Today, Oct. 2, is Vernor Vinge’s birthday.
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.
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.
The Prometheus Blog continues its Appreciation series with an essay-review describing how Terry Pratchett’s The Truth, the 2024 inductee into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, fits the focus of the Prometheus Award.
The truth shall make you free.
And The Truth shall make you laugh, while sparking a better appreciation of freedom – especially freedom of the press.
Terry Pratchett’s comic fantasy, winner of the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction, tells a smart, sly and ultimately inspirational tale of underdogs seeking the truth against formidable opposition.
Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, the Prometheus Blog is posting a variety of reports and the full texts of all speeches – including LFS President William H. Stoddard’s overview of the history and focus of the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
The Libertarian Futurist Society began giving Hall of Fame Awards in 1982, with awards to two libertarian classics: Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a key work for the emergence of the modern day libertarian movement, and Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the foundational work of libertarian science fiction and still one of its best.
In recent years, as earlier Prometheus Award nominees have become old enough to be regarded as classics, we’ve adopted a requirement that Hall of Fame nominees must have been published at least twenty years ago, and must not have won the Best Novel award.
Editor’s note: The Prometheus Blog is posting the texts of the inspirational and insightful speeches presented Aug. 25, 2024, during the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony.
LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg’s speech discusses the award’s Best Novel track record and introduced three-time Prometheus Best Novel winner Victor Koman, who presented the Best Novel category.
The Prometheus Awards, one of the oldest fan-based sf/fantasy awards after the Hugos and Nebulas, are unique in recognizing speculative fiction that dramatizes the perennial conflict between liberty and power.
That includes not only science fiction and fantasy, but also alternate history, mythology, fable, horror and near-future high-tech thrillers, so long as they explore the possibilities of a freer and better future based on voluntary cooperation and exchange instead of institutionalized coercion and tyranny.
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.
By Michael Grossberg
Fans of acclaimed fantasy writer Howard Andrew Jones and SF writer Ken MacLeod have been saddened by bad news from both Prometheus-recognized authors.
Jones, a 2024 Prometheus Best Novel finalist, has announced that he has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Meanwhile, MacLeod, a three-time Prometheus winner for Best Novel, lost his beloved wife Carol last month.
Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, the Prometheus Blog is posting a variety of reports and the full texts of all the speeches.
Here are the remarks of LFS President William H. Stoddard, a long-time Terry Pratchett fan. Stoddard stepped in to accept the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame for the late great Pratchett (1948-2015), whose Discworld comic-fantasy novel The Truth was inducted into the 2024 Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
Before his death, Pratchett was able to attend and speak at the 2003 Prometheus ceremony at the Worldcon, when he won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Night Watch.
Regrettably, Terry Pratchett cannot be with us to accept his award. But rather than talk about him, I’d like to quote some relevant words of his own.
Editor’s note: Veteran LFS member Robert Poole, who co-founded the Reason Foundation and has voted for the Prometheus Awards annually as one of the earliest LFS members, presented the Prometheus Hall of Fame category at the 44th annual Prometheus Awards ceremony. Here is the transcript of his remarks:
By Robert Poole
I’m honored to introduce the winner of the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.
My Libertarian Futurist Society involvement dates back to the very first Prometheus Award ceremony.
By Daniel Suarez
It is wonderful to receive this award, especially for a novel that means so much to me.
First: my thanks to the Libertarian Futurist Society — both for the principles this Prometheus Award represents and also for awarding it to me in a pivotal year for freedom of expression in science fiction.
Authoritarianism is on the march in this world once more, and the first step in resisting it, is to be free in one’s own thoughts and imagination. That is, after all, where sci-fi lives, and the LFS is helping to keep free-thinking science fiction alive.
