hell planet n.

a planet regarded as dangerous or unpleasant, esp. one having climate conditions that are inhospitable for humans

  • 1932 ‘L. F. Stone’ in Wonder Stories June (title) page image Leslie F. Stone bibliography

    The Hell Planet.

  • 1938 J. R. Fearn Zagribud in Amazing Stories Feb. 106/1 page image John Russell Fearn bibliography

    Make Rath Granod eat the dirt of his own hell planet!

  • 1940 F. A. Kummer, Jr. Star Pirate in Planet Stories Summer 76/2 page image Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr. bibliography

    I’ve thought of you a great deal these eleven years! In the radium fields of that hell-planet Mercury, hunting gold in the stinking Venusian jungles, prospecting the dusty, choking deserts of Mars!

  • 1945 Planet Stories Fall 78 (editorial introduction to The Bubble Dwellers, by ‘Ross Rocklynne’) page image

    The hell-planet of Vulcan had spawned a deadly menace that might entrap the civilized worlds.

  • 1953 P. Anderson Enough Rope in Astounding Science Fiction July 19/1 page image Poul Anderson bibliography

    A big world, as I recall. Twice our gravity, mostly hydrogen atmosphere—storms of unparalleled violence, volcanic upheavals, a hell planet!

  • 1965 F. Herbert Dune (1984) I. 196 Frank Herbert bibliography

    So here we live out our lives…on this hell-planet.

  • 1966 K. Bulmer Draft Dodger in Worlds of If Mar. 89/1 page image Kenneth Bulmer bibliography

    On the surface Lorimer was a hell-planet. But Lack would not venture onto the surface.

  • 1993 A. McCaffrey & S. M. Stirling City Who Fought (1994) 326 page image Anne McCaffrey S. M. Stirling bibliography

    Pounding feet came closer: Joseph’s heavier tread, and the lighter, faster sound of the folk the hell-planet bred.

  • 2004 L. Shepard Multiplexity in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Dec. 123/1 page image Lucius Shepard

    A variety of settings—an ice planet, a civilized world, a triple-max security prison on a hell planet.

Research requirements

antedating 1932
Earliest cite

Leslie Stone, as the title of her story "The Hell Planet", in Wonder Stories.

Last modified 2023-02-15 17:06:04
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.