Fiction in the news – Prometheus Blog

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” – Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable continues to resonate and inform today’s culture and commentary

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is in the news again, offering resonant metaphors that some find applicable to today’s sociopolitical culture.

Hans Christian Anderson statue in Copenhagen

Gerard Baker, a Wall Street Journal columnist, found intriguing parallels between the themes of Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable and the surprising results of the recent 2024 U.S. presidential election.

“It’s an “Emperor’s New Clothes” event for America and perhaps for the rest of the West too, an overdue recognition and repudiation of the regime of oppressive insanities we have been subjected to for a decade or more,” Baker wrote in his Wall Street Journal column.

Continue reading “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable continues to resonate and inform today’s culture and commentary

Seattle’s upcoming Worldcon pays affectionate tribute to Poul Anderson  

The late great Poul Anderson has received unexpected and positive recognition from the 2025 Worldcon, set for Seattle.

Partly in honor of the previous Seattle Worldcon in 1961, the Worldcon blog has paid tribute to Anderson’s novel The High Crusade, a 1961 Hugo finalist.

Continue reading Seattle’s upcoming Worldcon pays affectionate tribute to Poul Anderson  

Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and other Prometheus-recognized dystopian cautionary tales are popular again, post-election (but deserve a sober reading)

By Michael Grossberg

Two of the best-known Prometheus Hall of Fame winners are enjoying a surge in sales.

George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 shot up on Amazon’s best-seller list after the recent U.S. presidential election.

So did Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a 1987 Prometheus Best Novel finalist. (The Testaments, Atwood’s sequel to her classic dystopian novel, was recognized as a Best Novel finalist in 2020.)

Both Orwell’s classic and Bradbury’s classic dystopian novels were inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1984, only the second year of the Hall of Fame.

All three novels – well-worth reading (or rereading) – offer cautionary tales about the rise of various types of authoritarian or totalitarian governments that institutionalize massive violations of individual rights – from censorship to torture and mass murder.

Check out the Prometheus blog review-essay Appreciations of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Fahrenheit 451.

Continue reading Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and other Prometheus-recognized dystopian cautionary tales are popular again, post-election (but deserve a sober reading)

Is Harlan Ellison due for a revival? J. Michael Straczynski is working to make it so

By Michael Grossberg

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.

Continue reading Is Harlan Ellison due for a revival? J. Michael Straczynski is working to make it so

Orwell’s fable Animal Farm ruefully hailed as relevant to today’s sociopolitical trends 

By Michael Grossberg

George Orwell. (Creative Commons license)

Perhaps the most commonly referenced Prometheus-winning author over the past decade or two in sociopolitical discourse is George Orwell.

Yet, virtually all the commentary, editorial columns and essays mentioning Orwell tend to focus exclusively on Nineteen Eighty-Four, his classic dystopian novel inducted early on into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Far fewer articles reference Orwell’s evocative fable Animal Farm – yet that deceptively simple animal fable explores profound themes and deeper truths that are just as relevant to today’s dismal authoritarian trends on the extreme Left and Right.

Continue reading Orwell’s fable Animal Farm ruefully hailed as relevant to today’s sociopolitical trends 

Is “book-banning” the same as censorship or book-burning? How Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning classic Fahrenheit 451 figures in current debates

By Michael Grossberg

The late great Ray Bradbury memorably dramatized the dangers of censorship and book-burning in Fahrenheit 451.

Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning 1953 novel, inducted in 1984 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, is occasionally brought up as a cautionary tale in contemporary discussions about freedom of expression, censorship, school libraries and what books are appropriate for students of different ages to read.

Fahrenheit 451 is referenced anew in an interesting Thinkspot column that challenges common media reporting about “book bans” in government-run schools and libraries across the country.

But do the lessons of Fahrenheit 451 truly apply?

Is “book banning” tantamount to book-burning and other forms of State-enforced censorship?

Continue reading Is “book-banning” the same as censorship or book-burning? How Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning classic Fahrenheit 451 figures in current debates

Check out the Atlas Society’s animated Atlas Shrugged video

Have you seen the Atlas Society’s animated video highlighting Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged?

The video, which has received more than 600,000 viewings on You Tube, is billed as the “first-of-its-kind book trailer for Rand’s masterpiece novel.”

Continue reading Check out the Atlas Society’s animated Atlas Shrugged video

Columnist Ed West on Eugene Zamyatin, author of the first classic dystopian novel of the 20th century

By Michael Grossberg

When it comes to the birth and development of dystopian literature, Russian dissident writer Eugene (Yevgeny) Zamyatin may have the dubious distinction of being one of the most overlooked novelists of that disturbingly timely and emerging 20^th-century genre.

Zamyatin’s We was the first dystopian novel of the 20^thcentury, helping to pave the way for others, most notably George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four and Ayn Rand’s similarly-themed Anthem.

Yet, sadly, references to Zamyatin are rare in today’s culture, media and magazines.

So it’s nice to see an insightful column that not only mentions Zamyatin but offers revealing commentary about his fiction and places him within the historical and literary context of Russia in the early 1900s.

Continue reading Columnist Ed West on Eugene Zamyatin, author of the first classic dystopian novel of the 20th century

SF magazine explores the enduring themes of V for Vendetta

By Michael Grossberg

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.

Continue reading SF magazine explores the enduring themes of V for Vendetta

Prometheus finalist Three Body Problem inspires two TV series with a classic sf “sense of wonder”

The Three-Body Problem, a 2015 Prometheus Best Novel finalist and landmark international bestseller by Chinese sf novelist Liu Cixin, has now inspired not one but two TV series worth watching.

Three Body, available free with Amazon Prime, is a 30-episode Chinese series. Netflix also has tackled its own TV-series adaptation of Cixin’s epic novel with a recent eight-episode first season.

Leading libertarian thinker Virginia Postrel has praised both TV series as good SF, along with the English translation of the novel.

“All three versions produce the sense of wonder that is science fiction’s—especially hard science fiction’s—traditional appeal. The stories take place on a grand scale and are propelled by mind-expanding scientific ideas,” Postrel wrote in her “Virginia’s Newsletter” Substack column on “3 Three Body Problems and the Appeal of Science Fiction.”

Continue reading Prometheus finalist Three Body Problem inspires two TV series with a classic sf “sense of wonder”