shared world n.
a fictional setting in which multiple authors set their stories, esp. one created for this purpose
SF Encyclopedia
SF Criticism
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1985
The stories do not truly mesh into a single setting in the distinctive way necessary for Ithkar Fair to qualify as a shared world.
in Dragon Magazine Nov. 32/2 -
1988
One way of getting around that has been the rise of ‘shared-world’ anthologies, where several writers join together to write stories using a single setting and sharing characters, which readers seem more inclined to pick up than other collections.
Summation 1987: Fantasy in E. Datlow & T. Windling Year’s Best Fantasy & Science Fiction First Annual Collection p. xv -
1988
Gene Wolfe
The idea was to make up a fictional city-state (Liavek) with its surrounding geography, technology, religions, laws of magic, and so on and so forth, and to persuade a variety of authors to submit stories laid there; compilations of this rather freakish kind are called shared-world anthologies.
Storeys from Old Hotel Introd. p. 8 -
1989
David Langford
Deal mortal blows to the brain by sending ‘shared world anthologies’ in which many writers set stories in the same fictional ‘universe’.
in GamesMaster June 82/1 -
1992 Locus June 39/3
There you are: the first shared-world anthology conceived and written entirely by Nebula Award winners.
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1993
John Clute
Peter Nicholls
bibliography
We have excluded very few sf authors who have solely written books tied to shared-world endeavours (like Star Wars or Star Trek).
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction p. xii/2 -
2018
He [sc. George R. R. Martin] also cites RPG as a collaborative creative experience which directly led to the anthology series Wild Cards (1987), in which different authors contributed stories set within a shared world.
Fallen London: Authorship & Game Allegory in Paradoxa 10
Research requirements
antedating 1985
Earliest cite
John C. Bunnell in Dragon Magazine
Research History
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1988 cite from Gene Wolfe's introduction to his "Storeys From the Old Hotel".Alexx Kay submitted a 1986 cite from Gardner Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection".
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1985 cite from an article by John C. Bunnell in Dragon Magazine.
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from the revised Nicholls/Clute "Encyclopedia of SF"; Mike Christie verified it in the 1993 edition and also ascertained that it does not appear in a 1981 reprint of the 1979 first edition.
Jeff Prucher submitted a 1988 cite from an article by Terri Windling in Windling and Datlow's 1988 "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror".
Dave Langford submitted a 1989 cite from Langford's reviews column in "GamesMaster".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2018 cite from Karlien van den Beukel.
Last modified 2021-02-12 11:56:12
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