Fiction in the news – Prometheus Blog

From Doctorow and Tchaikovsky to Nayler and Scalzi, Locus magazine’s finalists for Best Science Fiction of the year overlap with Prometheus judges’ readings of candidates, nominees and winning authors

Locus magazine has released its Locus Awards finalists for the past year’s best science fiction and fantasy – always a good list to consider for SF/fantasy fans, including LFS members.

There are some excellent novels on the Locus shortlists, based on my own wide readings this past year as a Prometheus Awards Best Novel judge – and as a lifelong SF/fantasy fan.

It’s also an interesting list to compare to the Prometheus Awards, not only in terms of potential overlaps with same-year nominees but also what novels and novelists both awards have recognized.

Continue reading From Doctorow and Tchaikovsky to Nayler and Scalzi, Locus magazine’s finalists for Best Science Fiction of the year overlap with Prometheus judges’ readings of candidates, nominees and winning authors

A new video, by a nominated author and his editor, discusses the Prometheus Best Novel nominees and 2026 finalists – with a big reveal

By Michael Grossberg

If you were nominated for a Prometheus Award for Best Novel, would you invite the world to watch you in the moment you found out whether your novel was selected among the finalists?

Novelist John C.A. Manley was willing to do that yesterday with his editor Peter Toccalino in an interesting and wide-ranging 40-minute video discussion of this year’s Best Novel nominees and finalists.

Continue reading A new video, by a nominated author and his editor, discusses the Prometheus Best Novel nominees and 2026 finalists – with a big reveal

Two Prometheus Hall of Fame classics appear on the list of singer/songwriter David Bowie’s top-100 greatest books

By Michael Grossberg

Singer-songwriter-actor David Bowie (Creative Commons license)

David Bowie is remembered as one of the past half-century’s greatest singer-songwriters.

Perhaps less well known was the extraordinary intelligence and eclectic literacy of Bowie, who died at 69 in 2016. He read widely, broadening his understanding and appreciation of the world and humanity, at its best and worst.

The Bowie Book Club has preserved a list of Bowie’s top-100 books that he read and ranked highest during his lifetime as major influences on his thinking, creativity and development of artistic tastes.

Among them are two Prometheus Hall of Fame winners for Best Classic Fiction: George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, inducted in 1984, and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, inducted in 2008.

Continue reading Two Prometheus Hall of Fame classics appear on the list of singer/songwriter David Bowie’s top-100 greatest books

Vernor Vinge and Terry Pratchett: A hidden connection between two Prometheus winners, one a master of serious SF, the other of satirical fantasy

By Michael Grossberg

Acclaimed SF writer Vernor Vinge (Creative Commons license)

Vernor Vinge wrote serious science fiction; Terry Pratchett wrote fantasy with a strong comical and satirical focus.

Terry Pratchett in 2012. (Creative Commons license)

Although each writer won more than one Prometheus Award for works that wove in libertarian and anti-authoritarian insights and themes, few of us tend to think of these two late great authors in the same breath, or any close to the same fiction or genre category.

While surely their respective fan bases overlap to some extent, even the hardest-core Pratchett and Vinge fans probably wouldn’t imagine that much else might link them – especially Fans of Vernor Vinge and Terry Pratchett, even if that fan base overlaps, probably don’t think of both authors together.

Yet, they had a strong connection in fiction, with one author favorably mentioning and imagining the future work of the other in a novel.

Continue reading Vernor Vinge and Terry Pratchett: A hidden connection between two Prometheus winners, one a master of serious SF, the other of satirical fantasy

Jo Walton on Poul Anderson: One Prometheus winner recommends another 

By Michael Grossberg

It’s great to see one widely respected sf/fantasy author in praise of another. Especially when such praise reminds us of the talents and achievements of a truly grand master of sf/fantasy who has passed but is far from forgotten.

Jo Walton tips her hat to the late great Poul Anderson in her monthly book-review column for Reactor magazine.

Walton, who won her own Prometheus Award for Ha’penny, singled out the multiple-Prometheus-winning Anderson on her recommended-reading shortlist for All One Universe, his 1996 short-story anthology.

“This collection of stories and essays is just delightful—great thought-provoking stories, and mostly interesting essays, and I loved it,” Walton writes.

Continue reading Jo Walton on Poul Anderson: One Prometheus winner recommends another 

Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi inspired by Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning novel to create “Project 451”  

By Michael Grossberg

One of the many Prometheus-winning works that continues to be widely read and referenced in popular culture for its enduring dramatic power and themes is Fahrenheit 451.

Inducted in 1984 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, Ray Bradbury’s civil-libertarian, anti-censorship and pro-reading novel envisions a dystopian future in which “firemen” burn books and literacy is suppressed, along with any memory of great literature.

While many find the novel relevant to our era, in which both free speech and the reading of books often seem threatened or in decline, few go as far as investigative reporter and media critic Matt Taibbi or as fervently.

Continue reading Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi inspired by Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning novel to create “Project 451”  

Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

By Michael Grossberg

Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy author Dave Freer understands how liberty and literacy are intimately intertwined – a frequent theme explored here on the Prometheus Blog.

As Freer explains on the Mad Genius Club blog, his commitment to encouraging literacy and younger readers was a key motivation for him to write Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel that’s one of 10 2025 novels nominated so far for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

“We need young people reading,” Freer writes.

“It’s the one way you can future-proof your kids, because it is the one thing that will make them flexible enough to cope with whatever the future throws. It will give them advantages in learning – far more than schooling will,” he said.

Continue reading Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

No Man’s Land: The epic novel that Prometheus winner Sarah Hoyt was born to write 

By Michael Grossberg

Sarah Hoyt views No Man’s Land, nominated for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel, as the epic story that she was born to write.

So what took her so long? The three-part novel required much of Hoyt’s life to gestate, mature and blossom – and therein lies another epic story.

“It’s been with me since I was 14,” Hoyt told me in an email interview.

Set in an interstellar future where humanity colonized many planets but also lost touch with some for centuries or millennia, the three-part 2025 novel blends tropes of science fiction and fantasy in intriguing ways.

Continue reading No Man’s Land: The epic novel that Prometheus winner Sarah Hoyt was born to write 

Bradbury, Heinlein, Le Guin, Vonnegut stories ranked among the 26 best SF stories by New Scientist 

By Michael Grossberg

E.M. Forster isn’t the only Prometheus-recognized author on New Scientist’s intriguing list of the 26 best science fiction/fantasy stories of all time.

Kurt Vonnegut in 1972 (Creative Commons license)

Although Forster’s “The Machine Stop” is the only story on the list specifically inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, as described in a recent Prometheus blog post, several other enduring authors have stories on the magazine’s list – just not the ones our award has recognized.

Ursula K. Le Guin (Creative Commons license)

Among those writers: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin and Kurt Vonnegut.

It’s interesting to see which of their stories are recognized by the magazine, and why.

Continue reading Bradbury, Heinlein, Le Guin, Vonnegut stories ranked among the 26 best SF stories by New Scientist 

Which Prometheus Hall of Fame winner is ranked among the best SF stories of all time?

By Michael Grossberg

If you were picking the 26 best science fiction short stories of all time, what would be on your list?

That requires some serious thought, but in the meantime, it can be helpful to check out what’s on other’s best lists.

Case in point: New Scientist magazine, whose writers recently compiled such a list – one that interestingly includes a story inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading Which Prometheus Hall of Fame winner is ranked among the best SF stories of all time?