pleasure planet n.

a planet that is pleasurable to visit, esp. one that functions chiefly as a resort; cf. paradise planet n.

  • 1939 J. Williamson After World’s End in Marvel Science Stories Feb. 42/2 page image Jack Williamson bibliography

    The pleasure planet was itself a gorgeous jewel, covered with tell-tended gardens of many-hued vegetation, and with the magnificent palaces, triumphal arches, and colossi erected by a thousand generations of universal rulers.

  • 1941 E. Hamilton Captain Future & the Seven Space Stones in Captain Future Winter x. 54/1 page image Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    They’re on the Pleasure Planet—that asteroid gambling paradise outside the limitations of System law.

  • 1945 J. Vance The World-Thinker in Thrilling Wonder Stories Summer 45/2 page image Jack Vance bibliography

    Where had he seen eyes with that expression? On Fan, the Pleasure Planet?

  • 1954 R. Abernathy The Fishers in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 7 page image Robert Abernathy bibliography

    The Tethys project seems to be to develop the satellite as a sort of resort, a low-gravity pleasure planet.

  • 1966 G. C. Johnson The Man Trap (Star Trek episode) (transcription)

    Ma’am, if I didn't know better I would swear you were someone I left behind on Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet. It’s funny, you’re exactly like a girl that….

  • 1976 H. Ellison Strange Wine in Amazing Stories June 37/2 page image Harlan Ellison bibliography

    He slept and dreamed good dreams. Of life as Willis Kaw, life on the pleasure planet.

  • 1987 B. Searles On Books in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction May 188/1 page image Baird Searles

    The teaching method of the pleasure planet of Midia, for instance, is plain old pleasure/pain conditioning, and the results are a population of seducer/hustlers.

  • 1999 M. Resnick Hunting the Snark in Asimov’s Science Fiction Dec. 99 page image Mike Resnick bibliography

    Pollard, who would have preferred a few weeks on Calliope or one of the other pleasure planets, finally agreed to come along so that the four of them could celebrate their latest billion together.

  • 2015 P. Reeve Railhead xx. 117 page image Philip Reeve bibliography

    Jangala, on the other hand, was a pleasure planet, where towns were few, and everything that was not actual sea was covered with a sea of trees.


Research requirements

antedating 1939

Earliest cite

Jack Williamson, in Marvel Science Stories

Research History
Suggested by Leah Zeldes.

Last modified 2023-02-15 16:13:41
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.