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.
I also want to praise the selection process for this award. If there is a central theme to all my books, it’s how we retain human agency in the face of rapid technological change. However, there was no orthodoxy demanded of me for this award. I was not required to belong to any particular group or political party — my work was allowed to speak for itself. That’s refreshing, in this day and age, and I’m honored to accept this award from the LFS.
Critical Mass was a labor of love for me. It’s the second novel in a planned trilogy — a trilogy that chronicles humanity’s journey from a finite, Earthbound civilization to a dynamic and spacefaring one. Like the first book, Delta-v, Critical Mass is a novel I felt compelled to write.
ENVISIONING A BETTER FUTURE
Growing up I devoured science fiction. Niven, Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov, and so many other authors. Science fiction was my escape into potential futures. It made me think. Made me want to learn more about science and engineering. And gave me a feeling that wondrous achievements were within our reach.
In short: that the future could be better than the present. Unfortunately, many people no longer think that’s true.
Years ago, I asked myself: How could we reach that science fiction future we so often imagine? Not just as a story — but for real. How do we make that leap to a thriving, sustainable, spacefaring civilization?
So over the past decade I met with scientists, space entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, astronauts, adventurers, government officials, and more to learn what was possible in deep space using our existing technology.
THE LIMITLESS FRONTIER OF FREEDOM
And beyond the engineering — how do we prevent despotic governments and individuals from dominating space settlement? Also, how do we extend the economic opportunity of space to billions of people remaining here on Earth — while simultaneously preserving Earth’s biosphere and our democratic institutions?
Science fiction allows us to explore these complex questions, and it’s why I wrote Critical Mass and Delta-v: to create a present-day narrative for how we can build a livable, prosperous, and free civilization in deep space. Where a billion new ideas can be explored on a limitless frontier.
And I didn’t shy away from adding technological and scientific detail to these books. Because my aim is not only to entertain readers but also to inspire our next generation of entrepreneurs, investors, technicians, and explorers to pursue bold goals in deep space. To build an off-world economy.
That’s why I’m thrilled when I receive messages from readers who tell me that Critical Mass or Delta-v inspired them to pursue a career in the space industry, or when students write to say they’re now taking space-related majors. Or when space industry professionals recommend my books. That gives me hope I might be helping to inspire others about our future.
HOW SF CAN KEEP HOPE ALIVE
Because compelling science fiction really can make a difference in people’s lives. One event in particular brought this home to me…
Back in 2016 I was a guest author at Elstercon, a science fiction conference in Leipzig Germany. Leipzig, of course, was formerly part of communist East Germany. Elstercon sticks in my memory. First, because the organizers and attendees were wonderful, but also because I was assigned a translator — since the second language of many older East Germans was not English, but Russian.
At one point an older gentlemen showed me shelves of Cold-War-era sci-fi paperbacks, and through my translator, he explained that science fiction saved his life during the time of the Stasi secret police. He and his friends shared ‘dangerous ideas’ through pulp sci-fi novels about distant worlds.
Unlike so-called ‘serious literature’, pulp science fiction novels were not deemed a threat by the regime, but those novels helped him imagine a better future. He said they kept his hope alive. And that’s what kept him alive.
A CRITICAL FORUM FOR IDEAS
His story has stayed with me.
Because here in 2024, science fiction is not considered a substandard art form. It is mainstream and respectable — in fact, it’s a critical forum for ideas — and for that reason it’s become a target of authoritarian censorship. That is the risk to science fiction today. We’ve seen it. And recently.
There’s a struggle for control of our vision for the future — and also a struggle over who gets to tell what story. This struggle is between all authors and readers against self-appointed authoritarian interests — whether they’re dictatorial governments, intolerant social movements, or monolithic corporations, it makes no difference.
In each case they seek to control the frame for imagining. We cannot have our imaginations chained within bounds established by self-appointed authorities. We must be free to imagine new futures and to honestly assess our past and present. That is what artistic expression is for.
And that is why I am sincerely grateful for this Prometheus Award. Thank you.
* Read the Prometheus Blog Appreciation review-essay of Suarez’s novel Influx, the 2015 Prometheus Best Novel winner.
* Read the Prometheus Blog review of Suarez’s Critical Mass, the 2024 Prometheus Best Novel winner.
* Read three-time Prometheus winner Victor Koman’s 2024 Best Novel presenter speech on mortality, the award’s longevity, the diversification of publishing and the future of liberty.
Note: The 44th Prometheus awards ceremony, which aired live on Sunday Aug. 25, 2024, was recorded by LFS Webmaster Chris Hibbert and will be posted on Youtube and later on the LFS website’s Video page.
Meanwhile, the Prometheus Blog is publishing a series of reports on the ceremony with the full texts of its eloquent, inspiring and sometimes amusing speeches by Best Novel presenter Victor Koman, a three-time Prometheus-winning novelist; Reason’s Robert Poole, who presented the Hall of Fame category; LFS President William H. Stoddard, who emceed the Zoom event and accepted the Hall of Fame award for the late great Terry Pratchett; and LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg, who introduced the Best Novel category and Koman.)
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 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, jointhe Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
