Victor Koman, a veteran libertarian sf writer who’s won three Prometheus Awards for Best Novel, has agreed to speak and be a presenter at the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
Koman will present the Best Novel category at the online Zoom ceremony, tentatively planned for a Saturday afternoon in mid- to late August.
The Prometheus Awards are distinctive among literature-oriented awards, including within the sf/fantasy field, for having a dual focus – on both overall literary quality and on libertarian/anti-authoritarian ideas.
As LFS awards press releases summarize and define our award:
“The Prometheus Awards recognize outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that dramatize the perennial conflict between liberty and power and champion cooperation over coercion as the root of civility and social harmony.
Such works may critique or satirize authoritarian trends, expose abuses of power by the institutionalized coercion of the State, imagine what forms a fully free society might take, and/or uphold individual rights and freedom for all as the only moral and practical foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, civility and civilization itself.
Here are capsule descriptions of the Best Novel finalists, explaining how each fits our awards’ distinctive focus:
Two writers have been recognized for the first time within the Prometheus Awards’ 45-year history as Best Novel finalists. Three other Best Novel finalist authors have been recognized more than once before in that annual category – and one is a previous Prometheus winner.
Moreover, in a relatively rare occurrence for the Prometheus Awards, not all Best Novel finalists this year fall within the genre of science fiction; one happens to fit the fantasy genre.
Devon Eriksen, Karl K. Gallagher, Gordon Hanka, Howard Andrew Jones and Daniel Suarez have each written a 2023 novel that’s been selected by Prometheus judges as a 2024 Best Novel finalist.
The Libertarian Futurist Society has a vivid new logo.
Actually, we now have an attractive suite of logos.
Let us know what you think of the new logo, which is available in four versions for official LFS usage.
Continue reading Libertarian Futurist Society unveils new logo
Here is the fifth and final part of the Prometheus Blog guide to the 2024 Prometheus nominees for Best Novel.
These capsule descriptions – alphabetized by author, and concluding with Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass, Steve Wire’s Black Hats, Fenton Wood’s Hacking Galileo and Alan Zimm’s Misperceived Threats – aim to make clear why LFS members nominated them for the next Prometheus Award and how they fit the distinctive dual focus of our award, at once literary and thematic.
While the 12-member Prometheus Best Novel finalist-judging committee won’t vote to select a slate of finalists from the 17 nominees until April, other Libertarian Futurist Society members are invited to begin reading the nominees that spark their interest.
* A mythologized historical fable of the cyclic struggle for civilization by a world-renowned British-born Indian-American novelist.
* An Afrofuturist science-fiction story of oligarchy and resistance by an African-born and American-raised writer.
* And the latest sequel in a post-apocalyptic dystopian wild-west Texas saga of genetic manipulation and individualistic resilience by a Texas writer.
Those are just three of 17 wide-ranging sf/fantasy novels published in 2023 and nominated for the next Prometheus Award – a sample of the remarkable variety in subjects, themes, genres and styles possible in stories that explore in different ways pro-liberty, anti-tyranny, anti-slavery or other anti-authoritarian themes.
Here is Part 4 of the Prometheus Blog guide to the Best Novel nominees, with capsule descriptions to whet your appetite for Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, C.T. Rwizi’s House of Gold and R.H. Snow’s Trail of Travail.
Here is Part 3 of the Prometheus Blog guide to this year’s Best Novel nominees, an effort to illuminate why LFS members nominated 17 2023 sf/fantasy novels for the next Prometheus Award.
These capsule descriptions also aim to highlight the diverse range of novels nominated while outlining how each nominee fits the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards.
The nominees highlighted in Part 3, alphabetized by author, include Naomi Kritzer’s Liberty’s Daughter, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, and Sandra Newman’s Julia.
What makes an sf/fantasy novel eligible for nomination for a Prometheus Award?
How many different types of genres, styles and themes can fit the distinctive dual focus of the Prometheus Award – at once literary in quality and thematic in libertarian/anti-authoritarian substance?
To help illuminate such questions anew, the Prometheus Blog is presenting a series of posts offering capsule descriptions of the 17 2023 novels nominated for the 44th Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
We hope this guide will help the public better understand the specific focus and broad scope of our award, one of the oldest continually presented after the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
In addition, we hope these descriptions will stimulate interest in reading these diverse novels among Libertarian Futurist Society members, other freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans and the general public.
Part Two includes capsule descriptions, alphabetized by author, of four Best Novel nominees: Devon Eriksen’s Theft of Fire, Karl K. Gallagher’s Swim Among the People, Dr. Insensitive Jerk’s God’s Girlfriend, and Howard Andrew Jones’ Lord of a Shattered Land.
Some are science fiction, some fantasies, while several bid to become classics of dystopian literature.
Many are dramatic and suspenseful, some heroic or inspirational, and a few are comical or outright satirical.
Some novels are set in the distant future, some in the near future, some in ancient eras or mythologized histories and one in an alternate history.
While quite a few are sequels, some launch promising new series – and seven appear to be self-contained, stand-alone works with a beginning, middle and satisfying end.
This year’s bountiful crop of Prometheus Best Novel nominees, whose titles and authors were recently announced in this blog, display a remarkable range of genres, themes and styles.
Libertarian Futurist Society members have made 17 nominations for the Best Novel category of the next Prometheus Award.
Of the authors whose works are nominated, a majority are being recognized for the first time by the LFS and the Prometheus Awards.
Ten novelists are being recognized for the first time with Prometheus nominations. Listed in alphabetical order, those authors are Stephen Albrecht, Devon Eriksen, Howard Andrew Jones, Naomi Kritzer, Paul Lynch, Sandra Newman, Salman Rushdie, C. T. Rwizi, Fenton Wood and Alan Zimm.
