Best Classic Fiction – Prometheus Blog

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees for Best Classic Fiction include novels by Blish, Dick, Huxley, Lewis, Roberts, Stross and Turtledove, a Pohl short story and Straczynski’s Babylon 5 

By Michael Grossberg

James Blish in the 1950s (Creative Commons license)

Works by James Blish, Philip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Frederik Pohl, Adam Roberts, J. Michael Straczynski, Charles Stross and Harry Turtledove have been nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.

Aldous Huxley (Creative Commons license)

A majority of this year’s Hall of Fame nominees are appearing on the short list for the first time – a promising sign that this category for time-honored classic fiction remains full of notable and lasting works worth recognizing.

The oldest nominee on the list is Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel Brave New World, with the second-oldest C.S. Lewis’ 1945 novel That Hideous Strength.

While Lewis’ cautionary sf novel has been nominated before and previously has ranked as a Best Classic Fiction finalist, Huxley’s dystopian classic has never before been nominated for the Prometheus Award – and is arguably overdue.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees for Best Classic Fiction include novels by Blish, Dick, Huxley, Lewis, Roberts, Stross and Turtledove, a Pohl short story and Straczynski’s Babylon 5 

Masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures, including a libertarian society: An appreciation of Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner 

By William H. Stoddard

One of the things Poul Anderson was known for throughout his literary career was world-building. Much of this was planetary design, based on the natural sciences, in which he started out with stellar type, planetary mass, orbital radius, and elemental abundances and worked out the geology, meteorology, and biology of a world.

Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)

Anderson was certainly one of the masters of this, up there with Hal Clement and Vernor Vinge. But he put equal effort into social scientific worldbuilding, creating economies, polities, and cultures, and developing plots for his stories from the conflicts they gave rise to. Orion Shall Rise, winner of the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, is a nearly pure example of social scientific world-building, set not in a distant solar system but on a future Earth.

Continue reading Masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures, including a libertarian society: An appreciation of Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner 

What classic works deserve to be nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame? Let us know your suggestions before the end of September!

By Michael Grossberg

With only a month left before this year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame nominating deadline, it’s time for Libertarian Futurist Society members to seize the opportunity to consider what might be worthy of our recognition.

So far, just seven widely varied works have been nominated for possible induction into our Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Between eight and 12 classic works – first published, performed, recorded, released, screened or staged at least two decades ago – have been nominated annually by LFS members in recent years for this annual Prometheus category. In each of the past two years, an eclectic variety of 10 works were nominated – including novels, novellas, stories and songs (just a subset of the many types of fiction eligible to consider for the Hall of Fame). So there’s certainly room for a few more nominations.

What older works of fantastical fiction (including but not limited to science fiction and fantasy) do you believe have stood the test of time and ripened into classics deserving of a nomination?

If you have any candidates to formally nominate or simply suggest, please let us know before this year’s deadline of Sept. 30, 2025. (The earlier, the better.)

Continue reading What classic works deserve to be nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame? Let us know your suggestions before the end of September!

Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame

By Michael Grossberg

Orion Shall Rise, a 1983 novel by Poul Anderson, has won the 2025 Best Classic Fiction award and will be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Published by Timescape and first nominated for the Prometheus Award in 1984, when it became a Best Novel finalist, Orion Shall Rise explores the corruptions and temptations of power and how a free society might survive and thrive after a post-nuclear-war apocalypse on a largely depopulated Earth.

This will be Anderson’s fifth work to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, following Trader to the Stars (in 1985), The Star Fox (in 1995), “No Truce with Kings” (in 2010) and “Sam Hall” (in 2020.)

Continue reading Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame

Two-time Prometheus winner George Orwell honored in United Kingdom with Royal Mint coin, but “Big Brother is (still) watching you” 

By Michael Grossberg

Great Britain’s Royal Mint is honoring George Orwell – also worth celebrating today on the anniversary of his birthday June 25, 1903 – with a new coin, 75 years after his death in 1950.

Best known for his Prometheus-winning classics Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, the British novelist and essayist will be celebrated with a new £2 coin.

In the Orwellian spirit of the well-known Nineteen Eighty-Four catch phrase that “Big Brother is watching you,” coin artist Henry Gray created a coin design that appears to be an eye, but at its center is actually a camera lens surrounded 360 degrees by the famous phrase.

Continue reading Two-time Prometheus winner George Orwell honored in United Kingdom with Royal Mint coin, but “Big Brother is (still) watching you” 

For your consideration: The 2025 Prometheus Awards finalists in a nutshell (with review links and tips on where to find them) 

By Michael Grossberg

With the Libertarian Futurist Society on the verge of sending Prometheus Awards ballots to LFS members, here’s a quick-reference guide to this year’s finalists.

This guide offers LFS members a timely summary of this year’s finalists in our two annual categories: Best Novel and the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Again this year, the Prometheus Blog was able to publish in-depth reviews of each of the finalists to add context and perspective on why each work deserved our recognition. So also included here, for the convenience of Prometheus voters, are links to each review.

Plus, this guide will offer tips on the availability of finalists – including links to those available free and online.

Continue reading For your consideration: The 2025 Prometheus Awards finalists in a nutshell (with review links and tips on where to find them) 

Reading tips: How to enhance your participation during the Prometheus Awards’ peak voting season 

By Michael Grossberg

Without a commitment to reading, the Prometheus Awards couldn’t have been sustained for 46 years. That commitment is about to be put to the test, once again.

To assist Prometheus voters, we offer below a few tips to enhance your reading habits amid life’s busy home and work demands.

This is a timely moment to offer such encouragement. After a considerable degree of reading, discussion and related efforts by the LFS’ two awards-finalist-judging committees over the past half year or more, we are now on the verge of entering the final stage of judging the Prometheus Awards.

Continue reading Reading tips: How to enhance your participation during the Prometheus Awards’ peak voting season 

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 5: Capsule reviews of Turtledove’s Between the Rivers and Stross’ Singularity Sky 

By Michael Grossberg

Of the 10 nominees for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, the two most recently published are novels – one a historical fantasy set at the dawn of civilization, and the other, a work of futuristic science fiction set among interstellar colonies.

Between the Rivers, by Harry Turtledove, was published in 1998 by TOR Books.

Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, was published in 2003 by Ace Books.

Both authors are Prometheus Award winners for Best Novel, with Stross winning in 2007 for Glasshouse and Turtledove winning in 2008 for The Gladiator.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 5: Capsule reviews of Turtledove’s Between the Rivers and Stross’ Singularity Sky 

2024 Prometheus awards: Although “time… is intolerant,” the Hall of Fame “worships language” that has attained longevity, LFS President says

Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, the Prometheus Blog is posting a variety of reports and the full texts of all speeches – including LFS President William H. Stoddard’s overview of the history and focus of the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

By William H. Stoddard

The Libertarian Futurist Society began giving Hall of Fame Awards in 1982, with awards to two libertarian classics: Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a key work for the emergence of the modern day libertarian movement, and Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the foundational work of libertarian science fiction and still one of its best.

In recent years, as earlier Prometheus Award nominees have become old enough to be regarded as classics, we’ve adopted a requirement that Hall of Fame nominees must have been published at least twenty years ago, and must not have won the Best Novel award.

Continue reading 2024 Prometheus awards: Although “time… is intolerant,” the Hall of Fame “worships language” that has attained longevity, LFS President says

2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame acceptance speech: Stoddard quoting the late great Terry Pratchett on libertarianism and a key passage from The Truth

Editor’s note: As part of our coverage of the 44th Prometheus Awards ceremony, the Prometheus Blog is posting a variety of reports and the full texts of all the speeches.

Terry Pratchett (Creative Commons license)

Here are the remarks of LFS President William H. Stoddard, a long-time Terry Pratchett fan. Stoddard stepped in to accept the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame for the late great Pratchett (1948-2015), whose Discworld comic-fantasy novel The Truth was inducted into the 2024 Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Before his death, Pratchett was able to attend and speak at the 2003 Prometheus ceremony at the Worldcon, when he won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Night Watch.

By William H. Stoddard

Regrettably, Terry Pratchett cannot be with us to accept his award. But rather than talk about him, I’d like to quote some relevant words of his own.

Continue reading 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame acceptance speech: Stoddard quoting the late great Terry Pratchett on libertarianism and a key passage from The Truth