The overwhelming majority of fiction is set on or features the Earth, as the only planet home to humans or known to have life. This also holds true of science fiction, despite perceptions to the contrary. Works that focus specifically on Earth may do so holistically, treating the planet as one semi-biological entity. Counterfactual depictions of the shape of the Earth, be it flat or hollow, are occasionally featured. A personified, living Earth appears in a handful of works. In works set in the far future, Earth can be a center of space-faring human civilization, or just one of many inhabited planets of a galactic empire, and sometimes destroyed by ecological disaster or nuclear war or otherwise forgotten or lost.[2][1]
- ^ a b Stableford, Brian M. (2006). "Earth". Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 137–139. ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8.
- ^ Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Earth". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 226–228. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.