By Michael Grossberg
File 770, a leading SF/fantasy publication that frequently posts reviews, has offered its annual list of outstanding novels.
Of the 35 novels on File 770’s “2024 Recommended SF/F List,” four have been nominated by LFS members for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Meanwhile, four other novels on that list also have been under review on our unofficial “short list” of 2024 candidates to consider for nomination.
Here are the four Prometheus Best Novel nominees that overlap with the File 770 recommended list:
* Alliance Unbound, by C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher (DAW, 352 pages).
Billed as Book 2 in The Hinder Stars trilogy, this novel is the direct sequel to Alliance Rising, the 2020 Prometheus Best Novel winner about the founding of the Merchanters’ Alliance, an interstellar human association for free trade, mutual aid and protection set within Cherryh’s acclaimed Alliance Union universe.
* Machine Vendetta, by Alastair Reynolds (Orbit US, 408 pages).
The culmination of the Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies detective-murder-mystery trilogy, this inventive and complex space opera is part of Reynolds’ vaster Revelation Space future-history series, set among thousands of diverse polities in an interstellar Glitter Band and described in a rave Locus magazine review as having a loose socio-political system based on a “radically volunteerism-libertarian framework.”
* Alien Clay, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit Books, 424 pages)
Set in the far future in a harsh penal colony on a strange planet with a dangerous ecology, this SF adventure pits Earth’s authoritarian Mandate and rigid orthodoxy against dissident scientists and their free-thinking pursuit of the truth about alien biology as they fight for survival and possible liberation.
* The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton (Sourcebooks Landmark, 367 pages).
Set on a strange and isolated island with secrets and a deceptive ruling authority, the futuristic, post-apocalyptic “locked-room” murder mystery has been hailed by Reason magazine as “a philosophical exploration of the perfectibility of man and the dangers of absolute power.”
OTHER CANDIDATES ON THE LIST
In addition to the three Prometheus Best Novel nominees, the File 770 recommended-reading list includes five other 2024 novels that are among the works suggested by LFS members or submitted by publishers to investigate, read and discuss as potentially eligible candidates for nomination.
Here are those titles, listed in alphabetical order by author:
* The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
* The Mercy of Gods, by James S. A. Corey
* The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed
* The Tusks of Extinction, by Ray Nayler
Although Prometheus judges found virtually all of the above to be well-written and worth reading, these candidates didn’t fit the distinctive dual focus of our award sufficiently to merit a formal nomination, at least in the opinion of the LFS members who read and reported on them.
Check out the full list of 35 novels on File 770’s recommended list, along with 14 novellas, 12 novelettes, 30 short stories, various graphic novels, movies, TV programs and more.
F YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt), Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
