Author: Michael Grossberg

Michael Grossberg, who founded the LFS in 1982 to help sustain the Prometheus Awards, has been an arts critic, speaker and award-winning journalist for five decades. Michael has won Ohio SPJ awards for Best Critic in Ohio and Best Arts Reporting (seven times). He's written for Reason, Libertarian Review and Backstage weekly; helped lead the American Theatre Critics Association for two decades; and has contributed to six books, including critical essays for the annual Best Plays Theatre Yearbook and an afterword for J. Neil Schulman's novel The Rainbow Cadenza. Among books he recommends from a libertarian-futurist perspective: Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist & How Innovation Works, David Boaz's The Libertarian Mind and Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress.

Imagining Travis Corcoran’s two Prometheus-winning Aristillus novels as movies on an IMAX screen


By Michael Grossberg

Which Prometheus Award winners would you like to see on screen someday?

Travis Corcoran wins his first Prometheus Award (photo courtesy of author)

So far, 17 Prometheus Award-winners have been adapted with varying degrees of success to the large or small screen or have been recognized as original movies – including George Orwell’s Animal Farm, most recently adapted for the third time into a 2026 animated film.

When I asked my fellow Prometheus Best Novel judges which other winning works they most yearn to see made into a movie or TV series, Lowell Jacobsen chose two related novels by the same author: Travis Corcoran.

Continue reading Imagining Travis Corcoran’s two Prometheus-winning Aristillus novels as movies on an IMAX screen


The Orwell Prize fiction finalists reflect dual focus on both style and content, like the Prometheus Awards

By Michael Grossberg

Not everyone is familiar with the British-based Orwell Prizes, which recently announced their slate of 2026 finalists.

Sponsored and administrated by The Orwell Foundation in the United Kingdom, the prizes aim to recognize work that comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition “to make political writing into art.”

Orwell certainly achieved that goal with his most widely acclaimed and enduring novels Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both later inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction. So it’s nice to see another award honoring Orwell’s spirit.

Continue reading The Orwell Prize fiction finalists reflect dual focus on both style and content, like the Prometheus Awards

L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach: The Prometheus winner that one Best Novel judge dreams of seeing on screen someday


By Michael Grossberg

It’s relatively rare for a Prometheus-winning work of pro-freedom science fiction or fantasy to be adapted into a movie or for television. But that happened this year, with the recent 2026 release of an animated film of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, inducted in 2011 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

While the misconceived third film version of Orwell’s anti-authoritarian and anti-communist classic fable proved disappointing, our hopes remain high for more Prometheus-winning novels or stories to be filmed – and some are already in the works.

Meanwhile, sparked by this year’s film release, I asked Libertarian Futurist Society members I work with as fellow Best Novel judges which Prometheus-winning works they’d like to see on screen.

Adam Tuchman’s top choice is The Probability Broach, L. Neil Smith’s alternate-history SF novel that won the 1982 Best Novel award.

Continue reading L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach: The Prometheus winner that one Best Novel judge dreams of seeing on screen someday


Richard Salman’s unusually insightful review of the flawed new Animal Farm film illuminates George Orwell’s thinking and goals in writing his 1945 satirical fable


By Michael Grossberg

Of the many reviews of the flawed new film version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, perhaps the most insightful is one that broadens its critique to examine Orwell himself.

Richard M. Salsman, an economist and visiting assistant professor of political economy at Duke University, goes deeper than most other writers in contextualizing Andy Serkis’ widely panned animated film version.

With disturbing clarity, Salsman explains how Orwell’s evolving views led him to reverse his initial conception of Animal Farm as a critique of capitalism – but also how the British democratic socialist remained faithful to some of his deepest underlying assumptions.

This is a powerfully illuminating review and essay that deserves to be read in full at The Daily Economy, a publication of the American Institute for Economic Research.

But I also want to highlight some of Salman’s key insights, because they are so relevant to the themes and world view that shape the Prometheus Awards.

Continue reading Richard Salman’s unusually insightful review of the flawed new Animal Farm film illuminates George Orwell’s thinking and goals in writing his 1945 satirical fable


The rewards of patience: The Prometheus Hall of Fame’s track record of recognition and frequent renominations

By Michael Grossberg

Patience can be a virtue – especially when it comes to nominations for the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Not all works that become Hall of Fame finalists or winners do so in the first year that they are nominated. But that’s never a permanent obstacle to recognition, because in this annual Prometheus category, Libertarian Futurist Society members benefit from the luxury of time.

If at first a work is overlooked or doesn’t rank high enough to become a finalist, it can be nominated and renominated in future years.

Continue reading The rewards of patience: The Prometheus Hall of Fame’s track record of recognition and frequent renominations

Calling for nominations for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame – and outside suggestions


It’s time to begin considering what’s worth nominating for potential induction into the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Even as Libertarian Futurist Society members are voting to select the 2026 Hall of Fame winner from the current slate of finalists, it’s not too early to nominate eligible works for the 2027 Hall of Fame.

Only LFS members have the right to nominate works for any category of the Prometheus Award. However, publishers, authors and other SF/fantasy fans and libertarians are welcome to contact us to make suggestions.

Continue reading Calling for nominations for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame – and outside suggestions


Read our reviews of this year’s Best Novel finalists by Freer, Gallagher, Hoyt, Pierce and Turtledove


By Michael Grossberg

As a guide to Prometheus Awards voting, the Prometheus Blog has once again published full-length and in-depth reviews of each of this year’s five Best Novel finalists.

Here, for your convenience, are the embedded links to the reviews of the five Best Novel finalists:  Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon, Sarah Hoyt’s No Man’s Land, J. Kenton Pierce’s A Kiss for Damocles), Karl K. Gallagher’s War By Other Means and Harry Turtledove’s Powerless.

Whether Libertarian Futurist Society members read the reviews (which do contain a few spoilers) before, during or after reading the finalists themselves, the reviews are designed to illuminate and raise the visibility of each novel.

Other SF/fantasy fans and other libertarians, outside the LFS, also are invited to check out the reviews to better understand how they fit the distinctive dual focus of the Prometheus Awards on both quality and liberty.

Continue reading Read our reviews of this year’s Best Novel finalists by Freer, Gallagher, Hoyt, Pierce and Turtledove


The Man in the White Suit: One of the great libertarian film comedies – with a sci-fi premise


By Michael Grossberg

Before he became best known to younger generations as Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, British actor Alec Guinness was known in part for his comedies.

Guinness made his name in six Ealing Studios film comedies between 1949 and 1957, most notably playing eight characters in Kind Hearts and Coronets and lead roles in The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit. The latter film, released in 1951, has a deserved reputation as one of the great movie comedies of its era. It also happens to be both libertarian and individualist in its wry themes.

Not only that: The Man in the White Suit has an ingenious plot whose premise is clearly science fiction, making the film of even greater interest to the Libertarian Futurist Society.

Continue reading The Man in the White Suit: One of the great libertarian film comedies – with a sci-fi premise


‘The Tower and the Ruin’ and other Tolkien Society Award winners recognize the enduring influence of The Lord of The Rings and related works


By Michael Grossberg

Recognized in the Prometheus Awards as a classic for its cautionary libertarian theme about how power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts even the good, The Lord of the Rings has become one of the most popular and enduring works of modern fiction.

Yet, I hadn’t fully grasped until recently just how enduring and influential J.R.R. Tolkien and his bestselling works have become to modern culture.

So many books and articles analyzing Tolkien’s life and fiction have been published and continue to appear that the Tolkien Society, founded in 1969, is able to sustain annual awards with full slates of finalists in several categories.

Perhaps the most significant work recognized is The Tower and the Ruin, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Creation, by Michael Trout, which won the 2026 Tolkien Society Award for Best Book. Continue reading ‘The Tower and the Ruin’ and other Tolkien Society Award winners recognize the enduring influence of The Lord of The Rings and related works


A historic first: The Pope quotes a Prometheus-winning classic (and it makes sense that it’s Tolkien)


By Michael Grossberg

A Pope has quoted a Prometheus-winning classic in an encyclical letter.

So far as I can tell, that seems to be a first.

Pope Leo XIV (Creative Commons license)

The American Pope Leo XIV has quoted the British author J.R.R. Tolkien in his latest papal encyclical, published May 15, 2026: “On Safeguarding The Human Person In The Time Of Artificial Intelligence.”

The Pope quotes a powerful and wise statement by Gandalf from The Return of the King, the third volume of The Lord of the Rings. Libertarian Futurist Society members inducted the trilogy in 2009 into our Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading A historic first: The Pope quotes a Prometheus-winning classic (and it makes sense that it’s Tolkien)