It takes imagination and a lot of work to create an alien world or universe, so it is no wonder that many science fiction writers create a world or a universe and set all or many of their works within the framework that they create.

Fans enjoy the familiar, and they enjoy reading more about a universe and a world view they are already acquainted with. Thus, while many of these stories and novels are not sequels in the strict sense, readers enjoy familiarity with the setting.

Many authors will create a galactic civilization and then write stories that fit in some way into that civilization and its history.

Some authors simply set their stories within a universe of their own creation with planetary systems, alien races, and alien cultures that are explored in the works. Others want to tell a very large story and create a large canvas on which to tell their tales.

The first author to systematically order an imaginary universe was Robert A. Heinlein, who devised a Future History, a timeline of events in the far future, and set his stories and novels within that future. Although Heinlein featured some of his characters in several works, most of his stories stood alone though within a common framework.

Isaac Asimov created the universe of his Foundation Trilogy as well as a world in which positronic robots co-existed with men. Eventually as he wrote sequels to his early stories set with those backgrounds, he attempted with some success to connect these futures by eventually weaving together the stories of the Foundation and the positronic robots.

Frank Herbert's Dune novels and the prequels written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson after the elder Herbert's death all revolve around the planet known as Dune and struggles to control it.

Ursula K. Le Guin sets much of her adult science fiction in a Hainish universe that evolved from the travels of the inhabitants of one planet.

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