To make clear what libertarian futurists saw in each of our past winners that made them deserve recognition as pro-freedom sf/fantasy and how they fit our award, Appreciations of all past Prometheus Award-winners have been published. Here’s the appreciation for L. Neil Smith’s The Forge of the Elders, the 2001 Prometheus winner for Best Novel:
By Michael Grossberg
Rollicking adventure, mystery, a sense of humor and explicit libertarian ideology mark L. Neil Smith’s The Forge of the Elders.
The novel was reworked from two previously published novels Contact And Commune (retitled First Time The Charm) and Converse And Conflict (retitled Second To One), and combined with the story’s finale (Third Among Equals), belatedly published a decade later.
Set in the late 21st century within our solar system and beyond, this fun 2000 novel concerns the culture clash and political differences between the human members of an expedition to asteroid 5023 Eris, and the multitude of aliens they find when they arrive.
The humans, sent to the asteroid by a monolithic socialist/communist world government back on Earth, come into conflict with the libertarian aliens over control of the asteroid 5023 Eris, coveted because of valuable minerals.
The culture clash results in a few mysterious deaths, and the investigation of the possible murders reveals much about the motivations of the perpetrators and suspects.
Meanwhile, the different intelligent species, including giant-squid-like aliens with a sophisticated Elders culture, come from alternate historical realities but share anarcho-capitalist economic practices and basic, peaceful, cooperative and non-violent libertarian values.
“Smith gives free rein to his imaginative faculties in dreaming up sentient beings from evolutionary branches as different as birds, mollusks, trilobites and sea scorpions,” Bill Howell write in his review for Prometheus quarterly (Vol. 19, March 2001).
“The immense (534-page) tale progresses through a multiple murder mystery and the solution of several fascinating scientific enigmas to the expected happy ending. Oh yeah, there’s a space battle in this book, too!” Howell wrote.
Reminiscent of early Heinlein, the novel also incorporates links to Smith’s North American Confederacy storyline, best known for his Prometheus-winning The Probability Broach and its sequels.
Full of political discussions, lectures and analysis that provocatively challenge conventional beliefs, especially in its first two parts, the story concludes with several twists and explores new ideas – including how justice might operate in a society without coercive government.
ABOUT L. NEIL SMITH
Note: L. Neil Smith had won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel twice before: in 1984 for The Probability Broach, and in 1994 for Pallas.
He later won a Special Award, shared with illustrator Scott Bieser, in 2005 for The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel, and the Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2016.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE
* 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 recently updated and enhanced 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.
