{"id":7862,"date":"2012-12-04T07:08:34","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T12:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=7862"},"modified":"2012-12-04T07:08:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T12:08:34","slug":"trope-tuesday-settling-the-final-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-settling-the-final-frontier\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: Settling the (Final) Frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I love stories about colonization<\/a>, especially when they’re set in space. \u00a0There’s just something about a small group of rugged pioneers<\/a>\u00a0striking out into the harsh, unforgiving wilderness<\/a> to make a new life for themselves<\/a>. \u00a0Maybe it’s just something about my American heritage<\/a>, or all those 4x games<\/a> I played as a kid, but I doubt it. \u00a0Ever since the dawn of time, we humans have been on the move<\/a>, looking for new and better places to call home. \u00a0Small wonder, then, that so many of our stories, both ancient and modern, are about settling the frontier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since space is the final frontier<\/a>, this trope is very common in science fiction. \u00a0Heinlein was a\u00a0huge<\/em> fan of it, but he wasn’t the only one to play with it–not by a long shot. \u00a0John Scalzi (The Last Colony<\/em>), Nancy Kress (Crossfire<\/em>), C.J. Cherryh (40,000 in Gehenna<\/em>), Anne McCaffrey (Freedom’s Landing<\/em>), and Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars,<\/em> and Blue Mars<\/em>) are just a few of the many science fiction writers who have explored this trope in their works. \u00a0In recent years, several sci fi miniseries (Battlestar Galactica, Terra Nova<\/em>) have used it as a major premise as well. \u00a0And of course, you have all the classic 4x games like\u00a0<\/em>Masters of Orion<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Alpha Centauri<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Space Colonies can come in a variety of different flavors:<\/p>\n