Interstellar War - Interplanetary War in Fiction

Interplanetary War in Fiction

The earliest fictional references appear to be to interplanetary, not interstellar war (e.g. H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds). Now that the other planets of the solar system are believed to be devoid of intelligent life, sci-fi writers generally posit some form of faster-than-light drive in order to facilitate interstellar war. Writers such as Larry Niven have developed plausible interplanetary conflict based on human colonization of the asteroid belt and outer planets by means of technologies utilizing the laws of physics as currently understood.

Examples of interstellar and interplanetary war in fiction include:

• The Alien Invasion of Earth in various depictions of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds
• The various conflicts and wars depicted in Babylon 5
• The Alien Invasion of Earth in Battle Los Angeles
• The Earth-Romulan War in Star Trek
• The Alien Invasion of Earth in Skyline (film)
• The Dominion War in Star Trek
• The Galactic Civil War in Star Wars
• The Clone Wars in Star Wars
• The war between the Helghast and ISA in Killzone
• The Tau'ri-Goa'uld War in Stargate SG-1
• The Ori Crusade and Jaffa Rebellion in Stargate SG-1
• The Lantean-Wraith War and Tau'ri-Wraith War in Stargate Atlantis
• The Tau'ri-Lucian Alliance War in Stargate Universe
• The Bug War in Starship Troopers
• The Human Invasion of Pandora in Avatar
• The Cylon Wars in Battlestar Galactica
• The Human and S'pht Sacking of the Pfhor System in the Marathon Trilogy.
• The Pfhor-S'pht war in the Marathon Trilogy.
• The Flood-Forerunner war in Halo series
• The Human-Covenant War in the Halo series.
• The Human-Formic war in Orson Scott Card's Ender series
• The Reptilian Invasion depicted in the TV mini series V.
• The Psychlo invasion of Earth in Battlefield Earth
• The Seven Hour War in Half-Life 2
• The Human-Zoktura War in the novella Dark Frontier (novel)
• The Alien Invasion in Independence Day (film)
• The Human-Drac War in Enemy Mine
• The Andalite-Yeerk war in Animorphs
• The Alien Invasion depicted in The X-Files
• The Alien Invasion in the movie Signs.
• The Insectoid invasion of Earth in Alien Apocalypse
• The Human-Tauran War in The Forever War
• The Sontaran-Rutan war in Doctor Who
• The Time War in Doctor Who
• The invasion of the Zerg in StarCraft
• The Ant War in John Steakly's Armor
• The First Contact War, Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions and Reaper War in Mass Effect
• The Avatari Invasion in the Clone Series
• The Space War I/The First Robotech War in Macross/Robotech
• The Continuing Kree/Skrull hostilities in the Marvel Universe
• The Chig War in Space: Above and Beyond
• The Ur-Quan Slave War in Star Control