Valued Libertarian Futurist Society member and former Prometheus Awards judge Jeff Schulman has died.
Jeff Schulman (Photo courtesy of family)
Schulman, who died unexpectedly July 18, 2025, served for years as a judge on the Prometheus Best Novel judging committee, which reads and evaluates a wide variety of candidates and nominees to select the annual slate of Best Novel finalists.
Known for his kindness, brilliance, creativity and openness to new ideas and new technology, Jeff had a passion for liberty, for the advancement of civilization and for the Libertarian Futurist Society.
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.
Barry B. Longyear (Courtesy of author)
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).
A zest for life, a sense of humor, a taste for rollicking adventure, curiosity, mystery, imagination, ingeniously varied aliens, heroic and villainous humans, a passion for justice, individual rights and other libertarian themes mark the novels and legacy of L. Neil Smith.
L. Neil Smith in the 1980s (Creative Commons license)
Smith was born May 12, 1946, and died at 75 in 2021 at his longtime home in Fort Collins, Colorado. Arguably one of the most significant libertarian novelists of the past generation or so, Neil was a writer that libertarian SF fans should remember (and consider rereading) on his birthday.
For one thing, Smith is one of only a handful of writers (most notably, along with Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Vernor Vinge and F. Paul Wilson) to win five Prometheus Awards – or more.
Although the Prometheus Blog focuses primarily on posting reviews, essays, and updates newly written for timely publication, occasionally we have the honor of reprinting an older article or speech that remains timeless.
Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)
One of the best highlights of 2024 on the blog was our reprint, as a timely Fourth of July remembrance, of a 1978 Leprecon speech by the late great Poul Anderson, one of the greatest libertarian SF/fantasy authors and a frequent Prometheus Awards winner.
Another blog highlight was an insightful addition to our occasional series on Economics in Science Fiction: LFS President William H. Stoddard’s essay on Aladdin’s Lamps, technocracy and “post-scarcity.”
Vernor Vinge at an SF con (File photo)
Finally, sparked by the passing last year of the major and widely beloved SF writer Vernor Vinge, the Prometheus Blog devoted more than one post to honoring the legacy of this brilliant and visionary author, one of only four writers to receive recognition (as Anderson did before he passed) with a Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime achievement.
As we begin a new year, with high hopes for a better and freer world, we include convenient links to all of the above stories, lest we forget.
Harlan Ellison, the late great and rebellious “bad boy” of science fiction, may be due for a major revival of his works.
Ellison, whose Hugo-winning 1965 story “’Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” was inducted in 2015 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, certainly deserves the recognition and new readership.
File 770 reports that the renewed interest in Ellison and the plans for his “posthumous comeback” are largely due to the efforts of writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski. For starters, Straczynski has edited Greatest Hits, a recently published new Ellison story collection.
And later in 2024, Straczynski plans to publish The Last Dangerous Visions – according to a Los Angeles Times story, the “long-promised, long-controversial and never-delivered” third and final volume in Ellison’s landmark anthology series of provocative short fiction.
Acclaimed SF writer Vernor Vinge (Creative Commons license)
If he had lived, Vinge would have been 80 years old.
Born Oct. 2, 1944, Vinge died in March, 2024 after struggling for several years with progressive Parkinsons disease.
Yet, Vinge is worth remembering (and likely to be well-remembered) for his consistently brilliant and often prescient science fiction – several works of which have been recognized with Prometheus Awards over the decades.
Today (July 7) is the birthday of Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers of the past century.
Robert Heinlein in the 1920s (Photo courtesy of Heinlein Trust archives)
In honor of his birthday, the Prometheus blog remembers and celebrates Heinlein (1907-1988), hailed by his peers as a Grand Master of science fiction and perhaps the most famous and widely read libertarian sf author of his era.
Heinlein also is the author most often honored and recognized with Prometheus Awards – a grand total of nine.
So it’s no surprise that the Prometheus Blog over its first seven years has posted 46 articles, reviews, essays, news stories or author’s updates about him – more than those about any other author.
Most of Heinlein’s works retain their story-telling power and prescient relevance, so today’s a good day to check out something by or about Heinlein.
V for Vendetta is one of only a handful of fiction works that have received Prometheus recognition twice – first as a graphic novel, inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, and second, as a feature film, which received a special Prometheus award.
So it’s nice to see a magazine article celebrating such popular art and exploring its resonant libertarian and anti-authoritarian themes.
Forty-two years after the initial publication of the graphic novel, Journey Planet 79, an online sf/fantasy journal, pays eloquent tribute to V for Vendetta and its creators: writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd.
For Rush fans, the recent publication of Canadian rock star Geddy Lee’s autobiography should spark interest. LFS members, currently weighing this year’s slate of Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists including the Rush fantasy song “The Trees,” should find My Effin’ Life (Harper) especially timely and intriguing.
“The ancient myth of Prometheus is not a cautionary tale. It is a reminder that technē raises human beings above brutes. It is a myth founded in gratitude.” – Virginia Postrel
Despite modern misconceptions and fears, why does the titan of Greek mythology remain a positive and inspiring symbol of freedom, hope, revolution and progress today?
Virginia Postrel – the former Reason-magazine editor and Atlantic and New York Times columnist, and notable author of the seminal The Future and Its Enemies – brilliantly but concisely challenges common contemporary misunderstandings about the Greek legend in a fascinating and insightful essay on her Substack column.
