Full record for planet-buster n.

Definition a bomb or other weapon, or a natural force capable of destroying a planet
OED requirements antedating 1950
Earliest cite B. Vanier 'Planet-Buster!'
Comment Stuart Young submitted a cite from a reprint of Frank Herbert's "The Godmakers". James A. Landau submitted a cite from a reprint of H. Beam Piper's "Space Viking"; Mike Christie verified it in the original 1962 magazine appearance. Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1959 cite from Frank Herbert's "Missing Link"; this story was later made into part of Herbert's "The Godmakers". Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1993 reprint of Vernor Vinge's 1992 "A Fire Upon the Deep". Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1978 reprint of Alan Dean Foster's 1974 "Dark Star". Malcolm Farmer submitted a 1996 cite from Peter Hamilton's "The Reality Dysfunction". Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a reprint of Damon Knight's "The Beachcomber"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1952 original magazine appearance. Fred Galvin found a reference in the ISFDB to an article by Bob Vanier, "Planet-Buster!" published in Amazing Stories, February, 1950; Derek Hepburn verified this, and suppplied a cite from the article - in fact, the entire text of the two-line filler article.

The above cites are for weapons: Fred Galvin submitted a 1969 cite for "planetbuster" from James Blish and Norman L. Knight's "The Piper of Dis" in which the planetbuster is a natural force (a one mile diameter meteor)

We would like to see cites for planet-buster in the (n.) or (adj.) forms.

Last modified 6 July, 2008

Citations for planet-buster n.

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1959 F. Herbert in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 105/2 We're going to take up a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five transports full of I-A marines and a class IX Monitor with one planet-buster. You're calling the shots, God help you!
1962 M. Z. Bradley Planet Savers in Planet Savers/Sword of Aldones (1982) iii. 27 A simple heatgun, to the Darkovan ethical code, is as reprehensible as a super-cobalt planetbuster.
1972 F. Herbert Godmakers (1981) 39 We'll take up a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five transports full of I-A marines plus a Class IX Monitor with one planet-buster. You're calling the shots, God help you! First, we have to know if they've taken the Delphinus , and if so, where it is. Next, we want to know how warlike these goons are. Can we deal with them? Are they too bloodthirsty? What's their potential?
1986 ‘J. Tiptree, Jr.’ in Isaac Asimov's Sci. Fiction Mag. May 157 We don't have to worry about being shot at; those planet-buster missiles are too big and slow to hit a small mobile target.
1996 P. F. Hamilton Reality Dysfunction 12 But unlike an asteroid impact, where the energy release was purely thermal, the planet-busters each emitted the same amount of radiation as a small solar flare.
1996 P. F. Hamilton Reality Dysfunction 12 They would have seen a brief surge in the apparent magnitude as Omuta's mercenary ships dropped fifteen antimatter planet-buster bombs on their home world.
1997 Interzone Dec. 12/1 You could see it, across a quarter of a million miles, the surface of the Mare Imbrium billowing up into space, as the demonstration planet-buster went off beneath it, a quarter of the Moon's old grey face convulsing in an instant.