Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees for Best Classic Fiction include novels by Blish, Dick, Huxley, Lewis, Roberts, Stross and Turtledove, a Pohl short story and Straczynski’s Babylon 5


By Michael Grossberg

James Blish in the 1950s (Creative Commons license)

Works by James Blish, Philip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Frederik Pohl, Adam Roberts, J. Michael Straczynski, Charles Stross and Harry Turtledove have been nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.

Aldous Huxley (Creative Commons license)

A majority of this year’s Hall of Fame nominees are appearing on the short list for the first time – a promising sign that this category for time-honored classic fiction remains full of notable and lasting works worth recognizing.

C.S. Lewis (Creative Commons license)

The oldest nominee on the list is Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, with the second-oldest C.S. Lewis’ 1945 novel That Hideous Strength.

While Lewis’ cautionary sf novel has been nominated before and previously has ranked as a Best Classic Fiction finalist, Huxley’s dystopian classic has never before been nominated for the Prometheus Award – and is arguably overdue.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees for Best Classic Fiction include novels by Blish, Dick, Huxley, Lewis, Roberts, Stross and Turtledove, a Pohl short story and Straczynski’s Babylon 5


Big sale on F. Paul Wilson’s Prometheus-winning novel Sims

 

Sims, the 2004 Prometheus winner for Best Novel, is on sale.

The novel, by five-time Prometheus winner F. Paul Wilson, is available as an ebook for 90 percent off at both Amazon (for $1.99) and Bookbub (for $2).

One of Wilson’s most libertarian science fiction novels, Sims offers a cautionary tale about genetic engineering and the struggle of the sims, a genetically engineered cross between humans and champinees, for freedom and respect.

 His central question: Should genetically enhanced creatures be viewed as animals, to be owned, or as human, with basic rights?

Wilson explores such basic libertarian issues with gripping drama in this plausible, suspenseful and well-paced scientific thriller.

Continue reading Big sale on F. Paul Wilson’s Prometheus-winning novel Sims

Masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures, including a libertarian society: An appreciation of Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner


By William H. Stoddard

One of the things Poul Anderson was known for throughout his literary career was world-building. Much of this was planetary design, based on the natural sciences, in which he started out with stellar type, planetary mass, orbital radius, and elemental abundances and worked out the geology, meteorology, and biology of a world.

Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)

Anderson was certainly one of the masters of this, up there with Hal Clement and Vernor Vinge. But he put equal effort into social scientific worldbuilding, creating economies, polities, and cultures, and developing plots for his stories from the conflicts they gave rise to. Orion Shall Rise, winner of the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, is a nearly pure example of social scientific world-building, set not in a distant solar system but on a future Earth.

Continue reading Masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures, including a libertarian society: An appreciation of Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner


An epic social novel about conflicts and threats to liberty on a multi-generation interstellar colony ship: An Appreciation of Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Best Novel winner

By Michael Grossberg

In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Prometheus winner for Best Novel, was Michael Flynn’s last, posthumous novel and one of his richest and most resonant.

Exploring the complex lives, jobs, relationships, challenges and conflicts aboard a large colony ship two centuries into a projected eight-century voyage to Tau Ceti, the epic 472-page novel takes some time to fully introduce its large cast of characters among 40,000 people who live in the hollowed-out asteroid ship dubbed The Whale.

Yet, patience is amply rewarded with Flynn’s plausible and intricate world-building, deep insights into social psychology and wise grasp of human nature. 

In the Belly of the Whale, Flynn’s 14th and final novel, builds dramatic intensity coupled with rich and revelatory insights that freshen this seemingly familiar SF subgenre of the long colony-ship voyage. Flynn raises deeper questions than most SF writers, scientists or space-colonization enthusiasts have considered about the prospects and costs of such generations-long voyages.

Continue reading An epic social novel about conflicts and threats to liberty on a multi-generation interstellar colony ship: An Appreciation of Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Best Novel winner

Video: Watch the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with speeches by leading libertarian thinker David Friedman and tributes to the late Poul Anderson and Michael Flynn


How did Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress give leading libertarian thinker David Friedman the radical idea that society can develop just laws and functional legal systems without government?

What life events, travels, famous scientists and space projects helped shape the late Poul Anderson’s 1983 novel Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner?

How did the late Michael Flynn’s childhood lead him to become an award-winning science fiction writer?

Why does Flynn’s CAEZIK SF & Fantasy publisher view him as one of the most underestimated sf writers of his generation?

What Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy authors rank high among Friedman’s favorites – and why?

To find out, watch the recorded YouTube video of the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony:

Continue reading Video: Watch the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with speeches by leading libertarian thinker David Friedman and tributes to the late Poul Anderson and Michael Flynn


Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg’s speech presenting the Best Novel category to Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale


Michael Grossberg, who chairs the Prometheus Best Novel judging committee, presented the Best Novel category Aug. 30 at the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony. Here is the transcript of his speech.

Michael Grossberg (File photo)

By Michael Grossberg

The Prometheus Awards, one of the oldest-sustained annual fan-based sf/fantasy awards after the Hugos and Nebulas, are unique in recognizing fantastical fiction that dramatizes the perennial conflict between liberty and power.

Since the Prometheus Award for Best Novel was first presented in 1979, 46 novels have won this annual category. Today, we will honor a 47th.

This year’s five finalists represent a diverse range of fiction by authors who appreciate how freedom makes possible and helps sustain peace, prosperity, progress, civility and social harmony – while its absence increases the risk of war, tyranny and other abuses of power.

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg’s speech presenting the Best Novel category to Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale


Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS President William H. Stoddard’s speech introducing the Prometheus Hall of Fame and guest presenter David Friedman

Libertarian Futurist Society president William H. Stoddard emceed the 45th Prometheus Awards and introduced the Prometheus Hall of Fame category for Best Classic Fiction, which was presented by libertarian luminary and Prometheus-nominated fantasy novelist David Friedman.

LFS President William H. Stoddard (Photo by Carol Stoddard)

The August 30, 2025 awards ceremony, presented live via Zoom on August 30, 2025, was recorded and later posted on Youtube. Here is the text of Stoddard’s speech:

By William H. Stoddard

The Prometheus Hall of Fame award was established in 1983.

Initially we gave it to two classic works of libertarian science fiction each year. Our first two winners were virtually inevitable choices: Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the book that established libertarian science fiction as a recognized genre, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the fictional treatment of libertarian ideas that brought large numbers of people into what became the libertarian movement.

The next year’s award went to two classic dystopias, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Since then we’ve settled down to one winner a year, and opened the award not merely to novels but to work in any narrative or dramatic form. Such works become eligible 20 years after their original publication.

To present this year’s award, we have the honor of having David Friedman as a guest speaker.

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS President William H. Stoddard’s speech introducing the Prometheus Hall of Fame and guest presenter David Friedman

The Diamond Age: Neal Stephenson’s first Prometheus finalist for Best Novel hailed as prophetic and timely cautionary tale


By Michael Grossberg

“The only person who might have envisioned a future as outlandish as our present is the Seattle-based author Neal Stephenson.”

Neal Stephenson in 2019 (Creative Commons license)

That’s the interesting and notable view of British-American historian Niall Ferguson, expressed in his Time Machine column on Substack.

To back up his thesis, Ferguson offers a detailed argument revolving around Stephenson’s 1995 science fiction novel The Diamond Age.

Along with his earlier breakthrough cyberpunk (or post-cyberpunk) novel Snow Crash (1992), The Diamond Age put Stephenson on the map as a visionary writer to watch – and read.

Continue reading The Diamond Age: Neal Stephenson’s first Prometheus finalist for Best Novel hailed as prophetic and timely cautionary tale


Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Michael Flynn’s publisher Shahid Mahmud’s acceptance speech about one of our most underrated sf authors


“I think Michael was one of the most underrated authors in the genre… his work holds up to some of the best science fiction I’ve ever read.
— Shahid Mahmud, publisher of CAEZIK SF & Fantasy

Novelist Michael Flynn at an sf convention several decades ago (File photo)

Introduction: CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, a company led by Shahid Mahmud, published Michael Flynn’s last and posthumous novel In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Prometheus winner for Best Novel – and the first novel originally published by CAEZIK to win a Prometheus Award.

In his comments during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, Mahmud paid tribute to Flynn, who died in 2023 at 75 after an impressive career writing science fiction. Winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award, Flynn was nominated seven times for the Hugo Award (including Best Novel for Eifelheim) and eight times for the Prometheus Award, winning three times for Best Novel.

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Michael Flynn’s publisher Shahid Mahmud’s acceptance speech about one of our most underrated sf authors


Arc Manor Books sale: Discounted ebooks through Sept. 14 of Michael Flynn’s 2025 Best Novel winner In the Belly of the Whale and other new novels


By Michael Grossberg

Arc Manor Books, whose CAEZIK SF & Fantasy imprint published our 2025 Prometheus Best Novel winner, is having a special ebook sale.

Available through Sunday Sept. 14 at significant ebook savings are several novels by Prometheus winners – including Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale, the 2025 Best Novel winner.

“Michael Flynn’s In the Belly of the Whale won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel last month! This epic, hard science fiction tale unfolds aboard a colossal generation ship, where a decaying aristocracy faces rebellion after a mysterious death in the abandoned “Burnout” region,” publisher Shahid Mahmud said.

Continue reading Arc Manor Books sale: Discounted ebooks through Sept. 14 of Michael Flynn’s 2025 Best Novel winner In the Belly of the Whale and other new novels