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Comment by diziet | Hacker News Reader

The concept of a solitary star without any 'nearby' neighbors features in Iain Banks' Against A Dark Background: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/422452.Against_a_Dark_Ba...

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A couple short stories: Arthur C. Clarke's "Crusade" is set on a starless planet between galaxies. A.E. van Vogt's "Black Destroyer" has as a minor plot point the idea that a civilization developing in a single-planet solar system extremely far away from any others would never develop interstellar travel because there would be no stepping stones.

C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy takes place on a planet where the only two significant external light sources are the local star and the core of the nearest galaxy. This enables a plot point where the surface of the planet occasionally experiences intervals of the lowest light levels possible.

Had this been known at the time, she could have simply dispensed with the light from the nearest galaxy altogether.

Similarly, the planet Krikkit, as described in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide "Trilogy", would not necessarily be all that unique or unusual.

I read a short story, not too long ago, about a solitary planet on approach to a solar system. Their society was stagnating due to some cultural predilection to having a once-every-ten-year science fair, and having no technological progress outside of that. It was framed as a murder mystery, too. Wish I remembered what it was...

Sounds like "The Science Fair" (1971) by Vernor Vinge.

Yes, you're right!

Sci-fi framed as a murder mystery? There's a good bet it was an Asimov novel :-P

rec.arts.sf.written used to be good for story IDs. http://www.steelypips.org/sfwrittenfaq/#01

I'm not sure if there is already a sub-reddit for story ids.

George R.R. Martin's first book, The Dying of the Light (published 1977), is set on a lone "travelling" planet whose interstellar course passes it through a multi-star system. The final stages of this traversal is the premise of the book's title.

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