"World-Building" is the volume in the Science Fiction Writing Series edited by Ben Bova devoted to constructing star systems and life-supporting planets. Stephen L. Gillett has a doctorate in geology, was the science columnist at "Amazing Science Fiction" and has written SF under a pseudonym. My doctorate is in rhetorical studies, so I am starting at ground zero when it comes to understanding or at least appreciating the mathematical equations for escape velocity, scaling tidal forces or Roche's limit. While this book thoroughly convinced me that I have no aptitude for writing hard science, I can see how it would be extremely helpful to anyone interested in being on a strong scientific foundation when it comes to writing their own stories.
Gillett's volume has eight chapters: (1) Why World-Build? looks at the necessity of using real science to create the requisite sense of wonder in your science fiction writing; (2) The Astronomical Setting covers the important differences between planets and stars in general and gravity, orbits, seasons and tidal action in particular; (3) Making a Planet details how the formation of a planetary system impacts the resulting planets and the options for story writing; (4) The Earth looks at the interconnected aspects that make interesting variations possible with the home worlds you create because of plate tectonics, water and air, magnetic field, colors, etc.; (5) The Ancient Earth deals with avoiding the "Cenozoic Earth Syndrome" (creating an alien world by making a few slight changes on ancient earth) by better understanding our ancient past as an inspiration for creativity; (6) The Other Planet looks at the wealth of data we have accumulated from our deep space probes as another source of inspiration; (7) Stars and Suns looks at how such heavenly bodies can supporting interesting planets as well; and (8) Not as We Know It discusses differences in volatile content (e.g., wetworlds, nitroworlds, brimstone worlds) as a final means of providing major scope for variation in words.
Hopefully this will provide you enough information to decide if "World-Building" will help you in writing your own Science Fiction. I appreciate that for some people this book does not go far enough, but certainly for the vast majority of us it gives us enough information that we will not thoroughly embarrass ourselves when it comes to creating new worlds for our characters to inhabit and visit.
