The List of World's, Burley Style posted by Martin

Okay—here are my 25 In a World’s, in order of favorite and with new lovable, easy to use titles. Ordering was a little tricky—some I like more than the order might suggest, and some I dislike more than it might suggest. Some I like the potential for more than the order might suggest. But, we have to start somewhere—so this is where I’m leaving it. Go at it, Urban!

1. The Atheist
In a world devout to an all powerful god, one man uncovers exposes an unspeakable truth: their planet wasn’t carved by a deity, it was created to hold the most dangerous prisoners in the galaxy: their ancestors. What crime is so unspeakable that not only you will be punished for committing it, but all of your heirs will as well? And what happens when you find out that your captors are still watching your every move?

2. If it pleases the Court
In a World where crimes are judged and juried by encrypted, anonymous computer terminals, one jury foreman doesn’t realize that the man she’s arguing so strongly should be committed to the Prison Planet for life is actually her husband—and the crime he’s accused of—but hasn’t committed yet—is murdering her.

3. Hell on Earth
In a world where your DNA is patented and you are born in debt, one woman’s refusal to pay off her birth-deficit lands her in the largest and most violent debtors prison that ever existed: THE PLANET EARTH.

4. Little Black Stray
In a World where violent male offenders are sent to labor camps on the remote prison planet, one crew of hardened men finds something impossible: a young woman in tattered clothes, mute and frightened. A small group protect and feed her, keeping her out of site of the guards and away from those who would use her mercilessly. As she gains in strength it seems that she has an agenda—and the truth of what she was doing on a world where no women stepped before might be a big enough secret to shatter the whole planet of forced labor.

5. The Ancient Word Revenge
In a World where convicted murderers are banished to a planet instead of being put to death, one couple—the parents of a murder victim—want revenge. They plan a trip to the Prison Planet where they will track down the monster that killed their child, and destroy him in the exact same way that he destroyed their lives.

6. Class War
In a World where society is slipt into two classes, the New Trade Marxists are pitted against the Transactionists in a televised battle supreme. The loser will banish all of their believers to a distant planet. The winner takes over the one-world economy and will decide forevermore what future humanity follows.

7. Awaiting the Tide
In a world where people trust one another and crimes are extremely low, one event threatens to eradicate the long-admired peace: there’s been a prison break on Half Moon, where society disposes of all of its criminals. They’re coming back for revenge, and they’re armed.

8. Can you Hear Me Now?
In a world where all information is open and no person is private, a grad student stumbles on an ancient secret that could threaten the base of human knowledge…how can you communicate if all language is rendered illegible? Her enemies want to rebuild the tower. Get ready for BABEL.

9. Methane Madness
In a World where stranded humans must guard themselves from a poisonous atmosphere, one scientist finds a process for rendering the air on the planet breathable. The only problem is, the planet is a prison and the guards will kill them all if they found out about the experiments.

10. Time to Die
In a World where death itself is beaten by genetic regeneration, a guard is killed during a riot on the prison planet. One woman—his wife—faces sure death to retrieve his body in time to bring him back to life. It’s a race against time, with one nearly resourcesless woman willfully fighting like a juggernaut against the prisoners who are holding his body hostage, and the powers that be that think she should just give up. All to simply save the man she loves from eternal death.

11. Robots in Love
In a World where robots are immature, but can easily pass the turning test, one young android idolizes a slightly older movie star, and tries everything in his power to become like his idol. As part of his transformation, the robot works at becoming quite the ladies man, but his game is called when he meets a girl that actually likes him and that he doesn’t have to chase. She would certainly never sleep with him if she knew he was an android, but being an android he is physically incapable of sleeping with her. Will truth ruin love, or can the technology-crossed-lovers find a way to remain together?

12. A Future of Violence
In a World where peaceful men are mocked and disparaged by society, one sensitive man is arrested for murdering the violent soul that his wife cheated on him with. This action won the heart of his wife once again, but broke his own heart when faced with his inner capacity for violence. When he’s sentenced to life on the Prison Planet a culture war erupts over whether the punishment is too great for the crime. The man wants to pay his penance for his crimes. The wife wants her man back. Society is slipt and debates the issue of whether society is a calming or aggravating influence on the nature of men. [with apologies to Cronenberg]

13. Rasputin the Translator
In a World contacted by a sentient and potentially violent alien race, one man—bearded and wild eyed—is the only person on earth who can translate between the languages of humans and the language of the aliens. But this strange man is not only hostile to both sides of the debate, he is also untrustworthy, and possibly manipulating the negotiations to his own ends. With all of Earth being turned into a prison as the stakes, one government has a very limited time to not only unravel the mysteries of the alien language, but also the history of the interpreter.

14. The Singing Psychics
In a World where every person is assigned psychic choral groups to follow them around and sing their innermost thoughts in four-part harmony to all who can hear, one woman is tried in a choral court of law for loving discord, and causing pain in the ears of listeners. The jury is stunned that, when probing her deepest feelings, they realize that, to her, proper melodies are as painful as the improper ones are to everyone else. How can a society based on certain approved intervals accept that some people honestly prefer less melodic sounds, and what shall they do with the young woman who causes pain in everybody she comes near?

15. The Murderers are Dying
In a World where society has shunted its unwanted off to a Prison Planet for centuries, the government is faced with a problem. The Prison Planet is dying. Do they let all of the citizens die cruel and unusual deaths, or do they stage the largest rescue mission ever to bring back to a crowded planet the outcasts, criminals and degenerates that they worked so hard to rid themselves of?

16. Pitch Dark Alien
In a World where a supreme court has ruled that “cruel and unusual” punishment excludes the death penalty, the first batch of off world prisoners is sent to the new facility on Ganesh XIX, where they will be housed forever. But when they arrive, they realize they’re not alone on the planet—and one by one they start disappearing.

17. Downtown Hardcore
In a World where cities have been abandoned for fear of terrorist attacks where people gather, one group of artists braves the the occupied downtown core to rescue a sculpture from a museum. The only problem is—the straggling, violent city dwellers never let country people in, and they sure as hell never let country people out.

18. Breathe, Humanoid, Breathe
In a World where humanoids live mostly underwater, and are equipped with gills, an aquatic princess falls for a mysterious air-breather who appears suddenly in their land without warning. He’s kind, intelligent and handsome, but will she find out that he’s been banished to their planet for an unspeakable crime?

19. Off Script
In a World where politicians are devastatingly corrupt, and the uncaring populace is consumed with instant feedback news cycles, one pundit goes off her script and screams out a warning live on the air, before being cut off and mysteriously disappearing. Was this part of their plan, or could it be that somebody broke from the ranks of the elite in an attempt to save humanity?

20. Cop On the Hunt
In a world where galactic criminals are rounded and left to die on one planet, one man—a crooked cop—must penetrate their violent society to spring a prison break with the leader of the most ruthless gang. If he succeeds, his name is clear. If he fails, Earth will fall to INVADING IMPATIENT ALIENS.

21. Dude!
In a world where four teenagers are about to become world champions of the Prison Planet Videogame playoffs, someone sabotages their game units and they enter the most violent world ever conceived with no way of escaping, and NO RE-SPAWNING ALLOWED.

22. Bar None
In a world where lawyers are the only legal parents, two couples are condemned for reproducing without license and sentenced to banishment on the sterile Prison Planet. The only problem is that one of them is the PRESIDENT OF THE BAR. (Ummm—stupid note to self. I believe the president of the Bar would most certainly be a lawyer…)

23. David Flincher
In a world where friendly monks care for a shipwrecked space traveller carrying a deadly secret, ten outposters learn just what it means to be held prisoner on your own planet. With help four hundred light years away, they have no choice but to break their oath of silence and peace, and defend themselves from certain death.

24. Planet of Love
In a world where gender roles are reversed and women keep tight rule over their mates, men who act out are sent to Prison Planet! The intense spa planet where a crack team of psychologists will teach them about life, friendship, caring, laughter, and of course—about love.

25. Homeo and Pulpiet
In a world where warning clans tear the landscape in half, two teenagers find each other outside of societies constraints. Love, it seems, can flourish in war. But what happens when their parents find out that their children are trying to escape their grasp, and the only other livable land in the galaxy is THE PRISON PLANET?

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