Heinlein, Anderson, Tolkien, Orwell, Rand, Hoyt, Vinge, Stephenson, Bradbury and Wilson among popular Prometheus-winning authors added as convenient index links on our blog

What do Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, James P. Hogan, Sarah Hoyt, Victor Koman, Ken MacLeod, George Orwell, Ayn Rand, L. Neil Smith, Neal Stephenson, J.R.R. Tolkien, Vernor Vinge and F. Paul Wilson have in common?

Robert Heinlein in the 1980s (Photo courtesy of Heinlein Trust)

Some rank high among bestselling and even world famous authors; some are not quite as well known but still have sold millions of copies of their books, and a few are lesser-known writers who deserve a wider readership.

George Orwell. (Creative Commons license)

Yet they’re all writers who have written notable speculative fiction (generally science fiction and/or fantasy) that in different ways championed freedom-loving themes and exposed the evils of authoritarianism.

And all of the above have been recognized for such works by winning Prometheus Awards – some for Best Novel, some for Best Classic Fiction and several for both annual award categories.

OUR BLOG’S CONVENIENT INDEX

But these 13 writers now also have something else in common, right here on the Prometheus Blog:

Vernor Vinge

Over the past seven years of the blog, enough articles, reviews, appreciations, trend pieces and author’s updates have been written and posted about each of these writers to merit a direct link in the blog’s convenient index.

If you haven’t used or noticed the index before, just scroll down the left side of the main Prometheus Blog page – past the Videos link, past the blog subscription option, past the 10 most recent blog posts, past the Top Posts rankings, past Recent Comments and past the Archives and its drop-down menu of monthly posts until you see Categories.

Sarah Hoyt accepting her Prometheus Award in 2011
OUR INDEX CATEGORIES

The Categories offer handy short-cuts to different groupings of past Prometheus Blog posts, from the Best of the Blog to Interviews and Reviews.

Victor Koman

Under News, we currently have 361 past posts, including 235 past Author Updates and 142 Reviews.

Here is where each of these authors are listed, so that their fans can directly and quickly call up every major post that focuses on each writer.

Neal Stephenson (Creative Commons license)
OUR BLOG’S ‘FAVORITE’ AUTHORS

New index links are added each time another Prometheus Blog article is posted. But so far, as of early January 2025, here’s the breakdown (listed in alphabetical order of each author’s first name) of how many times each author has had posts written about them or their work:

Ayn Rand: 16

Novelist Ayn Rand (Creative Commons license)

F. Paul Wilson: 18

Novelist F. Paul Wilson (Photo courtesy of author)

George Orwell: 22

J.R.R. Tolkien: 12

James P. Hogan: 14

James Hogan (Creative Commons license)

Ken MacLeod: 15

Ken MacLeod (Creative Commons photo)

L. Neil Smith: 23

L. Neil Smith in the 1980s (Creative Commons license)

Neal Stephenson: 11

Poul Anderson: 28

Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)

Ray Bradbury: 11

Ray Bradbury in 1975 (Creative Commons license)

Robert Heinlein: 49

Sarah Hoyt: 17

Vernor Vinge: 21

J.R.R. Tolkien in 1925 (Creative Commons license)

The above numbers perhaps offer only a very limited and one-dimensional indication of the relative popularity of these writers among LFS members and other freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans – and certainly don’t suggest any comparative rankings of the writers in terms of their objective quality and enduring value.

Still, they do suggest that these authors remain current and vital in Libertarian Futurist Society discourse. (As do other Prometheus-winning authors that the blog hasn’t published as much about, so far, but which may well be added to the index as time goes on.)

We fervently hope that none of these authors will ever be forgotten, and that at least the best works of each writer will continue to be read and appreciated by sf/fantasy fans and the general public.

To see why the Prometheus Blog has written about and referenced these particular authors so much, just click on the name of each in the index – and read the variety of essays, reviews, trend pieces and appreciations devoted to each so far.

IF 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 ceremonywith inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freerand 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 pagefor 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,  jointhe Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more 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, individuality and human dignity.

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread ideas and ethical principles that help humanity overcome tyranny, end slavery, reduce the threat of war, repeal or constrain other abuses of coercive power and achieve universal liberty, respect for human rights and a better world (perhaps ultimately, worlds) for all.

Published by

Michael Grossberg

Michael Grossberg, who founded the LFS in 1982 to help sustain the Prometheus Awards, has been an arts critic, speaker and award-winning journalist for five decades. Michael has won Ohio SPJ awards for Best Critic in Ohio and Best Arts Reporting (seven times). He's written for Reason, Libertarian Review and Backstage weekly; helped lead the American Theatre Critics Association for two decades; and has contributed to six books, including critical essays for the annual Best Plays Theatre Yearbook and an afterword for J. Neil Schulman's novel The Rainbow Cadenza. Among books he recommends from a libertarian-futurist perspective: Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist & How Innovation Works, David Boaz's The Libertarian Mind and Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress.

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