The Libertarian Futurist Society’s ongoing Appreciation series strives to make clear what libertarian futurists see in each of our past winners and how each fits the Prometheus award’s distinctive focus on Liberty vs. Power. Here’s our Appreciation for James P. Hogan’s Voyage to Yesteryear, the 1983 Prometheus winner for Best Novel:
By Michael Grossberg
Two human civilizations, long separated across light years, confront significant philosophical and political differences when they make renewed contact decades after a World War III devastated the Earth and led to the rise of widespread authoritarian governments there.
When the Earth’s three superpower governments engage in a space race to renew contact with the lost colony on Chiron in the Alpha Centauri system colony’s descendants, the Americans arrive first with an authoritarian goal of invasion and domination.
Meanwhile, the Chiron colonists – sent from Earth generations before in a ship with babies raised by robots in order to start fresh and avoid the bad habits and prejudices of Earth – have developed a radically free libertarian society founded on the belief that each individual has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Hogan’s fast-paced and idea-oriented utopian/dystopian novel dramatizes the differences between libertarian and authoritarian perspectives and cultures, and highlights the consequences when ships from Earth arrive to take over Chiron only to be shocked by the colonists’ independent-minded and liberty-loving attitudes.
The novel, in part, is one of the few depictions of a libertarian anarchist society, along with such other Prometheus winners as J. Neil Schulman’s Alongside Night and L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach.
In portraying the Old Earth characters often as fumbling or clueless bureaucrats, Hogan injects some humor into an implicit critique of our actual world culture.
Hogan, who died in 2010, was concerned about the bureaucratic and statist trends in the late 20th century – which sadly and ominously, in some ways have continued and worsened in the 21st century with its disturbing and regressive authoritarian/populist tendencies visible on the Left and Right.
No doubt, if Hogan were still alive, he’d be writing other novels contrasting the benefits of liberty with the evils and dangers of centralized State power.
Note: James P. Hogan (1941-2010), a British sf writer who moved to the United States for much of his adult writing career, also won the 1993 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The Multiplex Man.
Other Hogan books were Best Novel finalists in 1990 (Mirror Maze), 1991 (The Infinity Gambit), 1997 (Paths to Otherwhere) and 2000 (Cradle of Saturn.)
Check out the Prometheus Blog’s posthumous multi-part publication of a 2000 interview with Hogan about his life, career and evolution of his views.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,”an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt),Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, jointhe Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, individuality and human dignity.
* See related introductory essay about the LFS’ 40thanniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards’ four-decade history.
* Other Prometheus winners: For a full list of winners – for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
Libertarian futurists believe cultural change is as vital as political change (and often more fun!) in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.
