0-575-07325-X)
- Larry Niven
- Tales of Known Space (World of Ptavvs, A Gift from Earth, Neutron Star, Protector The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton, The Patchwork Girl,Crashlander: The Collected Tales of Beowulf Shaeffer)
- Ringworld (Ringworld, The Ringworld Engineers, The Ringworld Throne, Ringworld's Children)
- Man-Kzin Wars anthologies
- The Draco Tavern
- Steve Perry
- The Matador series (9 books)
- Jerry Pournelle
- Motie Series (A Spaceship for the King, A Mote in God's Eye, King David's Spaceship, The Gripping Hand)
- Falkenberg series (Prince of Mercenaries, Falkenberg's Legion, Go Tell the Spartans, Prince of Sparta)
- Janissaries series (Janissaries, Janissaries: Clan and Crown, Janissaries III: Storms of Victory)
- David Weber
- Honor Harrington series (On Basilisk Station ISBN 0-671-57793-X; The Honor of the Queen ISBN 0-671-57864-2; The Short Victorious War ISBN 0-671-87596-5 Field of Dishonor ISBN 0-671-57820-0; Flag in Exile ISBN 0-671-31980-9; Honor Among Enemies ISBN 0-671-87723-2; In Enemy Hands ISBN 0-671-57770-0; Echoes of Honor ISBN 0-671-57833-2; Ashes of Victory ISBN 0-671-57854-5; War of Honor ISBN 0-7434-3545-1; At All Costs ISBN 1-4165-0911-9)
- Walter Jon Williams
- Dread Empire's fall series (The Praxis ISBN 0-7434-2897-8; The Sundering ISBN 0-7434-2898-6; The Conventions of War ISBN 0-7432-5677-8)
- Scott Westerfeld
- Risen Empire series
- The Risen Empire
- The Killing of Worlds
Movies
Television
- Babylon 5
- Battlestar Galactica Original series
- Battlestar Galactica Updated series
- Earth 2
- Firefly
- Lost in Space - The original TV series
- Space: 1999
- Space: Above and Beyond
- Star Trek - The Original Series
- Starhunter
- The Expanse - see also James S. A. Corey in Books
Tertiary Inspiration Sources
These are books and other media which are not as closely tied to the Original Traveller Universe as the primary sources, but were certainly sources of cross-fertilization, and are frequently mentioned as sources of inspiration. Some of these are implicitly (or explicitly) inspired by Traveller.
Books
- Greg Bear
- Blood Music
- Gregory Benford
- Galactic Center Saga (In the Ocean of Night, Across the Sea of Suns, Great Sky River, Tides of Light, Furious Gulf, Sailing Bright Eternity, A Hunger for the Infinite)
- David Brin
- Uplift series (Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach)
- A. Bertram Chandler
- The John Grimes series
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Imperial Earth, Rendezvous with Rama, Songs of a Distant Earth
- Brian Daley
- Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds, Jinx on a Terran Inheritance, Fall of the White Ship Avatar
- Joe Clifford Faust
- The Essence of Evil, Precious Cargo, Desperate Measures
- Robert Frezza
- McLendon's Syndrome
- Dave Grossman
- The Two-Space War, The Guns of Two-Space
- Peter F. Hamilton
- Greg Mandel sequence,
- Night's Dawn Trilogy,
- Commonwealth series (Pandora's Star (2004), Judas Unchained (2005), Misspent Youth (2002), The Dreaming Void (2008), The Temporal Void (2009), The Evolutionary Void (2010))
- Chris Hechtl
- Wandering Engineer Series (New Dawn, Fool's Gold, Destinys Choice, Ghost Station, Plague Planet)
- Aldous Huxley
- Brave New World
- Jeffery Kooistra
- Dykstra's War
- Gregory P. Lee
- The Laughing Lip Series (All Shall Go to Wrack, Demand the Debt That's Owing, Long-Remembering Harpers)
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Dispossessed, Rocannon’s World, The Word for World is Forest, Left Hand of Darkness
- Nathan Lowell
- Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series (Quarter share, Half share, Full share, Double share, Captain share, Owners share)
- George R. R. Martin (Tuf Voyaging, Dying of the Light)
- Jack McDevitt
- Alex Benedict stories (A Talent for War, Polaris, Seeker)
- Jamie McFarlane
- Privateer Tales Series ( 17 books, https://www.goodreads.com/series/132036-privateer-tales )
- Jack McKinney
- Robotech Series (21 books)
- Julian May
- Galactic Milieu Series (Surveillance, Metaconcert, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, Magnificat),
- The Rampart Worlds trilogy (Perseus Spur, Orion Arm, Sagittarius Whorl: An Adventure of the Rampart Worlds)
- Steve Miller and Sharon Lee
- Liaden universe
- Elizabeth Moon
- Vatta's War series
- John Ringo
- Legacy of the Aldenata (Posleen) series
- Kim Stanley Robinson
- Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Retrieval Artist series (The Disappeared, Extremes, Consequences, Buried Deep, Paloma, The Recovery Man, Duplicate Effort, The Possession of Paavo Deshin (short novel), Anniversary Day, Blowback)
- John Scalzi
- Old Man's War
- Charles Sheffield
- The McAndrew Chronicles
- Michael Stackpole
- Warrior Trilogy (Warrior: En Garde, Warrior: Riposte Warrior: Coupé) - Battletech
- Joan D. Vinge
- The Snow Queen, World's End, Summer Queen
- Vernor Vinge
- A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness In The Sky, Marooned in Realtime
- Walter Jon Williams
- The Crown Jewels, House of Shards, Rock of Ages
Non-Sci-Fi Books
- Niccolo Machiavelli
- The Prince
- General Bernard Trainor
The Endgame: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from George W. Bush to Barack Obama ISBN 9780307388940
Sci-fi RPG Sources
- 2300 AD RPG by GDW
- Alternity: Star*Drive RPG
- Blue Planet RPG
- Fading Suns RPG
- GURPS by Steve Jackson Games: GURPS Space, Ultra-Tech, etc.
- Ringworld RPG by Chaosium
- Serenity RPG by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd.
- Shadowrun RPG by FASA
- Space Opera RPG by FGU
- SpaceMaster RPG by ICE
- Star Frontiers RPG by TSR
- Star Hero RPG by Hero Games
- Star Wars RPG by West End Games
- Stargate SG1 RPG
- Transhuman Space RPG by SJG
- Universe: The Role-Playing Game of the Future RPG by Simulation Publications, Inc. (SPI)
Video Games
- X-com 1 & 2
- Starcraft
- Starflight 1 & 2
- Rebelstar (forerunner to X-Com)
- EVE Online
- Elite (the original, or Oolite for a modern update)
- Mass Effect (you can read the Traveller DNA in its information Codex)
- Halo
- Privateer 2
Movies
- The 6th day
- Apollo 13
- Apollo 18
- Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina (anime)
- Avatar
- Battle Beyond the Stars
- Black Hole (Disney does science)
- Blade Runner
- Contact
- Dark Star
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- Enemy Mine
- Event Horizon
- The Fifth Element
- Galaxy Quest
- Ghost in the Shell
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Ice Pirates
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Independence Day
- The Last Starfighter
- Judge Dredd
- Jupiter Ascending
- Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- Outlander
- Predator
- Riddick Films: Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick
- The Right Stuff
- Saturn 3
- Space Cowboys
- Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
- Space Truckers
- Starcrash
- Three Kings
- Titan A.E
- Starman
Television Series
- Blake's 7
- Banner of the Stars (Anime)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th century
- Connections, Connections 2, and Connections 3 by James Burke - Not SF but good for how Technology evolves
- Cowboy Bebop (Anime)
- Crest of the Stars (Anime)
- Dark Matter
- Earth 2
- Farscape And Farscape: The Peacekeeper wars
- Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (radio show and TV)
- Killjoys
- Planetes (hyper real near-Earth space anime)
- Lost In Space (New Series)
- Red Dwarf
- Robotech (Anime)
- Space: Above and Beyond
- Stargate SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis
- Star Trek - The Next Generation
- Star Trek - Deep Space Nine
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Animated)
- Star Wars Rebels (Animated)
- Tytania (Anime, subtitled only)
- UFO (best TV theme music EVER)
History & Background (Dossier)
Traveller came out of a core group of university students in Illinois in the USA on Terra. The core group of original creators and fans were nearly all big science fiction readers, fans, enthusiasts, and wargamers. They went on to found GDW, the company that published the core game and launched the Traveller RPG. The company went through it share of drama, eventually closing doors, after the market was unkind to it. However, it created an entire genre of sci-fi, cemented the sci-fi RPG as a gaming standard, and created or inspired numerous gaming greats: board game designers, fiction writers, and many other purveyors of imagination whom are sill loved by the greater geek community. This articles attempts to collect some of the many different inspirations that helped to inspire those purveyors of imagination who continue to inspire all of us.[1]
Meta-history & Background
Etymology: The word Traveler and its British English orthographic variation Traveller refer to individuals who travel. In practice this refers to tourists, nomads, gypsies, exiled or expatriate peoples, and the like. In the Traveller RPG universe, it refers to sophonts who travel the stars, a special group of beings with an adventurous spirit. They are imagined to possess the Traveller Gene.[2]
At the beginning there was only some very basic background material as to the Traveller universe. It appeared that like most other RPG games of the time that individual game masters would develop their own universe to adventure in. It was originally intended to be a flexible, multi-purpose, general ruleset. As more adventures and supplements were developed the rich character of the standard Traveller universe began to evolve.[3]
- Most of the Classic Traveller books are available in compendium volumes from www.farfuture.net - Marc Miller's Far Future company, who are the current copyright and trademark holder of all forms of the Traveller game.
References & Contributors (Sources)
- The Science Fiction In Traveller: A Reader's Guide to Traveller Role-Playing Fiction
- The Traveller Bibliography
- The Traveller Periodical Bibliography
- Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science