Tag: Enemy Mine

Award-winning libertarian author Barry B. Longyear, R.I.P.



By Michael Grossberg

Barry B. Longyear (1942-2025) has passed.

The prolific sf author, who won the 2021 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The War Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook, died May 6 at the age of 82.

Barry B. Longyear (Courtesy of author)

Longyear is perhaps best known for “Enemy Mine,” an sf story about a risky confrontation but ultimately life-saving friendship between a human pilot and an alien fighter stranded on a harsh and distant planet.

“Enemy Mine,” part of Longyear’s first story collection Manifest Destiny, achieved the rare feat of science fiction’s Triple Crown by winning a Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award.

According to an obituary/tribute in Mike Glyer’s File 770, “fans sealed their approval of his amazing output by voting Barry the John W. Campbell Award as best new writer in 1980 (now the Astounding Award).

Continue reading Award-winning libertarian author Barry B. Longyear, R.I.P.



A probing work of “social sf” and libertarian praxis: An appreciation of Barry Longyear’s The Hook, the 2021 Prometheus Best Novel winner

By Michael Grossberg

Many people have viewed science fiction as all about futuristic technology – starships, robots, interstellar travel, space habitats, vast mega-engineering feats, etc.

Yet, some of the best so-called “sf” of the past century has been what is sometimes called “social science fiction.”

Such works may incorporate various speculative forms of advanced technology, especially to work out how such technology affects people and changes culture.

Yet the most interesting aspects of such “social sf” is how it illuminates the various socio-political, economic and cultural implications of new ideas, different attitudes or fundamental changes in how a society’s norms, laws and system of government work.

In the rare and exemplary case of Barry Longyear’s The Hook, the 2021 Prometheus Best Novel winner, the dramatic and fascinating focus is on what happens to a society when its government is abolished – but other governments continue to threaten its freedom and independence.

Continue reading A probing work of “social sf” and libertarian praxis: An appreciation of Barry Longyear’s The Hook, the 2021 Prometheus Best Novel winner