Appreciation series update: Review-essays of Special Prometheus Award fiction winners now available, linked

Three anthologies.
Two films.
Two graphic novels.
A related novella and filk song.
Plus, a webcomic about a sentient robot and his pals.

If you’ve ever wondered why the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Special Prometheus Awards have recognized all of the above, then wonder no longer.

You can check it out on the LFS website’s Prometheus Awards page, which now has convenient links to Appreciation review-essays about all 10 works that have won recognition since the occasional Special Awards category of was established in 1998.

Unlike our two annual Prometheus award categories for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame), the Libertarian Futurist Society only occasionally bestows – where merited – a Special Prometheus Award on a pro-liberty work of sf/fantasy that falls outside our usual categories and eligibility requirements.

Like the Best Novel category, the Special Awards to individual works of fiction do focus on the past year’s achievements – but with a focus on every other type of sf/fantasy outside of novels.

And like the Best Classic Fiction category, these Special Awards can embrace many different types of fictional art (except for novels) – including short stories, novellas, anthologies, songs, movies and other things that the LFS has not yet recognized but might someday, from operas and musicals to poems and TV-series episodes.

Here is the full list of Special Prometheus Award winners, with convenient links to their appreciation essays written by LFS members and posted over the past year on the Prometheus Blog:

2017 – Mark Stanley, Special Award for Chapter 1 of Freefall, a webcomic Appreciation

2016 – Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn, Special Award for Alex + Ada, a graphic novel Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Appreciation

2014 — Leslie Fish, for a novella, Tower of Horses and filk song, The Horsetamer’s Daughter. Appreciation

 

2007 — James McTeigue (director) and The Wachowski Brothers (screenplay), V For Vendetta (movie) Appreciation

2006 — Joss Whedon (writer/director), Serenity (movie) Appreciation

2005 — L. Neil Smith (writer) and Scott Bieser (illustrator), The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel Appreciation

2005 — Editors Mark Tier and Martin H. Greenberg, Give Me Liberty and Visions of Liberty, anthologies for Baen Books Appreciation, Part 1Appreciation, Part 2

1998 — Editors Brad Linaweaver and Edward E Kramer, Free Space (Anthology) Appreciation

Note: While the four authors who have won Special Prometheus Awards for Lifetime Achievement have not directly received overall Appreciations for their lifetimes of work and achievement, each has won multiple Prometheus Awards – and thus Poul Anderson, Vernor Vinge, F. Paul Wilson and L. Neil Smith have been recognized through the specific Appreciation review-essays already published for each of their Best Novel and Best Classic fiction awards.

* Watch the videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.

* Read the introductory essay of the LFS’ 40^th anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards’ four-decade-plus history, that was launched in 2019 on the 40^th anniversary of the awards and continues today.

* Prometheus winners: For a full list of winners, finalists and nominees – for 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 the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.

* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), 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, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights and differences.

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread better visions of the future that help humanity overcome tyranny, slavery and war and achieve universal liberty and human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.