Moons in novels

Pickoo

Active member
Joined
Aug 30, 2021
Messages
10
Points
43
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
 

Amok

grblbrbl
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
421
Points
133
Yes! had the exact same thought three or so days ago, figured I was gonna give my primary planet in story no moon, maybe fill the night sky with a few poly-chromatic nebulae.

And, as you say, mostly two-three moons, seldom twelve(going into planet mass etc. physics here, but figure an Earth-size planet can have 5+ if they have less mass than Luna)

Create a terrestrial planet nearing Jupiter size, and it's moon bonanza time
 

Reborn_Cat

A lazy cat pretending to be human
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
Messages
202
Points
133
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
For no moon you should probably add alternate sources of light at like glowing plants or make it so most creatures don't need light to navigate through the night cause the nights are gonna be darker than an emo in the theater club

Also does no one ever think about eclipses in the 2-3 moon gang, like can't one moon eclipse another moon if there are multiple moons and cause some major event to happen, it's a great idea and I've never seen used in stories
 

TotallyHuman

It's good to be home.
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Messages
3,996
Points
183
The night would be hella dark and it would be inconvenient to describe night scenery
 

T.K._Paradox

Was Divided By Zero: Looking for Glovebox Jesus
Joined
Nov 2, 2021
Messages
1,050
Points
153
For no moon you should probably add alternate sources of light at like glowing plants or make it so most creatures don't need light to navigate through the night cause the nights are gonna be darker than an emo in the theater club

Also does no one ever think about eclipses in the 2-3 moon gang, like can't one moon eclipse another moon if there are multiple moons and cause some major event to happen, it's a great idea and I've never seen used in stories
Moons don't produce their own light, it is light reflected from the Sun.
If you do make a story without moons, research about the ocean. Having no moon(s) would drastically effect the ocean.
 

Amok

grblbrbl
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
421
Points
133
For no moon you should probably add alternate sources of light at like glowing plants or make it so most creatures don't need light to navigate through the night cause the nights are gonna be darker than an emo in the theater club

Also does no one ever think about eclipses in the 2-3 moon gang, like can't one moon eclipse another moon if there are multiple moons and cause some major event to happen, it's a great idea and I've never seen used in stories

We have that during dark moons... depends on tech level, with electricity over larger settlements, with cloud cover and dark moon, the lights from buildings etc. light up landscape as the photons reflect back to surface. And dark nights don't require special evolution... most life on earth is diurnal, so I figure nocturnal forms under no-light conditions would be more like cave organisms, or have photo-emitting eyes(no biological instance of this afaik, just like the idea of organisms whose eyes emit photons therefore enabling sight in total darkness. Also bats, what with screeches and supersonic hearing... absolutely a viable evolutionary adaption to no-light conditions.

And then you can have bright nearby stars etc. which offer a modicum of light during night, enough for specialized species to see by.

And yeah, eclipses rare, I think the only verse with multiple moons where I've read 'bout one is the Warhammer Old World(and I've never read them do sun-moon eclipses, only moon-moon)
 
Last edited:

Reborn_Cat

A lazy cat pretending to be human
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
Messages
202
Points
133
Moons don't produce their own light, it is light reflected from the Sun.
If you do make a story without moons, research about the ocean. Having no moon(s) would drastically effect the ocean.
Still makes the moon one of the only sources of natural light during the night, even if it is reflected light it still gives light
 

T.K._Paradox

Was Divided By Zero: Looking for Glovebox Jesus
Joined
Nov 2, 2021
Messages
1,050
Points
153
The night would be hella dark and it would be inconvenient to describe night scenery
If the story is set in a non modern setting with out light pollution, you'll find that the night sky is actually quite bright, though the lack of moon would have definitely made the night darker, but not pitch black.
Still makes the moon one of the only sources of natural light during the night, even if it is reflected light it still gives light
I acknowledged this in my recent post.
 

Reborn_Cat

A lazy cat pretending to be human
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
Messages
202
Points
133
We have that during dark moons... depends on tech level, with electricity over larger settlements, with cloud cover and dark moon, the lights from buildings etc. light up landscape. And dark nights don't require special evolution... most life on earth is diurnal, so I figure nocturnal forms would be more like cave organisms, or have photo-emitting eyes(no biological instance of this afaik, just like the idea of organisms whose eyes emit photons therefore enabling sight in total darkness. Also bats, what with screeches and supersonic hearing... absolutely a viable evolutionary adaption to no-light conditions.

And yeah, eclipses rare, I think the only verse with multiple moons where I've read 'bout one is the Warhammer Old World(and I've never read them do sun-moon eclipses, only moon-moon)
In a fantasy world (which I assume that is what you talk about when you mention other worlds) they generally don't have the technology level for safe lighting
 

Amok

grblbrbl
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
421
Points
133
Still makes the moon one of the only sources of natural light during the night, even if it is reflected light it still gives light
And stars/.....galaxies, billions of 'em
In a fantasy world (which I assume that is what you talk about when you mention other worlds) they generally don't have the technology level for safe lighting
Agree, edited previous post to offer a view of what organisms might be like then... RE: humans, well, they'd have to adapt... maybe will be hella more afraid and superstitious of the night than even our ancestors were...

Now, a sky without stars and moons... think I've only encountered it in Vance's Rhialto the Marvelous, and a few 40K worlds... Vance had a world on the edge of nothingness with one sun, with nothingness slowly consuming the universe, about to consume this planet and its star.
 

Zirrboy

Fueled by anger
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
1,135
Points
153
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
Yes! had the exact same thought three or so days ago, figured I was gonna give my primary planet in story no moon, maybe fill the night sky with a few poly-chromatic nebulae.

And, as you say, mostly two-three moons, seldom twelve(going into planet mass etc. physics here, but figure an Earth-size planet can have 5+ if they have less mass than Luna)

Create a terrestrial planet nearing Jupiter size, and it's moon bonanza time
You're going off of the assumption that no mention of anything regarding the moon means one usual moon.

In a world with no moon, nobody would mention its absence.

Meaning you could have read dozens of "no moon" stories without noticing
 

LordJoyde

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
223
Points
103
For me, I'll always have at least one moon because I don't have the scientific knowledge on how a planet's ecosystem would be different without a moon to affect the planet.
 

EchoingRuby

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 25, 2020
Messages
32
Points
58
It's worth noting that a planet without at least one large moon would have several issues that may or may not be relevant depending on whether your world is intelligently designed.

1. Minimal tides. There would still be some coming from the local star but not as much as a large moon would give. This will have an impact on the evolution of life as it is widely accepted that land-based animal life evolved from aquatic life trapped in tide pools.

2. Shorter day lengths. The moon's tidal effects on earth have resulted in the planet's rotation slowing down over time. Estimates for how fast the earth used to spin vary but less than 10 hours is widely accepted.

3. Extreme axial tilt variation. A large moon helps stabilise a planet's axial tilt. Earth's tilt varies between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees, but without the moon it could tilt all the way over to 90 degrees. This has a lot of effects and none of them are good for life in general (more due to the variation over time rather than any one specific angle). "On Mars the axis tilts so much that the ice now found at its poles has sometimes moved all the way down to the equator. A similar scenario here, with large portions of Africa being covered in ice at intervals, would be rather inconvenient." - https://sciencenorway.no/forskningno-norway-planets/what-would-we-do-without-the-moon/1433295

Of course if your world is tidally locked to its star then the axial tilt variation wouldn't happen but tidally locked habitable planets are a whole other thing entirely. Go read about them, they're super interesting.

(There are probably other affects of not having a large moon but I don't know what they are.)
 

Amok

grblbrbl
Joined
Nov 4, 2020
Messages
421
Points
133
You're going off of the assumption that no mention of anything regarding the moon means one usual moon.

In a world with no moon, nobody would mention its absence.

Meaning you could have read dozens of "no moon" stories without noticing

Agree, but here things become tricky... if author never describes night sky, then conversely the reader can assume there are twelve of the things instead of none(but prob will asume 1, as u say). But using the word 'moonless' on a world where none has ever known a moon might be a mood breaker, though will make it easier for Earth readers RE: grasp of worldbuilding

By extention, my primary planet is linked to about a hundred other worlds, some of which will have moon/s or will be moons, so here I feel the term 'moonless night/sky' will be justified as residents are aware of other worlds with satellites.
 

Alski

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 10, 2021
Messages
50
Points
58
For no moon you should probably add alternate sources of light at like glowing plants or make it so most creatures don't need light to navigate through the night cause the nights are gonna be darker than an emo in the theater club
You could simply set the planet in a more cosmically crowded neighbourhood so starlight plays a much large part in night.
 

CupcakeNinja

Pervert Supreme
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
3,066
Points
183
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
i've heard of novels where the moon isnt present cuz there's too many suns. A moon is basically just a planet that doesn't give out its own light, so it only reflects light from the nearest sun. The moon will still appear, but there wont be night. No darkness due to the several sons constantly making the planet experience daylight,
 

Ai-chan

Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
1,413
Points
153
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
A planet without moon is very hard to get right. There is a theory that our moon actually did not exist from the start. Someone put it there to stabilize our rotation. Nowadays the theory that the original Earth collided with another planet and that debris formed the moon is most widely accepted. Still, had the moon not be there, life would not have evolved on Earth as the planet would always be in a state of chaos. There won't be enough time for even microscopic lifeforms to prosper because of the violent waves. There won't be any trees, except on very tall mountains which probably wouldn't form because the tectonic plates wouldn't move much.

Remember the scene of the water planet with horrible time dilation in Interstellar? Without the moon, that would be Earth, except without the time dilation thing because we orbit a small sun and not a black hole.

tldr: The moon is necessary for complex life form to evolve. It regulates the climate and allows stability to a planet within the habitable zone. So a planet without a moon will not have life and so there won't be locals capable of language.
 

ConansWitchBaby

Da Scalie Whisperer
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
Messages
825
Points
133
You can easily bypass this by putting a few dozen satellites in place. lmao gottem. But if seriously, if it's only the 2-3 then the best option is to increase the numbers.

Moonless can be explained by the simple genre of fiction. Either fantasy or scifi. Add whatever you want. Just because it doesn't have a moon doesn't mean it can't have life. As an earlier example of being connected to several other worlds showed, plant, animal and bacterial life could simply transmigrate. No moon doesn't mean no atmosphere. Maybe there is some story aspect that causes something from the core of the planet to undulate the surface, enough to cause ocean waves for those who want to be picky for a pseudo scientifically accurate story about beasts with bodies that would normally tear themselves apart if they so much as flinched? Maybe a universe where the stars pull at one another enough that it affects this one singular world without a moon.

Even with all that you're going to have to consider things that wouldn't seem obvious at first. I had a question years ago on why the universe wasn't just blindingly majestic if there were an endless number of suns blaring on top of us non-stop. One of the answers had this as a bonus: You can't see details if you were in the middle of the expanse between stars. Only a silhouette from where you would block the light with your own hands. So, that would throw any type of night vision out the window. As night vision still requires minute amounts of a light source. Animals wouldn't have adapted to the lack of light. They would more likely just not care and simply evolve blind. While there are examples of animals with eyes that are blind continuously from generation to generation, that's our world; in which some event caused them to get into a situation that required that. Not one where they initially started out in. Hell, we humans have the necessary components to smell diseases, so we won't pick up skanks at the club. It's just that it's been inactive in our genetic code for about 100 thousand years already.
 

Bartun

Friendly Saurian Neighbor
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
636
Points
133
We all have seen or heard about novels where the moon is different in some way or there are more than one moon, but what about novels where there is no moon?

Kinda weird how there are thousands upon thousands of novels and writers yet I have not seen or heard about a novel with no moon.

This post was made by the "tired of 2-3 moons in novels" gang.
The thing is that life as we know it on an earth-like planet would not be possible without a moon of large enough mass to stabilize the planet's orbit. Also, the tidal effects on the oceans would not be present on a planet with no moon.

But even if life on a planet without a moon could rise, the measurement of time would also be different, ancient cultures used a lunar calendar based on the monthly cycles of the moon's orbit around Earth, in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on Earth's orbit around the sun. The difference is that any normal person can keep count of the moon's phases and keep track of time easily, to measure time in their calendars, which is roughly 29 days, a month. A proper time measurement directly influences the time to plant the crops and when to start the harvest, which led to the invention of agriculture and humanity advancement from a hunter-gatherer society to a developed agricultural one. Keeping track of time using a solar calendar requires advanced knowledge of astronomy, which primitive civilizations didn't have.
 

lnv

✪ Well-Known Hypocrite
Joined
Dec 24, 2018
Messages
492
Points
133
The moon also protects us from asteroids.

That said, not all novel worlds happen on a sphere. Some are flat and the sun and moon just hover in the sky.
 
Top