Any science fiction story
whose primary venue is a planet
, and whose plot turns to a significant degree upon the nature of that venue, can be described as a planetary romance
. Think of those SF
novels where the setting
is almost as important as the characters or plot.
A famous example of a planetary romance
is the Dune
sequence by Frank Herbert
. Jack Vance
is a master of the sub-genre, writing dozens of novels set in numerous worlds. Other famous examples are Marion Zimmer Bradley
novels and Anne McCaffrey
Part of the definition of this term comes from "The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", ed. John Clute.