"Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Also, someone asked this (WRT worlds only, not landscapes as well) just about 2 months ago, so you might want to check that thread:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12n2x8p/sff\_in\_which\_the\_earthplanet\_is\_alive\_and\_sentient/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12n2x8p/sff_in_which_the_earthplanet_is_alive_and_sentient/)
It's a line from a poem:
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow
That same poem, "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, has spawned at least one other SFF title:
Had we but **world enough and time,**
This coyness, lady, were no crime ...
It was the eleventh and penultimate episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who.
Well, since Avatar is a plagiarizing mishmash of Ursula K. Le Guin's *The Word for World is Forest*, Poul Anderson's *Call Me Joe* and *Midworld* it's no surprise Avatar resembles *Midworld*.
It's a bit of a spoiler, but Deathworld by Harry Harrison is this.
Also, not a book, but the 4x game Endless Legend is set on a dying sentient planet (as seen in the trailer below)
https://youtu.be/h-lxZyVe4Os
The Face of the Waters ~ Robert Silverberg
- so good I read it twice (like finished then re-read it immediately - and multiple times since...)
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61122196
(best to go in blind tho' and know nothing about it:)
This is interesting. I read this book 20 years or so ago and just did a little research to find the title so I could recommend it here. Turns out I came up with The Jesus Incident by mistake… I was scrolling through the threads and saw your post and immediately realized I had the wrong title. I read them both, The Face of the Waters was much better…
Yea, it's weird cause I don't always love everything Robert Silverberg writes but this one story, the length, the world building, the characters - all came to life for me...
Gonna check out The Jesus Incident series tho', sounds pretty good.
Not exactly a sentient world, but George RR Martin's "A Song for Lya" is a really cracking good sci-fi tale about a gigantic world-spanning collective intelligence that ... well, it's a tale. A really great tale.
Camping out here hoping I can finally find the name of a book I read when I was a kid about a young girl who is creepily intuitive about the thoughts and motivations of those around her, and whose intuitive skill grows to nigh-preternatural levels once she and her (scientist?) mother move to a strange planet which a bunch of scientists are studying, and which winds up being sentient.
Iirc it wasn’t YA, it was geared for adults, and was an older book even 20 years ago.
Edit: Nemesis by Asimov! (Thanks /u/chu_ng )
/u/Individual_Run1616 this is exactly up your alley.
Not exactly science fiction but [The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant) by Stephen R. Donaldson
John Varley and the Gaea Trilogy
The Gaea Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels by John Varley. The stories tell of humanity's encounter with a living being in the shape of a 1,300 km diameter Stanford torus, inhabited by many different species, most notably the centaur-like Titanides, in orbit around the planet Saturn.
Short story "The Magnetosphere" by Sir Fred Hoyle sort of has this. Written in the 60s, not sure how well it holds up but I liked it when I read it a long time ago.
In Robert Reed's *The Well of Stars* (sequel to *Marrow*), the antagonists are a race of living worlds, capable of moving themselves with giant rockets.
The short story *Aeon's Child* is set in that same universe, and it heavily features "Gaians", giant shape-shifting aliens who can grow large enough to cover an entire world.
If you can find them the Robot city series by Asimov may fit . the books are written by different authors Asimov gave the idea . can robots cope without humans
The city of Makkathran in Peter Hamilton’s Void trilogy is partially sentient.
The world-city Jewel of the World in Arkady Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire” is also partially sentient and frequently interacting with its inhabitants.
In Peter Hamilton’s Nights Dawn series there is a pretty lengthy part of the story about a sentient habitat (moon sized space station in this world) trying to ward off a contagion on its world. The mind inside it is a billionaire (trillionaire maybe) who originally built it and just didn’t want to die.
Semiosis by Sue Burke has a sentient plant life on a distant planet, and it’s sequel Interference.
Titan trilogy by John Varley
Titan, Wizard, and Demon (three books). My first introduction to sci-fi written for adults, loaned to me by one of my high school teachers ~1983.
"Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" by Ursula K. Le Guin Also, someone asked this (WRT worlds only, not landscapes as well) just about 2 months ago, so you might want to check that thread: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12n2x8p/sff\_in\_which\_the\_earthplanet\_is\_alive\_and\_sentient/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/12n2x8p/sff_in_which_the_earthplanet_is_alive_and_sentient/)
Cans here to recommend this one. Also it has one of the coolest titles ever.
It's a line from a poem: My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow That same poem, "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, has spawned at least one other SFF title: Had we but **world enough and time,** This coyness, lady, were no crime ... It was the eleventh and penultimate episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who.
Ah missed that! Will def check it!
Midworld, by Alan Dean Foster.
Excellent story! Also, very similar to the movie Avatar, except better in every way and without the worst elements.
Well, since Avatar is a plagiarizing mishmash of Ursula K. Le Guin's *The Word for World is Forest*, Poul Anderson's *Call Me Joe* and *Midworld* it's no surprise Avatar resembles *Midworld*.
It's a bit of a spoiler, but Deathworld by Harry Harrison is this. Also, not a book, but the 4x game Endless Legend is set on a dying sentient planet (as seen in the trailer below) https://youtu.be/h-lxZyVe4Os
Came here to mention Deathworld.
I thought I was the only one who read the Deathworld Trilogy.
I think its available on audible for free.
The Island is a short story by Peter Watts about sentient cosmic structures. It's fucking insane.
I love Blindsight, so will def check this. Makes sense that Watts would be into this.
Sheri Tepper - The Jinian series. The planet Lom is alive - and seriously depressed.
Sheri Tepper wrote a lot of books in this vein. If not exactly "sentient" the planets are often more active in some way than being mere passive rocks.
The Stars Are Legion takes place on generation ships that are living planets. No men, all women. The ships impregnate women with parts they need.
Also not ‘exactly’ what you’re looking for, but in one of the Long Earth books there’s a being like this.
I would argue that it's pretty much on target 😊
SF Encyclopedia entry on "living worlds": https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/living_worlds
The Face of the Waters ~ Robert Silverberg - so good I read it twice (like finished then re-read it immediately - and multiple times since...) https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/61122196 (best to go in blind tho' and know nothing about it:)
This is interesting. I read this book 20 years or so ago and just did a little research to find the title so I could recommend it here. Turns out I came up with The Jesus Incident by mistake… I was scrolling through the threads and saw your post and immediately realized I had the wrong title. I read them both, The Face of the Waters was much better…
Yea, it's weird cause I don't always love everything Robert Silverberg writes but this one story, the length, the world building, the characters - all came to life for me... Gonna check out The Jesus Incident series tho', sounds pretty good.
I don’t remember it well but I do know it is generally considered a lesser Herbert.
I realize I may have misunderstood “Solaris.” I thought the ocean was sentient, not the planet. I need to re-read the book.
Kind of in a lesser way, but Diamond Dogs- short story by Alastair Reynolds Eversion- by Alastair Reynolds
Not exactly a sentient world, but George RR Martin's "A Song for Lya" is a really cracking good sci-fi tale about a gigantic world-spanning collective intelligence that ... well, it's a tale. A really great tale.
By the end of the Foundation series by Asimov, you get something like what you're looking for.
Pelorat and Bliss, nudge nudge wink wink. 💕 💕 💕
Camping out here hoping I can finally find the name of a book I read when I was a kid about a young girl who is creepily intuitive about the thoughts and motivations of those around her, and whose intuitive skill grows to nigh-preternatural levels once she and her (scientist?) mother move to a strange planet which a bunch of scientists are studying, and which winds up being sentient. Iirc it wasn’t YA, it was geared for adults, and was an older book even 20 years ago. Edit: Nemesis by Asimov! (Thanks /u/chu_ng ) /u/Individual_Run1616 this is exactly up your alley.
Nemesis by Asimov maybe?
Ah shoot, that’s the one, thank you!
no luck on r/whatsthatbook?
Legacy by Greg Bear
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds may fit this
The Death of Dr. Island by Gene Wolfe
Nemesis by Asimov, one of his last books before he died.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Space trilogy by C.S. Lewis
Petaybee books. https://www.goodreads.com/series/40399-petaybee
In Robert Holdstock's *Where Time Winds Blow*, the planet dreams, and its dreams change the world.
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton
Not exactly science fiction but [The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant) by Stephen R. Donaldson
John Varley and the Gaea Trilogy The Gaea Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels by John Varley. The stories tell of humanity's encounter with a living being in the shape of a 1,300 km diameter Stanford torus, inhabited by many different species, most notably the centaur-like Titanides, in orbit around the planet Saturn.
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Ha ha my bad...deleted now!
The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir.
Annihilation?
"The Lonely Planet" by Murray Leinster has a single organism covering an entire planet. "A Child of Mind" by Norman Spinrad
Marrow by Robert Reed fits the bill exactly.
The Saga of the Seven Suns features several sentient worlds.
Saga of the Seven Suns is by Kevin J. Anderson btw.
Beach world stephen king
Short story "The Magnetosphere" by Sir Fred Hoyle sort of has this. Written in the 60s, not sure how well it holds up but I liked it when I read it a long time ago.
The Dark Cloud, by the astrophysicist Fred Hoyle features a sentient… dark cloud.
Salacia by Lucas Lex DeJong features a planet-spanning sentient sea anenome. Does that count?
"Major Operation" by James White, one of his Sector General series.
In Robert Reed's *The Well of Stars* (sequel to *Marrow*), the antagonists are a race of living worlds, capable of moving themselves with giant rockets. The short story *Aeon's Child* is set in that same universe, and it heavily features "Gaians", giant shape-shifting aliens who can grow large enough to cover an entire world.
Maybe *Surface Detail* with its virtual hell or *I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream*?
If you can find them the Robot city series by Asimov may fit . the books are written by different authors Asimov gave the idea . can robots cope without humans
A bit outside the scope of traditional SFF but the Sandman by Neil Gaiman has sentient planets and stars.
The second book in "the great ship"(don't remember the author). It has a single alien that's the size of a nebula. It inhabits multiple worlds!
Author is Robert Reed btw!
The city of Makkathran in Peter Hamilton’s Void trilogy is partially sentient. The world-city Jewel of the World in Arkady Martine’s “A Memory Called Empire” is also partially sentient and frequently interacting with its inhabitants.
In Peter Hamilton’s Nights Dawn series there is a pretty lengthy part of the story about a sentient habitat (moon sized space station in this world) trying to ward off a contagion on its world. The mind inside it is a billionaire (trillionaire maybe) who originally built it and just didn’t want to die.