Sirius in fiction

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An artist's impression of Sirius A and Sirius B. Sirius A is the bigger star, Sirius B the smaller white dwarf. (NASA)

Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the night sky, is frequently mentioned in science fiction and related popular culture.

[edit] In science fiction

Sirius is usually treated as a location where events may take place, or from which people or artifacts may originate, usually in works of science fiction.

[edit] Literature

• True History, story by Lucian of Samosata. Sirius is the home star of the dog-headed Acorn-Dogs.
• Micromégas, story by Voltaire. Sirius is the home star of one of the main characters.
• The Foundation series of novels by Isaac Asimov. The local "county" of the Galactic Empire in which Sol (Earth's Sun) is located is called the "Sirius Sector".
• Lucky Starr series (1952-1958) of juvenile novels by Isaac Asimov. The Sirians are the (usually unseen) antagonists throughout the series.
• Known Space series of stories by Larry Niven. A high-gravity world called Jinx is the moon of a gas giant in the Sirius system.
• The Starlight Barking (1967), novel by Dodie Smith. Sirius, Lord of the Dog Star, comes to take stray dogs from Earth to his home planet.
• "Foeman, Where Do You Flee?" (1969), short story by Ben Bova. Earth explorers find humans living on a war-ravaged planet that orbits Sirius and is bathed in the light of "The Pup".
• The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969), novel by Frederik Pohl. Earth is at war with aliens, who are known as Sirians because they were first encountered by humans in the Sirius system.
• Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977) by Robert Anton Wilson. Wilsom claims the experience, though he refuses to make a claim to its authenticity, of making contact with an intelligent being from the Sirius system.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) series by Douglas Adams. The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation is a fictional company.
• Canopus in Argos series of novels by Doris Lessing. Star-visitors from Sirius play a part in Earth's history, though secondary to the Canopans. They feature especially in The Sirian Experiments (1980).
• Rama (1989-1993) series of novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. One of the Raman vessels leaves the Solar System for a node in the Sirius system.

[edit] Film and television

• Doctor Who, television series.
  • "Frontier in Space", 1973 episode. The Master poses as an official from Sirius, an independent dominion of the Earth Empire in the 26th Century.
  • "The Caves of Androzani", 1984 episode. The colonised planets Androzani Major and Minor are in the Sirius system.
• V (1983), television series. Sirius is the home star system of the "Visitors".
• Children of the Dog Star (1984), television series. Sirius B is the origin of three space probes, one of which began the Dogon legend.
• Power Rangers: S.P.D. (2005), television series. Sirius is the homeworld of dogheaded aliens including Anubis Cruger.

[edit] Comics and anime

• Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe), anime television series. A human expedition of four intergalactic spaceships travels to the Sirius star system to chase down enemy aliens called Tarsians. The anime also features the (fictional) fourth planet of the star system called Agharta.

[edit] Games

• Freelancer, computer game. Takes place in the "Sirius Sector" of space after 'sleeper ships' (colony ships) escape from the warring Earth solar system.
• Serious Sam, video game series. Sirius is the star from which the evil presence, Mental, is commanding its armies. The term "Serious Sam" is therefore a pun since much of the game's story revolves around Egyptian culture being influenced by aliens from the Sirius system under Mental's control.
• FreeSpace 2, computer game. Sirius is one of the three star systems under the control of the Neo-Terran Front in their war for independence against the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance and is used as a staging ground for NTF assaults into Alpha Centauri and Deneb.
• Earth & Beyond, computer game by Electronic Arts. Sirius is a planetary system.
• Mantis, computer game by MicroProse. The antagonists are telepathic insectoids from the Sirius system.
• Independence War, computer game. Sirius B is the system in which the hidden COSA base is located.
• Sirius appears as a system in the Battletech universe.

[edit] Other uses

Sirius is often treated simply as a star visible from Earth, with magical or metaphorical import, but not as a location:

• Absalom and Achitophel (1681), satirical poem by John Dryden. Sirius was commonly thought to cause madness in 18th century England, and it is alluded to in the context of showing that it would plainly be mad to think that Charles II should "displease" the English people (LL.333-334).
• Les Misérables (1862), novel by Victor Hugo. Sirius is mentioned in passing.
• Dogsbody (1975), novel by Diana Wynne Jones. The star Sirius is an intelligent being falsely accused of murdering another star by his peers. As punishment he is sent to Earth in the body of a new born puppy to find the weapon he supposedly used.
• The Silmarillion (1977), novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. Sirius is called Helluin by the Elves.
• Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994), novel by Tom Robbins. Deals with various Dogon/Sirius mysteries as well as much of the general mythology surrounding the star.
• Selby series of children's books by Duncan Ball. One of the stories is about how Selby made Dr. Trifle predict that Haydee's comet (pun on Halley's comet) would hit Bogusville. Later Percy Peach and Doctor Trifle thought that they saw Sirius the dog star when they really saw Selby.

The name "Sirius" is also often applied to people, animals, or things not directly connected with the star. For these uses, see Sirius (disambiguation).

v • d • e Astronomical locations in fiction
Solar System	Mercury · Venus · Earth (Moon) · Mars (moons) · Jupiter (moons) · Saturn (Titan • other moons) · Uranus · Neptune Ceres · Asteroids · Pluto · Outer planets · Comets
Other systems	Aldebaran · Alpha Centauri · Altair  · Betelgeuse · Deneb · Epsilon Eridani · Rigel · Sirius · Tau Ceti · Vega · Nebulae · Galaxies