Loreful
HomeDiscover
Search series, authors…⌘K
Loreful

Reading orders for SF/F series and shared universes — with your place kept in every one.

Explore

UniversesSeriesWorksAuthorsAtlas

Help

FAQAboutSite map

Account & legal

Sign inCreate accountPrivacyTerms

Data

Built on ISFDB, Wikipedia, Wikidata and Open Library. Curated reading orders carry their reasoning on the page; the rest follow publication order. Data sources & licenses

© Loreful · data: ISFDB · CC BY

More like Outrageous Fortune

anchored on:science fictionnear futurespace operatime travelaliensadventurous

but

Mood

The mood the book leaves you in.

  • The reading experience is propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical risk; excitement and forward momentum dominate over dread or introspection.
  • Joy and loss are deliberately mixed; the resolution grants characters something real while taking something else away, leaving warmth and sorrow together.
  • The book demands work from the reader — dense prose, difficult structure, unfamiliar ideas, or morally uncomfortable material — as part of its intended effect.
  • Grim events, cruelty, or despair dominate the atmosphere, and the book does not soften them with comfort or comic relief.
  • The atmosphere is quietly unsettling — wrongness, unease, and the uncanny pervade the book without necessarily escalating into overt horror.
  • The book is built to move the reader; character feeling is foregrounded and major scenes aim at a strong emotional response.
  • Humor is a primary aim and the prose plays for laughs — comic situations, wit, or dialogue produce sustained comedy, not occasional levity.
  • The book insists that things can improve; effort and decency are shown to matter, and the arc bends toward better outcomes even through hardship.
  • The book teaches as it goes — real facts, history, science, or craft are conveyed in enough depth that learning is part of the reading experience.
  • The book is designed to uplift and motivate, presenting perseverance or achievement in a way that invites the reader to aspire or act.
  • The overall register is cheerful and easygoing; stakes are kept gentle and the book avoids dwelling on pain or dread.
  • Withheld information drives the experience; the book sustains enigmas and secrets the reader wants resolved, whatever its genre.
  • The book is contemplative and inward-looking, giving more weight to thought, memory, and meaning than to external events.
  • The book works as comfort reading — low tension, a soothing pace, and an atmosphere the reader can unwind in.
  • Grief, loss, or melancholy set the dominant register, and the book lets sorrow stand rather than resolving it into comfort.
  • Sustained suspense is the point; the book keeps the reader braced for what happens next through danger, pressure, or impending revelation.
  • Playful invention and charm define the register — fanciful conceits, light absurdity, and a narration that delights in its own oddity.

About

What the story runs on.

  • Stories in which extraterrestrial beings are central — as characters, cultures, or the object of the plot.
  • Stories about venturing into space to explore — survey missions, astronauts, and the frontier of the unknown beyond Earth.
  • Stories structured as a quest — a journey undertaken to find, deliver, or destroy something of great import.
  • Stories in which staying alive against nature, catastrophe, or scarcity is the central problem.
  • Stories of lovers kept apart by law, family, faith, or station, where the obstacle to love is the plot.
  • Stories in which a friendship — its making, testing, or loss — is the emotional center.
  • Stories of growing up — a young protagonist crossing from childhood into adult knowledge and responsibility.
  • Stories about who a character truly is — self-discovery, doubled lives, and the search for a self.
  • Stories driven by maneuvering for power — factions, conspiracies, and statecraft conducted in shadow.
  • Stories about rising against rulers — uprisings, resistance movements, and revolutions and their aftermaths.
  • Stories in which war itself is the subject — combat, occupation, and what warfare does to soldiers and civilians.
  • Stories organized around investigating a killing — the case, the clues, and the pursuit of the killer, in any genre's clothing.

Shelf

Where it sits in the library.

    • Fiction built on magic or other supernatural elements that have no scientific explanation.
    • Secondary-world fantasy at large scale, where the fate of nations or the world turns on the protagonists' struggle.
    • Fantasy set in a recognizably modern city or contemporary world where the supernatural intrudes on everyday life.
    • Fantasy that blends in horror's atmosphere and imagery, keeping a fantastical frame around grim or frightening material.
    • Action-driven fantasy following warriors or rogues with personal stakes against sorcerous threats, rather than world-spanning conflicts.
    • Fantasy set in a real historical period or a close analogue of one, with magic woven into the era.
    • Fantasy in which protagonists cross from the ordinary world into another world through a portal or similar passage.
    • Fiction that retells or reworks a traditional fairy tale in a new form or setting.
    • Fantasy drawing directly on myths, legends, and folklore, retelling them or building on their figures and logic.
    • Fantasy of ghosts, vampires, shapeshifters, psychics, and similar phenomena, usually set in an otherwise ordinary world.
    • Fiction mixing science-fictional trappings with overtly magical or impossible elements in one setting.
    • Low-stakes fantasy emphasizing comfort, community, and everyday pleasures over conflict and peril.
    • Speculative fiction of pervasive moral ambiguity, violence, and cynicism that rejects heroic conventions — fantasy and SF alike.
      • Fiction that extrapolates from science and technology — future societies, space travel, or speculative inventions — within at least nominally natural laws.
      • Science fiction of interstellar scope — starships, galactic polities, and adventure across star systems.
      • Science fiction committed to scientific rigor, where technical plausibility constrains the story.
      • Science fiction centered on armed forces and warfare, told largely from a military point of view.
      • Science fiction of networked, corporate-dominated near futures, pairing high technology with social decay.
      • Science fiction styled on nineteenth-century steam-powered technology, often in a Victorian or pseudo-Victorian setting.
      • Fiction depicting an oppressive or catastrophic society, presented as a warning.
      • Fiction set after civilization's collapse, following survivors in the ruins of the old world.
      • Fiction in which characters move between past and future, and the mechanics or consequences of that travel drive the plot.
      • Fiction exploring a world where a historical event went differently and history diverged from ours.
      • Science fiction about humanity's first encounter and communication with an alien intelligence.
      • Science fiction in which extraterrestrial forces attack or occupy Earth and humanity resists.
      • Fiction whose primary aim is to frighten or unsettle the reader through dread, menace, or the monstrous.
      • Horror of vast, indifferent, incomprehensible entities before which humanity is insignificant, in the Lovecraft tradition.
      • Horror of decaying houses, buried family secrets, and oppressive atmosphere in the Gothic literary tradition.
      • Horror centered on hauntings and the returning dead.
      • Horror located in the mind — paranoia, obsession, and unreliable perception rather than external monsters.
      • Horror built around the reanimated dead and survival amid their outbreaks.
      • Horror defined by explicit, transgressive gore that refuses to cut away from violence.
      • Speculative fiction of the strange and uncanny that resists both natural explanation and standard genre categories.
      • Fiction organized around solving a crime or puzzle, typically following an investigator toward the identification of a culprit.
      • A puzzle-first mystery that lays out clues so the culprit's identity can be deduced before the reveal.
      • Crime fiction of moral ambiguity, fatalism, and hard-edged style, set among the corrupt and the doomed.
      • A mystery following the realistic routines of police work — forensics, interviews, and case-building.
      • A gentle mystery with an amateur sleuth, a small community, and violence kept off the page.
      • A mystery set in a past era, where the investigation works within that period's methods and society.
      • Fast-paced fiction driven by imminent danger, pursuit, or high-stakes conspiracy, built to sustain tension.
      • A thriller of espionage — agents, tradecraft, and intelligence services in conflict.
      • A thriller centered on lawyers and the courtroom, where litigation carries the suspense.
      • A thriller driven by detailed contemporary or near-future technology, often military or scientific.
      • A thriller whose tension comes from mental states and manipulation between characters rather than external action.
      • Fiction whose central plot is a romantic relationship and its development toward an emotionally satisfying resolution.
      • Romance in which one or both partners are supernatural beings, blending fantasy elements into the love story.
      • A fantasy-romance hybrid in which the romantic arc and the fantasy plot carry equal weight.
      • Romance set in a past era, with courtship shaped by the period's society and manners.
      • Romance set in the present day, without supernatural or historical elements.
      • Fiction set in a real past period, where the historical setting materially shapes characters and events.
        • General and literary fiction emphasizing prose style, character interiority, or formal ambition over genre plot conventions.
        • Fiction in a realistic world where magical events occur and are treated as ordinary, in the tradition of Latin American literature.
        • Fiction that ridicules people, institutions, or society in order to criticize them.
        • Fiction of dreamlike, irrational imagery and logic that breaks from realistic representation.
        • Fiction that plays with narrative convention through metafiction, fragmentation, and self-reference.
        • Fiction propelled by journeys, exploration, and physical peril, where action and survival carry the plot.
        • Adventure fiction of ships and seafaring — naval engagements, voyages, and life at sea.
        • Fiction of the American frontier West — gunmen, ranchers, and lawmen, typically in the late nineteenth century.
        • Fiction centered on soldiers, campaigns, and the experience of warfare, historical or imagined.
          • Fiction written primarily to amuse, using comedic situations, wit, or parody as its organizing principle.
            • Multi-generational fiction following a family or dynasty across decades, with inheritance and kinship as the through-line.
              • Fiction whose world runs on explicit game mechanics — levels, stats, and skills that characters can see and exploit.
                • Fiction about costumed or superpowered heroes and their conflicts with comparable villains.

                Practical

                How long a commitment, whether it stands alone, and whether it has finished.

                Tap a chip to ask for it · tap again to rule it out · once more to clear. Numbers show what would be left.

                • Cover of Have Space Suit - Will Travel
                  Have Space Suit - Will Travel

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1958

                  similar byaliensadventurousnear futurescience fictiontensespace opera

                  From the back cover of the Del Rey 9th printing: "Skyjacked - Everything happened at once. One minute Kip Russell was walking about in his own backyard, testing out an old space suit and dreaming about going to the moon - and the next he was out cold and the captive of an insidious space pirate. The whole thing seemed like a very bad dream until he discovered he wasn't the only prisoner on board. Then the reality of the situation became inescapable. He - along with the daughter of a world-renowned scientist and a beautiful creature from an alien planet - had been skyjacked by a monstrous extraterrestrial and they were on their way to the Moon... a journey toward a fate worse than death!"

                • Cover of The Android's Dream
                  The Android's Dream

                  series · 2 books · 2006

                  similar byaliensadventurousnear futurepolitical intriguescience fictionspace opera

                  A minor diplomatic insult with a genetically engineered sheep breed spirals into a full interstellar crisis when the last surviving specimen of the 'Android's Dream' breed, needed for a critical ceremony with the alien Nidu, turns out to have been hunted to extinction by a Nidu faction bent on provoking war. John Scalzi's The Android's Dream follows ex-soldier Harry Creek as the hunt for a replacement leads him to Robin Baker, an ordinary woman carrying hidden sheep DNA that makes her the key to avoiding a war. It's a standalone comic space opera rather than an ongoing series.

                • Cover of Red Planet
                  Red Planet

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1949

                  similar byaliensadventurousscience fiction+2 more

                  A boy colonist on Mars takes his bouncing ball Martian pet with him to boarding school, but the new Headmaster is a controlling tyrant. Things get worse when he discovers a plot that will jeopardize all of the colonists.

                • Cover of Chanur
                  Chanur

                  series · 7 books · 1982

                  part of Alliance-Union Universe

                  similar byaliensadventurouspolitical intriguescience fictiontensespace opera

                  The Chanur novels are a series of five science fiction novels, forming three separate stories, written by American author C. J. Cherryh and published by DAW Books between 1982 and 1992. The first novel in the series is The Pride of Chanur (1982), which was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1983. The Pride of Chanur, originally a stand-alone story, was followed by the Chanur's Venture trilogy, Chanur's Venture (1984), which was shortlisted for a Locus Award in 1985; The Kif Strike Back (1985) and Chanur's Homecoming (1986). These were followed by a later sequel, Chanur's Legacy (1992). The five novels were also published in two omnibus editions: the first three in The Chanur Saga in 2000 and the next two in Chanur's Endgame in 2007.

                • Cover of Moties
                  Moties

                  series · 4 books · 1974

                  part of CoDominium

                  similar byalienspolitical intriguescience fictionspace opera+2 more

                  Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye (1974) depicts humanity's first contact with an alien species, the Moties, set within the far-future interstellar setting of Pournelle's codominium future history. The Gripping Hand continues that first-contact crisis years later, and Outies, written by J. R. Pournelle, carries the story forward into a new generation. Together the three books trace an escalating encounter between human and Motie civilizations within the codominium universe.

                • TS
                  The Saga of Seven Suns Universe

                  series · 16 books · 2002

                  similar byaliensadventurousscience fictiontensespace opera+1 more

                • Cover of Wolfling
                  Wolfling

                  Gordon R. Dickson · standalone novel · 1969

                  similar byaliensadventurouspolitical intriguescience fictiontensespace opera

                  From the flaps of the Baen/SFBC edition: "Is Earth merely the lost colony of a superior race? - She was well over six feet tall, and beautiful in a sculpted, abstract way. She had skin the color of white onyx, and her eyes... her eyes were large and feline - a startling lemon yellow in color. She was the Princess Afuan, one of the High-born, and she had chosen the Earthman Kim Keil to return to the Throne World with her - for she had decided that his performance in the bull-ring might amuse the Emperor. She didn't know that Jim was a bull-fighter only by virtue of six months' intensive training, nor that the bull was programmed - his behavior following and impressively fierce but unswerving pattern. Jim was just another wolfling to Afuan - a lesser being from a backward colony world. Jim, however, was keenly aware that he was playing a role, one which might prove to be extremely dangerous. Up until 10 years earlier, when their first ship had reached Alpha Centauri, the people of Earth hadn't even known that the vast Empire of human-occupied worlds existed. The discovery had been a profound shock. Had we evolved independently? Or were we merely descendants of the Empire's first space pioneers - a lost colony found at last, perhaps with devastating consequences? That's what Jim Keil had to find out. Chosen from among numerous highly qualified candidates - an anthropologist trained, mentally and physically, beyond the limits of his profession - it was his mission to observe the Throne World and the High-born... to determine whether or not they posed a threat to Earth. One thing was apparent from the start. The High-born were superior beings - physically taller and stronger than other humans, endowed with faster reflexes, superior mental capacity... and extraordinary technological resources. Their contempt for the new wolfling in their midst was open, their intrigues complex. An enormous gulf separated the people of the Throne World from Earthlings. But that gulf was not so wide that Jim couldn't recognize an enemy when he met one. Clearly, if he remained merely a passive observer of the High-born, he'd never survive among them."

                • Cover of Tripods
                  Tripods

                  series · 4 books · 1967

                  completed

                  similar byaliensnear futurescience fictiontense+1 more

                  The Tripods is a series of young adult science fiction novels by John Christopher. The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is enslaved by "Tripods"—gigantic three-legged walking machines piloted by an alien race later identified as the "Masters". The first two books were the basis of a science fiction TV series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

                • Cover of Snow Crash
                  Snow Crash

                  Neal Stephenson · standalone novel · 1992

                  similar byadventurousnear futurepolitical intriguescience fictiontense

                  Snow Crash is a 1992 science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson. Like many of Stephenson's novels, its themes include history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy.

                • Cover of Whipping Star
                  Whipping Star

                  Frank Herbert · standalone novel · 1970

                  similar byaliensadventurouspolitical intriguescience fictionspace opera

                  From Amazon: In the far future, humankind has made contact with numerous other species: Gowachin, Laclac, Wreaves, Pan Spechi, Taprisiots, and Caleban, and has helped to form the ConSentiency to govern among the species. After suffering under a tyrannous pure democracy, the sentients of the galaxy find the need for a Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby preventing it from legislating recklessly. BuSab is allowed to sabotage and harass the governmental, administrative, and economic powers in the ConSentiency. Private citizens must not be harassed, and vital functions of society are also exempt. Jorj X. McKie is a born troublemaker who has become one of BuSab's best agents. Drafted for the impossible task of establishing meaningful communication with an utterly alien entity who defies understanding, McKie finds himself racing against time to prevent a mad billionairess from wiping out all life in the ConSentiency.

                • Cover of Galactic Milieu
                  Galactic Milieu

                  series · 10 books · 1981

                  completed

                  similar byaliensscience fictiontense+4 more

                  Galactic Milieu is a series of science fiction novels by Julian May. It is linked to her previously published series, the Saga of Pliocene Exile; and through the fantastical device of time-travel, acts as both a prequel and a sequel to this earlier series. The "Galactic Milieu" of the title is an interplanetary federation, and Earth's membership of it is a central plot concern.

                • Cover of The Puppet Masters
                  The Puppet Masters

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1951

                  similar byaliensscience fictiontense+2 more

                  Parasitical aliens attach themselves to human hosts and take over their bodies. Two spies are sent to find out what's happening, but the extent is much farther than they knew. With access to the humans' memories, the aliens quietly invade the government and start taking over.

                • Cover of Podkayne of Mars
                  Podkayne of Mars

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1963

                  similar byadventurousnear futurepolitical intriguescience fictionspace opera

                  From the back cover of the Baen 1995 edition: "Meet Podkayne Fries, a thoroughly modern Martian Ms. who thinks that Earth is not really fit for habitation and that humanity evolved in the now-exploded Fifth Planet. Poddy has one goal in life, to be the first female starship captain. She has her strategy all scoped out, and with her determination, looks and I.Q. she'll get there, never you doubt! But all work and no play would make Poddy a Dull Girl, so when a chance comes her way to travel to distant Earth via Venus with her elderly uncle, Poddy jumps at it, even if it does mean having her loathsome little brother along for the trip: Travel, Adventure, the chance to cuddle up (in a nice way) with real spaceship officers and ruthlessly pump their brains - she'll have it all. What Poddy doesn't know is that "Unca Tom" is more than her warmly supportive relative: he is also the Ambassador Plenipotentiary from Mars to the Three Planets Conference (travelling not quite incognito enough) and that certain people will stop at nothing to gain control of his vote - including kidnapping and doing terrible things to sweetly innocent Poddy Fries..."

                • Cover of The Crimson Deathbringer
                  The Crimson Deathbringer

                  series · 1 book · 2019

                  similar byaliensadventurousnear futurescience fictionspace opera

                • Cover of Saturn Run
                  Saturn Run

                  Ctein & John Sandford · standalone novel · 2015

                  similar byaliensadventurousnear futurepolitical intriguescience fictiontense

                  "The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope--something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don't decelerate. Spaceships do. A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out. The race is on, and a remarkable adventure begins..."--

                • Cover of Friday
                  Friday

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1982

                  similar byadventurousnear futurescience fictiontense+1 more

                  Friday is a 1982 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It is the story of a female "artificial person", the eponymous Friday, genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, smarter, and generally better than normal humans. Artificial humans are widely resented, and much of the story deals with Friday's struggle both against prejudice and to conceal her enhanced attributes from other humans. The story is set in a Balkanized 21st century, in which the nations of the North American continent have been split up into a number of smaller states.

                • Cover of Commonwealth Saga
                  Commonwealth Saga

                  series · 2 books · 2004

                  part of Commonwealth Universe

                  similar byalienspolitical intriguescience fictiontensespace opera+1 more

                  The Commonwealth Saga is a series of science fiction novels by British science fiction writer Peter F. Hamilton. This saga consists of the novels Pandora's Star (2004) and Judas Unchained (2005). Hamilton has also written several books set in the same literary universe. Misspent Youth (2002) takes place 340 years before the events of Pandora's Star. The Void Trilogy, consisting of The Dreaming Void (2008), The Temporal Void (2009), and The Evolutionary Void (2010), takes place 1,200 years after the events of Judas Unchained; several of the main characters from Judas Unchained and Pandora's Star also appear in the Void trilogy.

                • Cover of Fleet of Worlds
                  Fleet of Worlds

                  series · 5 books · 2007

                  part of Known Space

                  similar byalienspolitical intriguescience fictionspace opera+2 more

                  Fleet of Worlds opens a run of Known Space prequels co-written by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, centered on the liberation of the human colony New Terra from the control of the Pierson's Puppeteers — the famously cowardly aliens who steer their fleet of five worlds away from any hint of danger. The series introduces a new Known Space species, the Gw'oth, across its run and eventually catches up to and continues past the original Ringworld novel in its fifth book, Fate of Worlds.

                • Cover of The Star Beast
                  The Star Beast

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1954

                  similar byaliensadventurousnear futurescience fiction+1 more

                  A talking alien pet has grown to the size of a small dinosaur. She repeatedly gets her teenage owner in trouble whenever she leaves the backyard, but he continues to care for her, as did his father and grandfather before him. When an alien delegation lands on Earth and demands custody, he fights to protect her.

                • Cover of Ringworld
                  Ringworld

                  series · 5 books · 1970

                  part of Known Space

                  similar byaliensadventurousscience fictionspace opera

                  The Ringworld series is a series of science fiction novels written by American author Larry Niven. It is part of his Known Space series of stories. Its backdrop is the Ringworld, a giant artifact 3 million times the surface area of Earth circling a star. The series is composed of four standalone science fiction novels, the original award-winning book and its three sequels:1970: Ringworld 1979: The Ringworld Engineers 1996: The Ringworld Throne 2004: Ringworld's Children

                • Cover of Conquerors
                  Conquerors

                  series · 3 books · 1994

                  similar byaliensadventurouspolitical intriguescience fictiontense+1 more

                  Conquerors is Timothy Zahn's military science-fiction trilogy following human fighter pilots and their commanders through an interstellar war that neither side fully understands, told across Conquerors' Pride, Conquerors' Heritage, and Conquerors' Legacy. Zahn alternates perspective between the human and alien chains of command, using the shifting viewpoints to slowly unpick why the conflict started in the first place. It's contact-and-conflict SF built around miscommunication rather than straightforward invasion.

                • Cover of Time Storm
                  Time Storm

                  Gordon R. Dickson · standalone novel · 1977

                  similar byadventurousnear futurescience fictiontensetime travel+1 more

                  A time storm has devastated the Earth, and only a small fraction of humankind remains. From the rubble, three survivors form an unlikely alliance: a young man, a young woman, and a leopard. "A masterful science fiction story told by a masterful science fiction writer". -- Milwaukee Journal. A time storm strikes the Earth. The Earth remains, but different parts of the Earth are in different eras. Travel between the different zones is thought to be impossible. The main character, Marc Despard, resolves to fight the time storm. After some struggles, he assembles a small band of people, including one alien, to help him try to understand what has happened and to stop the time storm. He has 2 extraordinary relationships with a older teenaged girl who is speechless for the first part of the book (she was "struck dumb" by the time storm) and with, believe it or not, a leopard. Dickson's writing makes the extraordinary seem quite normal. Ultimately, after being harried by a Mad Max-like group of survivors, he uses a machine found in a different era of time to bring his small band of followers into the future so that he can find those who are trying to fight the time storm. He convinces those future beings that he is capable of fighting the time storm, and ultimately stops it, and gets the girl in the end.

                • Cover of Space Winners
                  Space Winners

                  Gordon R. Dickson · standalone novel · 1965

                  similar byaliensadventurousscience fictiontensespace opera+1 more

                  They were humanity's hope - the first young people selected to leave Earth for study in the Galactic Federation. But something went wrong in deep space. Terribly wrong. Suddenly Jim Rawlins, Ellen Bouvier, Curt Harrington, and the squirrel-like Alien philosopher Peep were castaways, stranded on the Quarantined World of Quebahr - with no training, and little hope of rescue. Between them and the Federation's emergency beacon were primitive Mauregs, aggressive Walats, lizard-like Noifs - plus danger, conspiracy, and the mystery of an impending high-tech war on a backward, peaceful planet. Without warning, the future of two worlds - Earth and Quebahr - depended on three young humans' ability to adopt and survive.

                • Cover of Double Star
                  Double Star

                  Robert A. Heinlein · standalone novel · 1956

                  similar byadventurouspolitical intriguescience fiction+2 more

                  Lorenzo Smythe, the excellent yet unemployed actor, meets Dak Broadbent in a bar. Broadbent hires Lorenzo for an unspecified role, and hustles him onto a rocket ship. Broadbent turns out to be an assistant to the famous interplanetary politician and leader of the Expansionist party: John J. Bonforte. Bonforte, however, has been kidnapped by the political opposition on Mars, and due to Lorenzo's physical similarity to Bonforte, his staff wants Lorenzo to impersonate the politician for an important Martian ceremony.