For the convenience of LFS members and a guide to this year’s Prometheus Awards, the Prometheus Blog has now posted reviews of all four of the year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists for Best Classic Fiction.
Libertarian Futurist Society members, who have the right to vote to select the annual Best Classic Fiction winner, are invited to read (or reread) our reviews of the 2025 finalists: Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, Rudyard Kipling’s story “As Easy as A.B.C.,” the Rush song “The Trees” and Charles Stross’ novel Singularity Sky.
Other science fiction and fantasy fans, outside the LFS, also may wish to check out the reviews to appreciate these works and to better understand how they fit the distinctive dual focus of the Prometheus Awards on both quality and liberty.
LFS President William H. Stoddard’s review of the Kipling story was posted just a few days ago on the blog.
One of the earliest examples of libertarian/liberal SF, “As Easy as A.B.C.” envisions a 21st-century world founded on free travel, the rule of law, privacy, individual self-sufficiency, and an inherited abhorrence of crowds.
Officials of the Aerial Board of Control, essentially a non-repressive world government reluctant to exceed its limited power, are summoned to remote Chicago. The city has been convulsed by a small group’s demands to revive the nearly forgotten institution of democracy, with its historical tendencies toward majoritarian tyranny, unlimited by respect for the rights of individuals and minorities. The cautionary tale is most notable for its bitter condemnation of lynching, racism and mob violence.
Read the full blog review.
* Thanks to the Kipling Society, the full text of “As Easy as A.B.C.” has been posted online.
The other three reviews were published last year, when the other three works previously were selected as 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists.
Here are the links to each review, along with an excerpt from each of the older reviews to whet your appetite to read them – and to read and rank this year’s Hall of Fame finalists on the final Prometheus ballot:
ORION SHALL RISE
Here’s an excerpt from the blog’s review of Anderson’s 1983 novel:
“Orion Shall Rise… is a nearly pure example of social scientific world-building, set not in a distant solar system but on a future Earth.
“In its backstory, the great powers of the twentieth century annihilated each other with nuclear weapons, in a conflict called the War of Judgment, leaving a world empty enough to give room for new cultures to emerge.
“His future Earth has at least four great powers, each embodying a different set of central values… The Northwest Union, extending roughly from Oregon to Alaska, is a decentralized society with strong tendencies to libertarianism, one of Anderson’s more attractive portrayals of this idea, and is also strongly technophilic.
“Anderson puts their philosophy into the crucible.”
“…It’s characteristic of Anderson that, even though his story clearly puts one side in this war in the right, he doesn’t make it a straightforward clash of good people with evil.”
“THE TREES”
Here’s an excerpt from the blog’s review of Rush’s 1978 song:
“The fantasy-genre song conjures a world in which trees are intelligent and emotional creatures that we can recognize as very much like ourselves – part of a social and hierarchical community, capable of nobility, but also subject to internal conflicts and the very human weaknesses of envy and malice.
With just a few deft strokes of fantastical but plausible world-building and in remarkably few words, Rush songwriter Neil Peart sets up the imaginative premise of its story while introducing its characters and their central dramatic conflict:
“…some tree creatures simply wish to peacefully exercise their rights to life and liberty, free from aggression or destruction by others. Yet, other trees refuse to let them alone. Instead, these other shorter trees, motivated in part by envy or malice or a warped sense of “social justice,” threaten to violate such basic libertarian rights.
“The shorter trees plot to impose a radical dictatorship that would cut down – even kill – the taller trees, all in the name of a deranged, coercive and radical egalitarianism.
“Propelled by a melodic but mournful progressive-rock sound evoking a ballad or elegy… (the song) offers a powerful cautionary tale that continues to resonate today.”
* Lyrics to the Rush song are posted several places online. Simply Google “lyrics to the Rush song The Trees” to find the full text. To watch Rush perform the song, visit YouTube, where several videos are available. Or check out this link to one video that alternates between images of the band and of trees.
SINGULARITY SKY
Here’s an excerpt from the blog’s review of Charles Stross’s 2003 novel:
Fabulously inventive and sophisticated in its cornucopia of world-building, Stross’ widely acclaimed first novel successively introduces a wild variety of clashing cultures, divergent interests, hidden motives and compelling characters.
“Stross imagines a fascinating variety of cultures and levels of civilization coming into contact and conflict. That includes a libertarian Earth without coercive government and functioning exclusively through private contracts, several waves of radically alien visitors, and The New Republic, a reactionary and repressive set of Victorian-era-level colonies with secret police, a ruthless bureaucracy, and no Internet.
“Representing Earth’s interests and wiser concerns… are Martin Springfield, an Earth-based spaceship engineer hired to provide technical work for the New Republic’s fleet, and Rachel Mansour, a U.N. diplomat pre-stationed within the New Republic. Both Rachel and Martin share a libertarian perspective, a decency and compassion reflecting Earth’s freer and more advanced society and a greater understanding of the Eschaton and its dangers.
“Explaining her libertarian views to a recalcitrant New Republic true believer, Rachel says: “…what you’re protesting about boils down to a dislike for anything that disturbs the status quo. You see your government as a security blanket, a warm fluffy cover that’ll protect everybody from anything bad all the time. There’s a lot of that kind of thinking in the New Republic; the idea that people who aren’t kept firmly in their place will automatically behave badly. But where I come from, most people have enough common sense to avoid things that’d harm them; and those that don’t, need to be taught. Censorship just drives problems underground.”
SETTING PROMETHEUS PRIORITIES
We hope that all LFS Full members, Sponsors and Benefactors will take the opportunity to consider all of this year’s finalists and vote later this year in both annual categories to help choose the 45th annual Prometheus Awards.
With the 11 Best Novel nominees recently announced, the Prometheus Best Novel Judging Committee currently is reading, discussing and comparing the nominees before voting in six weeks or so to select the slate of Best Novel finalists, which will be announced by mid-April.
That gives LFS members at all levels, including Basic members, time over the next month or so to concentrate on the Best Classic Fiction finalists.
Then, once LFS members have familiarized yourselves with the four Hall of Fame contenders, you will have freed up more time between April and early July to concentrate on reading the slate of (typically five) Best Novel finalists.
As always, LFS members will receive by email the official Prometheus Awards ballot by early June, with our traditional and aptly symbolic voting deadline annually set for the Fourth of July, American Independence Day.
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.
