Category: Reviews

“Tired of Giving Lies a Helping Hand” – A review of Harry Turtledove’s Best Novel finalist Powerless


By John C.A. Manley


Charlie Simpkins is no philosopher. He’s just another “comrade” in the West Coast People’s Democratic Republic, operating a vegetable shop in Los Angeles. He smokes the government-issued Progress cigarettes, he drinks the rationed rotgut at the local class-four tavern and, generally, lives a life of silent compliance.

Until, one day, the government asks him to put up a communist propaganda poster, with the words “WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!” Instead of taping it to the window of his shop, he tosses it in the garbage.

That’s how Harry Turtledove’s Powerless opens: With one man finally saying no, even though the consequences could easily involve time breaking rocks in a concentration camp.

Continue reading “Tired of Giving Lies a Helping Hand” – A review of Harry Turtledove’s Best Novel finalist Powerless


How many Prometheus winners have reached the screen? More than you might realize!


By Michael Grossberg

Of the 104 works of fiction that have won a Prometheus Award, 15 have been adapted into movies (sometimes more than once.)

Plus, two other Prometheus winners were conceived for and originated on screen – one as a feature film and the other as a TV series.

Thus, 17 Prometheus winners can be seen on the large or small screens.

That represents about 15 percent of all the Prometheus-winning works recognized since the award was first presented in 1979.  Not a bad quotient, perhaps, but it certainly would be nice to see more of our recognized novels and stories raise their visibility and thereby find larger audiences.

So which works have reached the screen?

Just for fun or out of curiosity, before reading further, why not visit the Prometheus Awards page listing all the past winners and see how many you can recall that have had film or TV adaptations?

Hint: There’s more than you realize!

Continue reading How many Prometheus winners have reached the screen? More than you might realize!


Orwell’s Animal Farm falls disappointingly short in new animated film version that distorts its anti-authoritarian themes


By Michael Grossberg

When it comes to film versions of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the third time’s not the charm.

With visionary director-actor Andy Serkis at the helm of the recently released animated film version of Orwell’s classic anti-authoritarian fable and a host of great actors doing the voices of the farm animals, I’d hoped for the best for Animal Farm, inducted in 2011 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson, Kieran Culkin, Steve Buscemi, Kathleen Turner, Laverne Cox and Jim Parsons are among the actors voicing the animal characters in the story about pigs consolidating control on a farm in a movement for equality that is systematically corrupted.

Yet, Serkis’ long-in-gestation 2025 film, finally released in the U.S. in May 2026, has proved to be a major disappointment.

Continue reading Orwell’s Animal Farm falls disappointingly short in new animated film version that distorts its anti-authoritarian themes


Review: Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon offers Heinleinesque Young Adult tale of discovery, self-reliance and courage against abuses of power


By Michael Grossberg

Storm-Dragon, a 2026 Prometheus Best Novel finalist, offers an entertaining tale embodying golden-age SF themes of initiative, imagination, resilience and self-reliance.

Dave Freer’s Young Adult novel appeals to adults, too — especially those of us who grew up reading YA novels by Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton.

The novel revolves around a boy who adopts an intelligent-alien pet on Vann’s World, an ocean-dominated planet with a small human colony facing dangers alien and human, visible and hidden.

Continue reading Review: Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon offers Heinleinesque Young Adult tale of discovery, self-reliance and courage against abuses of power


Aldous Huxley’s Prometheus Hall of Fame finalist Brave New World has inspired an acclaimed graphic novel


By Michael Grossberg

A good number of Prometheus-winning works have been adapted into graphic novels, from Ayn Rand’s Anthem and L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach to the TV series The Prisoner.

One I discovered recently is Brave New World: A Graphic Novel – which is timely to mention here because Aldous Huxley’s novel is one of this year’s Best Classic Fiction finalists for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award.

Fred Fordham adapted and illustrated Huxley’s dystopian cautionary tale into a 240-page graphic novel, published in 2022 by Harper.

The Guardian described the graphic novel as “brilliant” in its review.

Continue reading Aldous Huxley’s Prometheus Hall of Fame finalist Brave New World has inspired an acclaimed graphic novel


Review: Karl K. Gallagher’s War by Other Means explores tensions between fighting to preserve freedom and giving up freedom to fight more effectively

By William H. Stoddard

War by Other Means, a Prometheus Best Novel finalist, is the seventh volume in Karl K. Gallagher’s future history series Fall of the Censor. After several volumes focused on military conflict, War by Other Means changes its focus to diplomatic relations among the worlds fighting against the Censorate. 

In doing so, it brings Wynny Landry, the wife of Marcus Landry, the protagonist of several previous books, as a new protagonist, in the role of the ambassador from her native planet, Corwynt.

Continue reading Review: Karl K. Gallagher’s War by Other Means explores tensions between fighting to preserve freedom and giving up freedom to fight more effectively

Capsule reviews of all five Best Novel finalists – with no spoilers!


By Michael Grossberg

The 2026 Prometheus Best Novel finalists have been announced – and Libertarian Futurist Society members are reading them, with the ultimate verdict and winners to be selected by July 4 on the final ballot.

To spark thought and discussion, raise the visibility of these works and the award and hopefully serve as a helpful guide, the Prometheus Blog is publishing thoughtful, in-depth reviews by Prometheus judges of each finalist. Some LFS members may wish to read them right away; others may prefer to wait until they’ve finished a finalist before reading the review.

Meanwhile, to whet your appetite to read each finalist and vote in the final stage of the Prometheus Awards, here are roughly equal 200-word capsule descriptions of each finalist.

And we’ve striven to avoid revealing any spoilers, so it’s safe to read them now!

Continue reading Capsule reviews of all five Best Novel finalists – with no spoilers!


One Prometheus-nominated author hails another in John C.A. Manley’s rave review of Dave Freer’s Young-Adult-oriented Storm-Dragon

By Michael Grossberg

Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon, one of 14 works nominated for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel, has been receiving some nice reviews from readers.

One of the most appreciative reviews has come from science-fiction novelist John C.A. Manley, himself nominated in the same Prometheus category this year for All the Humans Are Sleeping. Exploring issues of consent, freedom and technocracy, Manley’s dystopian SF novel focuses on a man who refuses to enter a virtual reality simulation prepared for survivors of a nuclear apocalypse.

Left to right: Jonah Manley and his father, author John C.A. Manley with a favorite book (Image from Manley’s blog)

To put it mildly, Manley’s nominated novel is quite different from Freer’s Young-Adult-oriented nominee.

“Imagine Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn appearing in Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon, add a little of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, and you’ve got Storm-Dragon by Dave Freer,” Manley writes.

Titled “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (but with Big Spaceships and a Small Dragon),” Manley’s review begins with a confession: He’s not “a big fan” of young adult fiction – and he offers several of the best-known examples to prove it.

“But Storm-Dragon had my son and me hooked by chapter two,” Manley writes.

Continue reading One Prometheus-nominated author hails another in John C.A. Manley’s rave review of Dave Freer’s Young-Adult-oriented Storm-Dragon

Review: Sarah Hoyt’s No Man’s Land develops rich tapestry blending SF/fantasy tropes to imagine “first contact” with vast cultural, political and gender differences


By Michael Grossberg

Sarah Hoyt has always been a wonderful storyteller who frequently crosses genre boundaries with engrossing results.

With No Man’s Land, nominated for this year’s Prometheus Award for Best Novel, Hoyt has outdone herself.

Blending the tropes and appeal of science fiction and fantasy, Hoyt weaves many enticing elements into the three-volume novel. Her two deftly entwined stories encompass space opera, mystery, romance, adventure, suspense, intrigue and politics in a vivid “first contact” saga leavened with humor and humanity.

Continue reading Review: Sarah Hoyt’s No Man’s Land develops rich tapestry blending SF/fantasy tropes to imagine “first contact” with vast cultural, political and gender differences


Review: J. Kenton Pierce’s lively A Kiss for Damocles dramatizes how markets, evolving customs and laws help a post-apocalyptic colony recover without centralized authority


By William H. Stoddard

J. Kenton Pierce’s A Kiss for Damocles is a compellingly readable work of science fiction. It offers its readers an inherently dramatic situation: The struggle to survive and rebuild civilization in the aftermath of an apocalyptic war.

To add tension, remnants of the other side still linger, in the form of orbital systems waiting to strike down any resurgence of advanced technology.

Continue reading Review: J. Kenton Pierce’s lively A Kiss for Damocles dramatizes how markets, evolving customs and laws help a post-apocalyptic colony recover without centralized authority