By Michael Grossberg
Which finalist will win the Prometheus Award for Best Novel? And which work will be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame?
Libertarian Futurist Society members will help answer those questions by participating in the final stage of judging this year’s Prometheus Awards.
With the July 4 voting deadline just a few days away, it’s not too late for LFS members to submit their ballots.
This year’s finalists seem especially strong.
The Best Novel finalists, in alphabetical order by author, include Storm-Dragon, by Dave Freer (Raconteur Press); War by Other Means, by Karl K. Gallagher (Kelt Haven Press); No Man’s Land, by Sarah Hoyt (Goldport Press); A Kiss for Damocles, by J. Kenton Pierce (Raconteur Press); and Powerless, by Harry Turtledove (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy.)
This year’s five finalists – first published between 1932 and 2003 – are novels by James Blish (The Star Dwellers), C.S. Lewis (That Hideous Strength), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Adam Roberts (Salt) and Charles Stross (Singularity Sky).
Reviews by LFS members of each of the above works have been posted on the Prometheus Blog over the past year. (To find and read them, simply type in the novel’s title or author’s name into the search box located in the upper-left corner of the blog’s home page.)
Like the Hugo awards, participating in the Prometheus Awards requires a good deal of reading. With 10 novels as finalists this year, that goes double. We appreciate the investment of time and energy made by LFS members who choose to participate in our awards by reading and ranking the finalists in the two annual categories.
To lighten your load and lift the spirits in the final count-down to the Prometheus voting deadline, here’s a great bookshelf illustration that may seem familiar enough to LFS members, and other book lovers and sf/fantasy fans, to spark a smile of recognition.
As a reminder, LFS members should email their ranked ballots no later than midnight Eastern time July 4 to the designated address.
If you have any last-minute questions or didn’t receive this year’s Prometheus ballot, please email Michael Grossberg at mgrossberg1@gmail.com
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* 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 international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in 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. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of the 106 works that have won a Prometheus since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* 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.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
