Awards history – Prometheus Blog

The Locus rave review of Michael Flynn’s last novel – with a remarkable apology – may signal a broader re-evaluation of the three-time Prometheus winner 

Winning literary awards and receiving rave reviews can boost the careers of novelists, by raising their visibility and enhancing their reputation. That’s sadly no longer fully possible for the late great Michael Flynn.

Michael Flynn, a three-time Prometheus Best Novel winner (Creative Commons license)

Flynn, who died in 2023 at 75, recently was announced in an LFS press release as the 2025 winner of the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for In the Belly of the Whale.

His epic social novel, a sobering drama about challenges and conflicts among the crew on a vast colony ship two centuries into a projected eight-century voyage to settle Tau Ceti, was the last novel Flynn wrote before his death.

Published in 2024 by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, Flynn’s novel has garnered some attention – especially an extraordinary review in Locus magazine (excerpted below) that amounts to a mea culpa for previously overlooking and underestimating Flynn.

Yet, both during his five-decade writing career and after his passing, Flynn has not garnered as much attention and appreciation from other critics and mainstream publications as I think the author and his last book deserve.

Shahid Mahmud, CAEZIK founder-publisher and a huge enthusiast for Flynn’s fiction, agrees. Mahmud tells me that he considers Flynn one of the most underestimated science fiction writers of his generation.

Continue reading The Locus rave review of Michael Flynn’s last novel – with a remarkable apology – may signal a broader re-evaluation of the three-time Prometheus winner 

Michael Flynn, now a three-time Prometheus winner, wins posthumous Best Novel recognition for In the Belly of the Whale

By Michael Grossberg

For the first time in Prometheus Awards history, our annual Best Novel award has gone to a posthumous work.

Novelist Michael Flynn at an sf convention several decades ago (File photo)

Michael Flynn, who died in 2023 at 75, was able to finish writing In the Belly of the Whale before his passing.

CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, a strong supporter of Flynn’s work, published Flynn’s last novel in 2024.

The epic science fiction novel, a suspenseful and insightful exploration of the complex challenges, conflicts and threats to liberty aboard a large colony ship two centuries into a projected eight-century voyage to Tau Ceti, has now won the 2025 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Continue reading Michael Flynn, now a three-time Prometheus winner, wins posthumous Best Novel recognition for In the Belly of the Whale

The deep connection between literacy and liberty, and our gratitude to LFS members who read and judge our annual awards

“Back in Homer’s day, people lived within an oral culture, then humans slowly developed a literate culture. Now we seem to be moving to a screen culture. Civilization was fun while it lasted.” – David Brooks

By Michael Grossberg

Liberty and literacy.

Both are admirable goals and crucial civilized values – and something to respect and remember as we celebrate Independence Day on July 4.

Both are difficult to achieve consistently and sustain over generations. And both, in my view, are deeply connected. In the long run, one may not be possible without the other.

Whether one studies history or philosophy, it becomes clear that the spread of literacy and the spread of liberty are deeply interwoven – and perhaps inextricably intertwined.

In the 21st century, when millions of people average three hours or more on their smartphones daily, most people claim they don’t have time to read. That’s a shame – and perhaps also a long-range problem for our civilization.

Certainly, reading is necessary to educate oneself in liberty and the liberal arts – and crucial to the Prometheus Awards.

While reading can be deeply rewarding, it’s also time-consuming, which is why the Libertarian Futurist Society wishes to express its gratitude to all of this past year’s LFS members and Prometheus Awards judges.

Continue reading The deep connection between literacy and liberty, and our gratitude to LFS members who read and judge our annual awards

Sequels, part 4: While few sequels surpass their originals, three Prometheus Best Novel winners by Doctorow, Walton and Stephenson offer rich rewards

By Michael Grossberg

Let’s face it: Most sequels don’t measure up to the originals. Yet, when they meet – or surpass – expectations while offering further satisfactions in their own right, sequels deserve recognition.

While quite a large number of sequel novels have been nominated for a Prometheus Award over the past 46 years, only a fraction have gone on to become Best Novel finalists. Even fewer have won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel – by my count, 10 novels, all worth reading or rereading.

That’s especially impressive, since most novels fall short in various ways, reflecting the iron law of mediocrity. As the great SF short-story writer Theodore Sturgeon put it, in what came to be called Sturgeon’s Law: “90% of everything is crap.”

Beyond the general requirements of solid storytelling, strong characters, propulsive plots and believable settings that apply to all literature, writing a sequel poses additional challenges – especially in finding and delivering the tricky balance between the fondly familiar and the excitingly fresh.

Fans of the original work tend to expect more in a sequel – more of the same pleasures they had in reading the first book, in part. Yet, whether they realize it consciously or not, fans also yearn to broaden their reading experience with new dimensions of narrative, character, setting, world-building and themes.

If you’re a lifelong SF/fantasy fan like me, you want a good novel or sequel to expand your imagination and deepen the intensity of your identification, empathy and emotion while reading it. This blog post will describe three sequel novels by Prometheus-winning writers that in my view fulfill such hopes.

Continue reading Sequels, part 4: While few sequels surpass their originals, three Prometheus Best Novel winners by Doctorow, Walton and Stephenson offer rich rewards

Sequels, part 3: Many have been nominated, but only a select few have won a Prometheus award for Best Novel 

By Michael Grossberg

How often are sequels nominated for Best Novel? And of those, how many go on to become Best Novel finalists? Or winners?

A lot, actually – and more than I initially recalled.

In this ongoing Prometheus Blog analysis of the number of sequels that have won over 46 years in the Best Novel category, I discovered several surprising patterns.

The subject of sequels is timely, with four sequels of the 11 2024 novels nominated this year for Best Novel and two sequel novels going on to become Best Novel finalists.

That sounds like a lot, but it’s not anywhere close to a Prometheus Awards record.

Continue reading Sequels, part 3: Many have been nominated, but only a select few have won a Prometheus award for Best Novel 

Sequels, part 2: How many have won a Prometheus Award? You might be surprised… 

By Michael Grossberg

Just how many sequels have won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel?

More than you might expect, as I recently discovered.

Continue reading Sequels, part 2: How many have won a Prometheus Award? You might be surprised… 

Exploring the appeal and challenge of sequels with four Prometheus nominees: Machine Vendetta, Shadow of the Smoking Mountain and Best Novel finalists Alliance Unbound and Beggar’s Sky 

By Michael Grossberg

Sequels are increasingly popular these days – especially within the fantastical or speculative genres of science fiction and fantasy.

Among this year’s recently announced five Prometheus Best Novel finalists are two sequels: Alliance Unbound and Beggar’s Sky.

Of the 11 2024 SF/fantasy novels nominated for this year’s 45th Best Novel award, four are sequels – including Shadow of the Smoking Mountain and Machine Vendetta.

Each sequel navigates a tricky balance between the fresh and the familiar.

Each can be enjoyed by newcomers as a stand-alone book. Yet, each is enriched by previous world-building and continuing characters that makes them rewarding for the author’s ongoing fans.

How each novel builds on its predecessors, or in some cases departs from them, varies in ways that help illuminate the appeal of sequels and their challenges.

Continue reading Exploring the appeal and challenge of sequels with four Prometheus nominees: Machine Vendetta, Shadow of the Smoking Mountain and Best Novel finalists Alliance Unbound and Beggar’s Sky 

What might have more lasting impact than a Prometheus award? (Or, what happened when I googled Rudyard Kipling’s “As Easy as A.B.C.”) 

By Michael Grossberg

Sometimes, a review of a good novel can have a lasting impact, even more than an award or award nomination – something to ponder as we begin a new year of the blog and of the Prometheus Awards.

Perhaps that might seem counterintuitive or even heretical, when it comes to the Prometheus Awards and its 45-year-old track record of more than 100 winners – 106 at last count, including 46 in the Best Novel category, 48 in the Best Classic Fiction category and 12 Special Awards.

Yet, that thought was sparked recently by what happened when I was rereading Rudyard Kipling’s 1912 story “As Easy as A.B.C.” – one of four classic works selected as finalists for the Prometheus Hall of Fame – and decided to research it further via Google.

When I googled the words “Rudyard Kipling and “As Easy as A.B.C.,” guess what popped up rather high on the Google web links?

Continue reading What might have more lasting impact than a Prometheus award? (Or, what happened when I googled Rudyard Kipling’s “As Easy as A.B.C.”) 

See the video of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Daniel Suarez and Victor Koman, Reason’s Bob Poole and LFS leaders

How can science fiction and fantasy help people envision a freer, better future?

Can a grippingly realistic novel about near-future space commercialization play a role in transforming dreams of such progress into scientific and economic fact?

How important is humor in exposing and surviving oppression and tyranny?

Such are among the fascinating and fertile questions explored by SF authors and freedom-loving SF/fantasy fans during the recent 44th annual Prometheus Awards ceremony.

Airing live Aug. 25, 2024, the half-hour-long ceremony honored Daniel Suarez, winner of the 2024 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Critical Mass; and the late great Terry Pratchett, whose comic-fantasy Discworld novel The Truth was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading See the video of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, with speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Daniel Suarez and Victor Koman, Reason’s Bob Poole and LFS leaders

2024 Prometheus Awards: Best Novel presenter Victor Koman’s speech on mortality, the awards’ longevity, the diversification of publishing and the future of liberty 

Victor Koman, a veteran libertarian SF writer, had the honor of presenting the Best Novel category Sunday at the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony.

Prometheus-winning novelist Victor Koman in 2019 Photo courtesy of Koman

Who better to fulfill that role than Koman, one of very few writers to win as many as three Prometheus awards for Best Novel?

Here, for the record, is the transcript of Koman’s speech.

Continue reading 2024 Prometheus Awards: Best Novel presenter Victor Koman’s speech on mortality, the awards’ longevity, the diversification of publishing and the future of liberty 