Editor’s note: The Prometheus Blog is posting the texts of the inspirational and insightful speeches presented Aug. 25, 2024, during the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg’s speech discusses the award’s Best Novel track record and introduced three-time Prometheus Best Novel winner Victor Koman, who presented the Best Novel category.
The Prometheus Awards, one of the oldest fan-based sf/fantasy awards after the Hugos and Nebulas, are unique in recognizing speculative fiction that dramatizes the perennial conflict between liberty and power.
That includes not only science fiction and fantasy, but also alternate history, mythology, fable, horror and near-future high-tech thrillers, so long as they explore the possibilities of a freer and better future based on voluntary cooperation and exchange instead of institutionalized coercion and tyranny.
AN IMPRESSIVE TRACK RECORD
Since the Prometheus Award for Best Novel was first presented in 1979 to F. Paul Wilson’s Wheels within Wheels, 45 novels have won this annual category, with their authors receiving its distinctive, increasingly valuable gold prize.
Among the more notable winners: L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach, James Hogan’s Voyage From Yesteryear, Ken MacLeod’s The Stone Canal, Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky, Donald Kingsbury’s Psychohistorical Crisis, Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, Neal Stephenson’s The System of the World, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Sarah Hoyt’s Darkship Thieves, Travis Corcoran’s The Powers of the Earth, Barry Longyear’s The Hook and last year, Australian/Tasmanian author Dave Freer’s Cloud-Castles.
A WIDE RANGE OF FREEDOM-CONSCIOUS FICTION
This year’s slate of Best Novel finalists also encompasses a wide range of entertaining and thought-provoking fiction.
More than most authors, Prometheus-winning writers tend to be more sensitive to the considerable harm that the institutionalized coercion of the State has done throughout history in violating human rights and undermining peace, prosperity, liberty and justice for all.
At the same time, they’re more likely to appreciate the great potential of free men and women to cooperate in producing, creating, innovating and voluntarily working together to meet the challenges of surviving and thriving on our planet.
THE POWER OF LIBERTY & THE DANGERS OF POWER
One SF writer who deeply understands the power of liberty and the dangers of unlimited power over others is Victor Koman.
One of the very few writers to win the Prometheus Award for Best Novel three times – for The Jehovah Contract, Solomon’s Knife, and Kings of the High Frontier – Victor has been a vital member of the first generation of avowedly libertarian SF writers of the 1970s and 1980s.
I’m proud to introduce Victor, who now, for the first time, will have the long-overdue honor of presenting the Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Welcome, Victor, to the 2024 Prometheus ceremony.
Michael Grossberg co-founded the Libertarian Futurist Society in 1981-1982 to sustain the Prometheus Award, currently serves as the LFS board secretary and chairs the Prometheus Best Novel Finalist-Selection Judging Committee, which annually selects a slate of typically five finalists from the larger pool of eligible novels nominated by LFS members.
Note: The 44th Prometheus awards show, recorded by LFS Webmaster Chris Hibbert, has been posted on the LFS website’s Video page and on Youtube.
As part of our coverage and for convenience of those who prefer to read the speeches, the Prometheus Blog is publishing a series of reports on the ceremony with the full texts of its eloquent, inspiring and sometimes amusing speeches by:
* Best Novel presenter Victor Koman, a three-time Prometheus-winning novelist;
* Two-time Prometheus Best Novel winner Daniel Suarez (for Influx in 2015 and for Critical Mass in 2024)
* Reason’s Robert Poole, who presented the Hall of Fame category; and
* LFS President William H. Stoddard, who emceed the Zoom event and accepted the Hall of Fame award for the late great Terry Pratchett
* Read Victor Koman’s 2024 Best Novel presenter speech on mortality, the award’s longevity, the diversification of publishing and the future of liberty.
* Read 2024 Best Novel winner Daniel Suarez’s acceptance speech for Critical Mass on “How SF offers a critical forum to imagine new ideas and futures”
* See the video of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
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, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
