A story can have memorable characters and a compelling plot, but the world it takes place in can be just as important. A story’s setting shapes what happens and often influences characters. In some fiction, the setting is so powerful that it becomes unforgettable in its own right.

In her 1954 essay, The Place in Fiction, Eudora Welty wrote that setting keeps a novel true to its locality. Stephen King makes a similar point in On Writing, describing setting as both place and atmosphere. For Ursula K Le Guin, it goes further: in Steering the Craft, she describes setting as the matrix in which characters live and move. Place, in other words, is part of the story itself.

Modern fantasy may be full of monsters and giants, but L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) offers something lighter: talking animals, enchanted landscapes and a world divided into colour-coded regions, each with its own ruler.

JRR Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, first conceived in The Hobbit (1937) and expanded in The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), is darker and more expansive. Its Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits and Orcs inhabit regions with their own cultures and histories. Though it resembles medieval Europe, Middle-Earth is rooted in mythology and magic. Its depth comes from the thousands of years of history Tolkien created behind the stories, giving the world a sense of a past beyond the action of the novels.

Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) is set on Arrakis, a desert planet where water is scarce and giant sandworms roam the dunes. Its most valuable resource is spice, essential for space travel and longevity, making the planet’s ecology inseparable from its politics.

Herbert uses Arrakis to explore resource colonialism and environmental responsibility. Its political tensions also echo real-world Middle Eastern geopolitics and the global dependence on oil.

Another richly imagined world appears in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Its fictional continents, Westeros and Essos, form a medieval-inspired world of rival kingdoms, distinct cultures and old grudges. First introduced in A Game of Thrones (1996), Westeros and Essos use their wilderness as a measure of survival, as well as a boundary between the civilised and the unknown.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), JK Rowling created a magical society hidden within the modern world, with its own traditions and prejudices. Its conflicts touch on discrimination, power and moral choice. The hidden wizarding world can also be read as a metaphor for marginalised communities.

Science fiction has produced equally influential worlds. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, first published in 1951, follows a human civilisation spread across the galaxy and nearing collapse. Rather than alien species or futuristic weapons, Asimov focuses on how civilisations rise and fall. At its centre is a vast Galactic Empire, slowly decaying as it loses knowledge. A particularly interesting element that Asimov introduces is psychohistory, a fictional science that predicts mass behaviour.

Another major science fiction universe is the Culture, created by Iain M Banks between 1987 and 2012. The Culture is a post-scarcity interstellar civilisation run by powerful artificial intelligences known as Minds. Humans and other beings live freely, without money or formal government. Despite its apparent utopia, the series asks whether a society’s claim to moral superiority justifies interfering in its less advanced counterparts and what that means for progress.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy – Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996) – presents one of science fiction’s most detailed settings. Mars begins as a cold, barren planet colonised by scientists and idealists known as the First Hundred. As they alter the planet, it becomes a battleground between competing visions of preservation and transformation. Robinson uses Mars to ask whether humanity can build a better society or simply repeat old mistakes on a new world.

In fiction, setting shapes characters, drives conflict and gives themes their context. A well-drawn world can become inseparable from the story itself, defining what is possible and leaving a lasting impression.

The writer is a columnist and author of the science fiction novels Divided Species and PlayerAI.