Did you know that a third novel belatedly has been published in the late Prometheus-winning writer L. Neil Smith’s “Ngu Family Saga” series?
The Libertarian Futurist Society recognized the first two novels in that series – Pallas and Ceres – but we didn’t become aware of the third novel, Ares, until recently.
Each of the three novels is set primarily on a different asteroid or dwarf planet in our solar system, but linked together by continuing central characters drawn from the Ngu family of pioneering solar-system settlers.
PALLAS, A BEST NOVEL WINNER
Smith launched his ambitious projected series about colonization of our solar system’s asteroid belt with Pallas, which won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 1994.
Set in the 22nd century with two conflicting groups of colonists sharing the habitat of the terra-formed and colonized asteroid of Pallas, L. Neil Smith’s Heinlein-esque novel imagines a believable future based on plausible scientific developments but one beset by familiar political divisions between freedom-lovers and power-mongers.
One colony is a libertarian utopia based on explicit consent; the other smaller subculture, led by a power-hungry former Earth senator scarred by sexual scandal, is a socialist agrarian community operating beyond a Berlin-style wall closed off from the larger free-wheeling asteroid society.
At the center of the story, and linking the two worlds dramatically, is the coming-of-age of Emerson Ngu, a young rebel and inventor who escapes his manual-labor-based and elite-driven community to explore Pallas’ larger and more liberated world.
CERES, A BEST NOVEL FINALIST
Ceres, the first sequel in Smith’s series, was ranked by LFS judges in 2010 as a Prometheus Best Novel finalist.
Set partly on the dwarf planet, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as well as on Pallas, Mars and Earth, the story revolves around Pallas figure skater Llyra Ngu, who is determined to compete successfully in the much heavier gravity of Earth.
On her journey to Ceres and beyond, Llyra will face jealous rivals, a hostile press, terrorist attacks and the hijacking of a spaceliner.
Meanwhile, her older brother Wilson Ngu is eager to quit his job as a surveyor’s apprentice to pursue mineral riches as a risk-taking and death-defying “asteroid hunter.” Wilson’s dream is to find the asteroid hunter’s holy grail: the legendary Diamond Rogue.
ARES, THE CONCLUSION OF SMITH’S TRILOGY
Smith died in 2021, leaving several of his novels and other writing projects unfinished. (Read our obit/tribute.)
Yet, Smith apparently was well along in writing Ares, the next novel in the series – enough for his family (especially his daughter Rylla Smith), publisher and editors to eventually consider completing and publishing it.
At some point after his death, his publisher and editors began working on the 271-page sequel to edit and prepare it for publication.
Ares belatedly was published in 2024 as an Arc Manor book for Caezik SF & Fantasy, Smith’s publisher. (The novel is available in hardback, paperback and Kindle.)
From the publisher’s description:
“Amidst political turmoil on Earth, a rescue mission to ailing colonists on Mars becomes a battle for power and survival in the harsh realities of space.
“As humanity explores space, political strife rips apart nations and increases social divides. US President Horton Willoughby III governs only Eastern America and is seen as a political farce. Industrialist Richfield Chan sees opportunity in the fractured government and plans to seize power.
“Chan rallies allies to send a seventh colony ship to Mars, hoping to undermine the current president. The Ngu family, responsible for terraforming and mining on Pallas, realize that any rescue mission from Earth will arrive too late. Four siblings launch a rescue mission from Pallas to save the ailing colonists with their expertise and better chosen implements.
“The Ngu siblings know their mission is one-way and must teach the colonists to survive on the inhospitable planet or find a way to endure until another rescue ship arrives. The “little people” refuse to be subject to incompetent governments any longer and must make their own stand.”
THE CHALLENGES OF FINDING ELIGIBLE WORKS FOR OUR AWARD
We welcome and applaud the posthumous publication of Smith’s Ares, even though this novel regretfully seems to have been overlooked in 2024 as a legitimate potential candidate for awards nomination.
With so many thousands of SF/fantasy novels now published each year, amplified by the highly decentralized area of self-published writers, it’s become increasingly difficult for Prometheus judges and other LFS members to keep track of the fantastical and speculative genres – much less sift through all the titles to check out and read those that seem like they might fit the distinctive dual focus of our award on both liberty and literary quality.
Even so, we rarely discover eligible and worthy novels that were overlooked because we didn’t know about them in time to check them out before our annual Feb. 15 nominating deadline for the Best Novel category. (Ares is one, and I can think of only one other novel overlooked in the past few years.)
That’s why we invite publishers and authors to alert us – ideally, at least several months before a potential Prometheus candidate is published – whenever they know of a novel that might deserve consideration for our award. (Check out our awards-submission guidelines, available to read and download from the front page of the LFS website.)
And that’s why we appreciate it whenever our members, and other libertarians and SF/fantasy fans, bring to our timely attention genre works that might fit the Prometheus Awards.
ABOUT THE LFS AND PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* 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.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future.
In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a 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. This page 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.
* Watch 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 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.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
