By Michael Grossberg
Once again, the Prometheus Blog has posted a record annual number of articles, reviews, essays, trend pieces, interviews, author updates, progress reports and awards news. For the eighth consecutive year since the blog replaced our former printed quarterly newsletter in 2017, the Libertarian Futurist Society has increased the number of articles on our blog – a long-term goal.
By the last day of 2025, we anticipate having posted 120 articles, many quite substantive. That’s roughly double the number we posted in 2021 – raising the visibility of the Prometheus Awards, educating the public about libertarian sf/fantasy and enriching discussions and debate among LFS members about the relative merits of Prometheus Award nominees and finalists, and enhancing our awards process as we choose the winners each year. But which articles ranked among the most notable of the year?
Sadly, some of the most timely and poignant stories we wrote in 2025 were obits – marking the passing of several notable writers who demonstrated a passionate love of liberty – including Tom Stoppard, Barry Longyear, Howard Andrew Jones and Leslie Fish.
PASSINGS AND TRIBUTES
It was a tough year for freedom-loving authors and their fans.
Among those who died and were remembered on our blog:
* Barry Longyear, the Hugo and Nebula-winning sf author (Enemy Mine) and an avowed libertarian who won the 2021 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The Hook, one of the most explicitly libertarian works to win a Prometheus award.
* Leslie Fish, a veteran SF-convention speaker and folksinger who won a 2014 Special Prometheus Award for her fantasy novella “Tower of Horses” and a related filk song “The Horsetamer’s Daughter”
* Beloved sword-and-sorcery author Howard Andrew Jones, a 2024 Best Novel finalist for Lord of a Shattered Land, the first volume in his projected five-novel ancient-history fantasy series the Chronicles of Hanuvar (now left with only the first three published novels.)
* World-renowned Czech-British writer Tom Stoppard, a Tony-winning playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter (Shakespeare in Love). Less well known as an avowed libertarian, Stoppard often wrote in the sf/fantasy genre – perhaps most notably, co-writing the screenplay for Terry Gilliam’s dystopian sf film comedy Brazil.
* Jeff Schulman, a LFS member and Best Novel judge who died unexpectedly, and way too young.
UPDATES ON AUTHORS AND THEIR NEXT BOOKS
On a happier note, the Prometheus Blog continued to inform our members and readers with newsworthy author’s updates.
Among the Prometheus-recognized writers that we highlighted in news notes about their new and upcoming books and stories: Best Novel winners Travis Corcoran, Sarah Hoyt (twice; see here and here) and Daniel Suarez and Best Novel finalist Devon Eriksen (who’s getting close to finishing his long-awaited sequel to Theft of Fire).
Stay tuned in 2026 for more author’s updates – and hopefully, few if any obits, as well as a better, freer and healthier year for all.
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE 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 international 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.
Barry Longyear’s Enemy Mine was one of favourite SF stories when I was a teenager — didn’t know he was libertarian. I’ve add The Hook to me to-read list.