Eligibility questions to ask when considering sf/fantasy for the Prometheus Awards

By Michael Grossberg

Those Libertarian Futurist Society members who’ve served for some time as finalist-selection judges or Early Readers for different categories of the Prometheus Award have come to find a variety of questions helpful.

These questions also may help LFS members as they read and rank Best Novel and Hall of Fame finalists before voting to choose each year’s winners – including this year.

Who will win the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 2024?

Whether LFS members are considering the eligibility of an sf/fantasy novel for the Best Novel category, suggesting a candidate for nomination for Best Novel or Best Classic Fiction (the Prometheus Hall of Fame) or volunteering to read and report on various candidates as Early Readers, such questions can prove useful.

Accordingly, the Prometheus Blog is posting a sample set of such questions.

Here is the first set of questions, which focus primarily on whether a particular work of fiction is eligible for nomination at all.

In other words, does the work fit the distinctive dual focus of the Prometheus Awards?

PART ONE: GENERAL ELIGIBILITY

* Does the work fit the speculative genre, broadly defined, including science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, mythic fable, near-future sociopolitical thriller, or social SF?

* If the work does fit the genre, please describe a specific detail or example (such as its setting, time period, new technology, supernatural elements, etc.) that helps define it as sf (or fantasy).

* Does the novel have any libertarian or pro-freedom aspects? If so, please briefly describe them and how they relate to the central story and characters.

* Does the novel have any anti-authoritarian or dystopian themes relevant to libertarian concerns, such as depicting the evils of tyranny, slavery, obtrusive government or other abuses of coercive power? If so, please describe them.

* Were any libertarian or anti-authoritarian elements significant enough, in the context of the main story, plot, characters, to be considered central to the novel?

* Overall, considering everything above, describe the degree you believe this novel fits the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards.

For reference, the LFS typically describes the focus of our award as recognizing “outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that dramatize the perennial conflict between liberty and power, favor private social cooperation over legalized coercion, expose abuses and excesses of obtrusive government, critique or satirize authoritarian ideas, or champion individual rights and freedoms as the mutually respectful foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, civility, and civilization itself.”

* For further insights about the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards, check out some previous Prometheus Blog posts on “What Do You Mean ‘Libertarian’? (and why Tolkien’s trilogy deserved its Prometheus)” and “A 40th Anniversary Retrospective: Introducing a Reader’s Guide to the Prometheus Awards Winners.”

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.

* 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 periodic 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.

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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