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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37100
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37100
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Don't steal the plot, Don't steal their made-up words or made-up references, don't steal their (imaginative) tech, don't steal their characters or their unique combination of _characteristics_ that make those characters particularly compelling.

Yes, you can presume there is some sort of interstellar engine, either near instantaneous (days or weeks of travel vs centuries), or with some tech that allows long term food, water and life in a relatively limited space. You can presume some means of interstellar communication that doesn't require years.

I haven't read Blood on the Stars, but call that your "reference work" to make this general: Don't duplicate _anything_ in your reference work if you cannot find it in at least one other work by **another author** before your reference work was published. Otherwise, you risk stealing something _original_ to the author of the reference work, and whether you get sued for that or not, it is a mark against you. If he uses "subspace" or "hyperspace" or "wormholes", well, so have many others, including Star Trek. Feel free.

But if the author invented some kind of engine or transport device you never heard of before and you can't find it with a search engine (except for things mentioning your reference work or author or devoted to them, like a fansite): Invent your own. If the story doesn't work without it: I personally wouldn't write it; at that level I'd feel like it was plagiarism.

Original score: 17