Tag: Critical Mass

Suarez and Pratchett: Both 2024 Prometheus Award winners earn well-deserved recognition – again

By Michael Grossberg

The third time’s the charm, as the saying goes. Yet, in the Prometheus Awards, it seems the second time around’s the charm, too.


In the 2024 Prometheus Awards, both winners are being recognized for the second time.

Daniel Suarez, winner of the 2024 Best Novel category for Critical Mass, previously won Best Novel in 2015 for Influx.

Meanwhile, the late Terry Pratchett, winner of the 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction for The Truth, was first recognized by the Prometheus Awards in 2003, when he won Best Novel for Night Watch.

When recently notified of the news that he’s won the Prometheus Award a second time, Suarez responded positively but soberly:

“Authoritarianism is on the march in this world once more, and I’m convinced the first step in resisting despots is to be free in one’s own thoughts and imagination. LFS is doing great work to keep free-thinking science fiction alive, and for that I thank you,” Suarez said in an email.

Continue reading Suarez and Pratchett: Both 2024 Prometheus Award winners earn well-deserved recognition – again

How do the 2024 Best Novel finalists fit the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards?

The Prometheus Awards are distinctive among literature-oriented awards, including within the sf/fantasy field, for having a dual focus – on both overall literary quality and on libertarian/anti-authoritarian ideas.

As LFS awards press releases summarize and define our award:

“The Prometheus Awards recognize outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that dramatize the perennial conflict between liberty and power and champion cooperation over coercion as the root of civility and social harmony.

Such works may critique or satirize authoritarian trends, expose abuses of power by the institutionalized coercion of the State, imagine what forms a fully free society might take, and/or uphold individual rights and freedom for all as the only moral and practical foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, civility and civilization itself.

Here are capsule descriptions of the Best Novel finalists, explaining how each fits our awards’ distinctive focus:

Continue reading How do the 2024 Best Novel finalists fit the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards?

2024 Best Novel finalists include both science fiction and fantasy – and honor two writers for the first time

By Michael Grossberg

Two writers have been recognized for the first time within the Prometheus Awards’ 45-year history as Best Novel finalists. Three other Best Novel finalist authors have been recognized more than once before in that annual category – and one is a previous Prometheus winner.

Moreover, in a relatively rare occurrence for the Prometheus Awards, not all Best Novel finalists this year fall within the genre of science fiction; one happens to fit the fantasy genre.

Devon Eriksen, Karl K. Gallagher, Gordon Hanka, Howard Andrew Jones and Daniel Suarez have each written a 2023 novel that’s been selected by Prometheus judges as a 2024 Best Novel finalist.

Continue reading 2024 Best Novel finalists include both science fiction and fantasy – and honor two writers for the first time

Best Novel finalist review: Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass offers persuasive, realistic SF thriller about private space industrialization

 

By Charlie Morrison and Michael Grossberg

A courageous band of astronaut-entrepreneurs strive to address Earth-based problems through commercial space-industrialization projects in Critical Mass, nominated for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Adding to the suspenseful drama, set mostly off the Earth and around the solar system, the resourceful heroes of this fast-paced sci-fi thriller must achieve their ambitious and unprecedented goals amid Cold War tensions, shifting global political alliances and the shortsighted opposition of Earth governments.

Continue reading Best Novel finalist review: Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass offers persuasive, realistic SF thriller about private space industrialization

A guide to Best Novel nominees, Part 5: Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass, Steve Wire’s Black Hats, Fenton Wood’s Hacking Galileo and Alan Zimm’s Misperceived Threats

By Michael Grossberg

Here is the fifth and final part of the Prometheus Blog guide to the 2024 Prometheus nominees for Best Novel.

These capsule descriptions – alphabetized by author, and concluding with Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass, Steve Wire’s Black Hats, Fenton Wood’s Hacking Galileo and Alan Zimm’s Misperceived Threats – aim to make clear why LFS members nominated them for the next Prometheus Award and how they fit the distinctive dual focus of our award, at once literary and thematic.

While the 12-member Prometheus Best Novel finalist-judging committee won’t vote to select a slate of finalists from the 17 nominees until April, other Libertarian Futurist Society members are invited to begin reading the nominees that spark their interest.

Continue reading A guide to Best Novel nominees, Part 5: Daniel Suarez’s Critical Mass, Steve Wire’s Black Hats, Fenton Wood’s Hacking Galileo and Alan Zimm’s Misperceived Threats