The Planet Construction Kit

Short version: this book will help you immensely with world-building, particularly if you're into sci-fi/fantasy world-building. A lot of the stuff Rosenfelder talks about goes over my head (I mean, seriously, I'm a WRITER, not an astrophysicist), but I enjoyed the topics and insight. 100% worth your while to check out.Longer version: I <3 this book. I've found it to be ridiculously handy as a newbie when it comes to worldbuilding, and with the breadth and depth of topics Rosenfelder covers, I'm certain it would also be helpful to more seasoned individuals.The thing I enjoyed most about this--other than the vast array of topics--was the versatility of it. Readers are free to glean and incorporate as they wish.Case in point: Rosenfelder is hardcore about a lot of things (and yet brushes the knowledge he presents as 'minimal' -_-...which, comparatively, it is, but it's still a lot to take in), especially math-related things. Like calculating sun size and subsequent planetary effects.Math: !#$%@*^&@(&^#@^!% multiply this number by 2.576 because !(&*@(&@(*&#(& and thenMe: .........Wait, WHAT?Suffice it to say that I won't be uh, *focusing* on bits like that.Rosenfelder doesn't cheat you when it comes to information--from creating a believable world with its own unique history, economy, daily struggles, religions/magic, and creatures to creating that world's maps and models (if you so desire).Plus, it's extremely affordable. Highly recommend!!!

If you are doing world construction for a novel or a game, it is a huge undertaking. This book will make it easier for you in many ways. First, this book will stop you from making a lot of mistakes that you will find difficult to undo - especially after you have made a commitment to a storyline or a definition of a character. Second, it also helps you to organize your effort to create something more believable.Even if you are not interested in planet construction, you will likely enjoy how Rosenfelder leaps from one aspect of study to another. This book covers biology, religion, plate tectonics, magic, war, clothing, and lots of topics that define how life is in different Terran cultures. That alone makes it worthwhile.Anyway, this won't do the work for you, but it will make the work you do better.

Excellent book. More detail than you could want, but it makes you think. As a detail oriented person, I truly appreciate the depth of subject coverage. Rosenfelder's book is a must have for speculative fiction writers, whether you're seriously trying to write a novel or writing a fun fanfic. The book covers a multitude of topics on culture, biology, and nature plus additional helpful sections on building a history, creating a map, and illustrating your work. He offers clear, practical examples in literature, history, culture, cinema, video gaming, D&D, music, and his own works. I recommend his book to all my writing and con-world friends.

Extremely good book for worldbuilding, especially those in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Has good sections on climate and culture decent bits on anatomy.

Just receoved and have been perusing. While I can now understand some of the criticisms of the book I think many of them are based on personal preference or disappointment that one area received more attention than another, or received attention at all.So far I think the text lives up to it's overall claims as a general introductory work to world building and if combined with other studies is perfectly fine.My primary argument with the text is the author's continual use of outdated concepts in economics, anthropology, and evolution. Admittedly, many concepts have remained relevant, others not so much.For instance anyone who believes that the paganism of the ancient Mediterranean was harsher on women than the "Abrahamic" religions or Confucianism has clearly never read Aristotle or the legacy of (neo)Platonism.The continued reference in most of popular culture, including this book, to evolutionary theory based primarily on the concept of Dawkins' selfish-gene hypothesis creates a real sense of disappointment. There has been so much more discovered in the area of social evolution that it's much like looking up from a beautiful rose and noticing the larger garden.As for economics, it's a dismal science for many, but referencing texts which are close to 40 years old isn't helpful for anyone.TL; DR -- A great starter text I would buy again, which needs serious updating in several fields.

There is some useful material in here, but you can as easily find it via Wikipedia or a Google search. Author spends too much time editorializing and not enough digging into the nitty-gritty. His conlanging books are good, but this one not so much.

This is a must for those in the business of creating their own world for fantasy/SF/RPG or their own pleasure. It includes many non-European medieval cultures and examples - which is a breath of fresh air. In addition, the author includes many examples from his own world, Almea, but that is a bonus, since his world is quite different from the usual run-of-the-mill fantasy setting. His chapter on drawing was fairly good, though his art is not more than OK. His chapter on map-making is the weakest link, and as this is such an important component to world-creation, I have been forced to give this one less star than the rest of the book deserved.

I wanted some thought provoking ideas to help me create the world my own work is set in, and this book was fantastic. I had already created the world for the most part when I purchased the book, but it gave me ways of organizing my thoughts about my world that had not even occured to me. There are also numerous smaller ideas and helpful strategies for adding detail to your fantasy world.

I looked on Mark's website for some help in finding out some of the finer points of world-building for my book and I noticed he had a book about this. I decided that it was pretty cheap so I bought it. I'm glad I did.It's a very good book that provides a good number of pointers and aspects of a world that you need to keep in mind when world-building that I had not thought about. For example, I have been building my world for the best part of 4 years and not once thought about marriage customs or clothing styles. I had just written them in with little thought to what cultural styles and how things would develop.This book is very good for those wishing to create a world based on either a fantasy or a sci-fi theme but if you're doing one or the other, you have to sometimes miss out certain bits which refer to the other genre such as planet generation en mass.What this book covers are methods to develop an entire planet, complete with realistic year lengths and distances from the sun, plate tectonic's etc. There's also chapters on developing Culture, clothing styles, War and the use of various weapons, law and how to develop a logical set, Religious orders, Economy (which I think is very important but often glanced over) and how to develop an ordered history of the world.There's little more that I can say that would put this book any higher on the must read list for conworlder's. It's a valuable tool that you can go through, almost list like, and make sure you've got at least something for the each point. The difficulty when you have this book, however, is that you'll realise that you are spending far too much time working on the world and not writing the story that you made the world for!Only problems I've got with this book is that in at least one place it actually looks like a page is missing and there are a few typo's and spelling mistakes.

A rare find, one of those off the wall books chock-full of fascinating information, a bit like Shott's Miscellany or 1st Edition DMG, this book fulfils and transcends its mission statement of allowing the reader to construct a credible backdrop for a novel or for gaming. I learned a lot about things I thought I already knew about. Brilliant! One thing for the second edition - I think the author means 'gamete' when he talks about 'zygote'.

I bought this simply as a companion to The Language Construction kit and wasn't disappointed. It hasn't YET prompted me into researching geology, planet formation, climatology, oceanography etc. But I do mean YET!

Now I can make my own stories about my conworlds.

very helpful