Orion Shall Rise – Prometheus Blog

A guide before voting: Our reviews of this year’s four Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

For the convenience of LFS members and a guide to this year’s Prometheus Awards, the Prometheus Blog has now posted reviews of all four of the year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists for Best Classic Fiction.

Libertarian Futurist Society members, who have the right to vote to select the annual Best Classic Fiction winner, are invited to read (or reread) our reviews of the 2025 finalists: Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, Rudyard Kipling’s story “As Easy as A.B.C.,” the Rush song “The Trees” and Charles Stross’ novel Singularity Sky.

Other science fiction and fantasy fans, outside the LFS, also may wish to check out the reviews to appreciate these works and to better understand how they fit the distinctive dual focus of the Prometheus Awards on both quality and liberty.

Continue reading A guide before voting: Our reviews of this year’s four Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

Classic works by Poul Anderson, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Stross and the rock group Rush among Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

The four works selected as finalists for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award span almost a century.

From a Rudyard Kipling story published in 1912 to a Charles Stross novel published in 2003, the 2024 slate of finalists reflects a broad range of different eras, themes and literary styles.

Charles Stross (Creative Commons license)

Of the four Hall of Fame finalists for Best Classic Fiction, two are novels, one a story and one a song – demonstrating the wide variety of narrative or dramatic forms eligible for consideration each year among works that were first published, performed, recorded or aired at least 20 years ago.

One work appears on the Hall of Fame shortlist for the first time: Stross’ Singularity Sky, previously a write-in candidate for Best Novel after its initial publication by Ace Books in 2003. (Because of the 20-year rule, the novel only became eligible this past year for Hall of Fame nomination.)

Continue reading Classic works by Poul Anderson, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Stross and the rock group Rush among Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 4: Capsule reviews of the Rush song “The Trees” and Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise 

By Michael Grossberg

Unlike the annual Prometheus Award for Best Novel, the other annual Prometheus category for Best Classic Fiction is open to works being renominated.

Neal Peart, Rush drummer and songwriter of “The Trees.” Credit: Creative Commons

Of the 10 works of fiction nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, three are returning nominees after reaching the level last year of Hall of Fame finalists.

One is the Rush fantasy-fable song “The Trees,” first recorded in 1978.

The other is Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, published in 1984.

Here, in the fourth part of the Prometheus Blog’s series about this year’s Hall of Fame nominees, are capsule review-descriptions of those two finalists.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 4: Capsule reviews of the Rush song “The Trees” and Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise 

Before voting for this year’s Prometheus Awards, check out the full slate of blog reviews of the finalists

The Prometheus Blog has now succeeded in publishing reviews of all 2024 Prometheus Awards finalists – and all the reviews have convenient links posted below.

Although selective reviews have been posted of some finalists over the years, this is the first time in perhaps half a decade or so that reviews of all Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction finalists have been written and published.

Continue reading Before voting for this year’s Prometheus Awards, check out the full slate of blog reviews of the finalists

Hall of Fame finalist review: Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise offers masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures (including a libertarian society)

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.

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, a 2024 Prometheus Hall of Fame finalist 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 Hall of Fame finalist review: Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise offers masterful social-scientific world-building in clash of cultures (including a libertarian society)

Short-listed for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame: Novels by Poul Anderson, Terry Pratchett and Harry Turtledove and a Rush song

By Michael Grossberg

Almost four dozen classic works of science fiction and fantasy have been inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, first presented four decades ago in 1983.

Libertarian Futurist Society members will select the next Best Classic Fiction inductee from four finalists, all first published or released more than 20 years ago.

The 2024 Hall of Fame finalists – just announced to the media in an LFS press release that’s already been reported on in full by File 770, a leading sf-industry trade publication – is varied in artistic form (including three novels and one song) and in its balance of the old and the new.

The current finalist slate, selected from 10 works of fiction (novels, stories and song) nominated by LFS members, recognizes both a first-time nominee and several stalwart candidates that have found favor with judges and voters in recent years.

Continue reading Short-listed for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame: Novels by Poul Anderson, Terry Pratchett and Harry Turtledove and a Rush song