By Michael Grossberg
Barry B. Longyear (1942-2025) has passed.
The prolific sf author, who won the 2021 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The War Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook, died May 6 at the age of 82.
Longyear is perhaps best known for “Enemy Mine,” an sf story about a risky confrontation but ultimately life-saving friendship between a human pilot and an alien fighter stranded on a harsh and distant planet.
“Enemy Mine,” part of Longyear’s first story collection Manifest Destiny, achieved the rare feat of science fiction’s Triple Crown by winning a Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award.
According to an obituary/tribute in Mike Glyer’s File 770, “fans sealed their approval of his amazing output by voting Barry the John W. Campbell Award as best new writer in 1980 (now the Astounding Award).
THE LIBERTARIAN THEMES OF THE HOOK
The File 770 tribute is thorough, noting that Longyear’s “other award-winning work” was The Hook, which “received the Prometheus Award.”
An excellent example of “social science fiction,” a subgenre primarily focused on imagining how new socio-political ideas or practices might affect society just as much or more as technology, The Hook explores what happens to a society when its government is abolished – but other governments continue to threaten its freedom and independence.
In short, Longyear, an avowed libertarian, explores in his explicitly libertarian novel a key real-world question: How can we fight tyranny without losing our liberty?
OTHER PROMETHEUS-NOMINATED LONGYEAR NOVELS
The Hook was the fourth Longyear novel nominated for the Prometheus Award for Best Novel, following Circus World, The Tomorrow Testament and Infinity Hold – the latter honored as a 1990 Best Novel finalist.
The complete Infinity Hold trilogy, about the first police officer on a planet run by inmates dumped there from all corners of the galaxy, includes Infinity Hold, Kill All the Lawyers and Keep the Law.
The trilogy charts the development of a society without police or government as the violent convicts learn to survive and cooperate in a newly forged society.
THE ENEMY MINE FILM – AND LATER TRILOGY
Referencing Enemy Mine, adapted into a 1985 sci-fi adventure film starring Dennis Quaid as a spaceship pilot and Louis Gossett Jr. as an alien enemy fighter, the obit notes that Longyear was “not a fan of the 1985 film adaptation” and was prone to identify himself as “the author of ‘Enemy Mine’ – which there was an attempt to make into a movie.”
Longyear later greatly expanded his story and wrote two related novels – The Tomorrow Testament and The Last Enemy – to complete his Enemy Mine trilogy. They were published with additional materials as The Enemy Papers.
Recently Disney purchased the film rights for the next three books, according to the family obituary.
LONGYEAR’S CIRCUS WORLD TRILOGY
Longyear wrote three books in the popular Circus World series, which chronicles the adventures of a space-going circus troupe after their spaceship crashes on a deserted planet, leaving them to develop their own free and independent culture without contact with the outside world.
Circus World, a collection of linked stories about a stateless libertarian society on a planet colonized by circus people, was a 2022 Prometheus Hall of Fame finalist for Best Classic Fiction.
The City of Baraboo, Longyear’s first Circus World sequel, centers on The Last Show on Earth finding a way to survive by taking to the stars and playing other planets.
Elephant Song, the bittersweet but valiant finale of the trilogy, focuses on members of the interstellar circus when their ship is sabotaged. Abandoned and scattered across an alien world, the survivors must find a way to preserve their way of life and find meaning in their traditions.
All three novels dramatize the importance of a unifying culture and honorable traditions in supporting and sustaining a healthy society – with respect for law and basic rights but without the potential abuses of power that come with the institutionalized coercion of the State.
Longyear also wrote the Sea of Glass series, SF & fantasy novels, recovery and writing instruction works, and numerous short stories.
A MAN OF CHARACTER AND PASSION
The family obituary highlights Longyear’s many accomplishments and qualities in his personal life:
“…Barry and Regina married and were together for 58 years. They shared love, understanding, ideals, and values – a real partnership in joy and sorrow. They made their home in Maine and found many close friends in their community. Barry’s immense talents provided enjoyment for his friends and countless fans: writing, painting, acting, carpentry, wood carving, and stonework. He was known for his intelligence, kindness, and sense of humor which could verge on the sardonic but was always witty…
“In 1981 he entered St. Mary’s in Minneapolis where he began his recovery from substance use disorder. He remained clean and sober until his death. He founded the oldest continuously meeting Narcotics Anonymous (NA) group in Maine, the Dragon Slayers in Farmington, Maine, in 1982. His passion was for the newcomer. When a new person arrived, his whole heart and soul embraced them and hoped for them. If they did not come back, he was deeply grieved, thinking, “That person is going back to the nightmare.” For other recovering addicts, he was always ready with a hug, encouragement, a gold nugget from his treasure house of ever-accumulating wisdom.”
ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS
* 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 in 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.
