Floating island (fiction)

The floating islands of Themyscira in DC Comics' book Wonder Woman.

A floating island in fiction (sometimes called a flying island), is a fictitious landmass that either floats in a body of water (such as Vadanis in The Guardian Cycle of novels) or flies above the surface of the earth (or in some cases through the depths of space), defying gravity. These islands are usually free-floating and can be directed by the whim of their inhabitants, although some may be permanently anchored. They are usually propelled and/or held aloft by one or more of the following means:

• Helium, hydrogen or some other lighter than air gas.
• A lodestone or magnet, such as with Laputa, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
• Magic of some kind.
• Advanced science/technology — anti-gravity, propellers/balloons, or some other form of non-paranormal levitation, as in Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky.

Uses in media

Literature

• The first floating encountered in literature is the home of the four winds, Aeolia, as recounted in Homer's The Odyssey. However, it is unclear whether this island floated in the water or in the air.
• The second book in C. S. Lewis' science fiction trilogy, Perelandra, features floating islands on the surface of Venus, which play a prominent role in the storyline.
• An older example of a floating island is Scotia Moria, from the novel The Floating Island by Frank Careless. This may or may not be the same island referred to as Spidermonkey Island in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (renamed Seastar Island in the film Doctor Dolittle).
• The book Life of Pi contains a floating island. At one point during Pi's time on the boat, he encounters a floating island inhabited by a kind of meerkat that feeds on fish stunned by the fresh water in the ponds on the island (the fish being salt water species).
• For a short period the island of Themyscira (Paradise Island) became a series of floating islands as part of the DC Comics book Wonder Woman.
• In the book "Gulliver's Travelers" by Jonathan Swift.

Television

• A well-known floating island in popular culture is Mount Flatten in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which hovered above Earth's surface due to its rich deposits of the gravity-defying mineral Upsidaisium.
• In the anime series Cowboy Bebop, the planet Venus had been terraformed using enormous floating plants that also functioned as habitable floating islands in the sky.
• References to floating islands can be found in the science fiction TV series Star Trek (original; 1966) episode "The Cloud Minders", and in the Firefly episode "Trash."
• Several floating islands are present in episodes of the first season of Beast Wars: Transformers.
• Noah's Island is a cartoon in the late 90s about a collection of animals which navigate the sea on a volcano-powered floating island.

Film

• Cloud City in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a floating island.
• Many works by artist Roger Dean depict floating islands, such as those featured on the covers of some albums by the band Yes. A movie entitled Floating Islands is planned by Dean and is said to be based on the story of this album art. The film will feature several songs by Yes.
• In Flash Gordon (film), Arboria appears as a concave floating jungle continent above Mongo.

Video games

• Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies is based around combat between mobile floating islands.
• The entire world of Skies of Arcadia is a series of islands in the sky, with the ground being a sea of fog and mud. The world of Baten Kaitos is also made up of floating islands.
• A large floating island named Angel Island makes frequent appearances in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and is home to the Master Emerald and Knuckles the Echidna.
• A level in Tomb Raider II is named Floating Islands.
• Cave Story is set in a giant floating island, visible in the end credits.
• An entire floating continent is present in Final Fantasy VI.
• The city of Anemos in the Golden Sun series is a floating island that stays in the air by use of magic.
• The Kingdom of Zeal in Chrono Trigger is a nation made of floating continents.
• Vane and Neo-Vane in Lunar: Silver Star Story and Lunar: Eternal Blue are floating cities.
• In Breath of Fire II, one of the endings includes "Township" being able to fly.
• In The Granstream Saga there are many floating islands.
• In the World of Warcraft expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King, the mage-governed city of Dalaran levitates over the region of Northrend.

Other

• The music video for "Feel Good Inc." by Gorillaz features one of the band members on a windmill-powered floating island.
• Ancient High Netheril in the Forgotten Realms setting of the Dungeons & Dragons universe contains airborne cities kept aloft by magic.

See also

• Floating city (science fiction)