By Michael Grossberg
File 770, a leading SF/fantasy publication that frequently posts reviews, has offered its annual list of outstanding novels.
Of the 35 novels on File 770’s “2024 Recommended SF/F List,” four have been nominated by LFS members for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Meanwhile, four other novels on that list also have been under review on our unofficial “short list” of 2024 candidates to consider for nomination.
Five are novels, two are novelettes, one a novella, one a story and one a song, reflecting the wide range of fiction eligible for consideration in the Prometheus Hall of Fame.
The authors of these classic works range from the late great Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke to still-living authors, such as Harry Turtledove and Charles Stross.
Ten works of speculative fiction, first published or performed more than 20 years ago, have been nominated by LFS members for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
Some are science fiction, some fantasies, while several bid to become classics of dystopian literature.
Many are dramatic and suspenseful, some heroic or inspirational, and a few are comical or outright satirical.
Some novels are set in the distant future, some in the near future, some in ancient eras or mythologized histories and one in an alternate history.
While quite a few are sequels, some launch promising new series – and seven appear to be self-contained, stand-alone works with a beginning, middle and satisfying end.
This year’s bountiful crop of Prometheus Best Novel nominees, whose titles and authors were recently announced in this blog, display a remarkable range of genres, themes and styles.
If one of the salutary effects of the Prometheus Award for Best Novel over the decades has been to help raise the visibility of new, young or emerging talent, that goal might well be furthered by this year’s larger-than-usual slate of nominees.
These 16 novels, published in 2021 and listed below, reflect a wide range of styles, from the satirical to the sorrowful and from hard sf to mythic fantasy.
