Traveller Bibliography

[apoc527]

I know I saw a Traveller "bibliography" before but for the life of me, I can't find it. I'm looking for the list of books, authors, shows, movies, etc that "inspired" Traveller. In other words, Traveller-esque novels. I know that some have mentioned H. Beam Piper, Cherryh and others, but isn't there a pretty definitive list somewhere, in a book or forum?

Thanks!

 

[rust]

I remember discussions on various forums about the books, movies and
so on which may have influenced Traveller, but I am not aware of any
one list of such material.

Major undoubted influences were the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov,
the Earl Dumarest books by E.C. Tubb and the movie Star Wars, beyond
that the usual disagreements tend to begin.

Heinlein seems very likely to me, Cherryh seems a bit late to have influ-
enced Classic Traveller, but may have influenced a later version.

 

[DFW]

I remember discussions on various forums about the books, movies and
so on which may have influenced Traveller, but I am not aware of any
one list of such material.

Major undoubted influences were the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov,
the Earl Dumarest books by E.C. Tubb and the movie Star Wars, beyond
that the usual disagreements tend to begin.

Heinlein seems very likely to me, Cherryh seems a bit late to have influ-
enced Classic Traveller, but may have influenced a later version.

Traveller & Star Wars were released ~ the same time. So, I don't know that the concept or original rule books could have been influenced. I see some golden age of Sci-Fi influences as well.

 

[rust]

Traveller & Star Wars were released ~ the same time. So, I don't know that the concept or original rule books could have been influenced.

There is an article where Marc Miller mentioned that he did see the movie
a short time before Traveller was published, and that it did influence his
ideas about the jump drive.

 

[DFW]

Traveller & Star Wars were released ~ the same time. So, I don't know that the concept or original rule books could have been influenced.

There is an article where Marc Miller mentioned that he did see the movie
a short time before Traveller was published, and that it did influence his
ideas about the jump drive.

Interesting. I don't remember the month that the 1st Trav books were available. I think I remember SW's coming out ~early summer.

Would be interesting to know the exact timeline as the J Drive doesn't appear to mirror the Hyper Space drive in any performance way. I CAN see where there is "fluff" similarity though.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

It has been a long time since I read the foundation trilogy, but didn't he call the FTL "Jump Drives" or maybe I'm thinking "Ring World" by Larry Niven.... memory fades....
Anyway Ringworld was released 1969 or 1970ish...
I had heard (very long ago in the early 80's) that M.M. got the idea of Hivers from the puppeteers in Ringworld. Who knows...

 

[BP]

Traveller is its own creation, but none of the original creators were established Sci-Fi writers, so they borrowed from a lot of popular sources... I saw a web site last year that listed some influences supposedly quoted from reliable sources. (The Keith brothers, of course, became the exception - but I don't believe they were originally involved...).

I remember reading an interview with Marc in which he specifically referred to watching Star Wars with another of Traveller's creators and it being a big influence on the creation of Traveller... IIRC, it wasn't the reason, but it was a motivator.

Yeah - Asimov referred to his FTL transition as 'The Jump' (through hyperspace) circa 1950's almost 10 years after the first 'foundation' related story was published.

C. J. Cherryh had 'Jump' FTL as well (worked differently, though took a long time) in her Alliance-Union series, the first book of which was published around the same time as Traveller - but I think her first use of the term 'jump' came later (perhaps borrowed from Traveller! - though probably the term was already popularized by Asimov...).

 

[BP]

Update: according to this site (interesting of its own), the earliest use of the term 'Jump Drive' is from Ethical Engineer, by Harry Harrison published by Analog in 1963!