Tag: Prometheus Award

Michael Flynn, now a three-time Prometheus winner, wins posthumous Best Novel recognition for In the Belly of the Whale

By Michael Grossberg

For the first time in Prometheus Awards history, our annual Best Novel award has gone to a posthumous work.

Novelist Michael Flynn at an sf convention several decades ago (File photo)

Michael Flynn, who died in 2023 at 75, was able to finish writing In the Belly of the Whale before his passing.

CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, a strong supporter of Flynn’s work, published Flynn’s last novel in 2024.

The epic science fiction novel, a suspenseful and insightful exploration of the complex challenges, conflicts and threats to liberty aboard a large colony ship two centuries into a projected eight-century voyage to Tau Ceti, has now won the 2025 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Continue reading Michael Flynn, now a three-time Prometheus winner, wins posthumous Best Novel recognition for In the Belly of the Whale

A diverse slate of firsts and lasts: 11 Prometheus Best Novel nominees offer SF and fantasy, drama, mystery and satirical cautionary tales

By Michael Grossberg

Eleven 2024 novels have been nominated for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Writer Howard Andrew Jones (Photo courtesy of Baen Books)

Broadly embracing many forms of speculative fiction including science fiction, fantasy, dystopian cautionary tales and near-future political-tech thrillers, the diverse slate offers a wide variety and blends of genres, styles and themes – from the serious to the darkly satirical.

Two-time Prometheus winner Michael Flynn (Creative Commons license)

Most poignantly, this will be the last time that two authors are nominated for Best Novel because they’ve sadly passed away: Michael Flynn and Howard Andrew Jones.

Flynn, a two-time Prometheus winner for Best Novel, died in 2023 at 75.

Jones, a Best Novel finalist last year, died in January 2025 at 56.

Continue reading A diverse slate of firsts and lasts: 11 Prometheus Best Novel nominees offer SF and fantasy, drama, mystery and satirical cautionary tales

SF2 Concatenation: Year-end SF/fantasy “bests” list overlaps with Prometheus Awards candidates, nominees

By Michael Grossberg

Each year, SF/fantasy publications, critics and readers compile annual lists of the past year’s best fiction.

Such lists can be helpful to examine for general readers and Prometheus Awards judges, because they bring to our attention or remind us of significant works worth checking out and that might otherwise be overlooked.

Consider, for example, the “Best SF books of 2024” list by SF2 Concatenation (Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation), a digital zine website and online archive focused on reviewing SF books, news and related media.

Of the eight 2024 novels recognized on the Concatenation “bests” list, half have figured in some way in the current cycle of Prometheus Awards judging for Best Novel – a relatively high degree of overlap.

Continue reading SF2 Concatenation: Year-end SF/fantasy “bests” list overlaps with Prometheus Awards candidates, nominees

How SF offers a critical forum to imagine new ideas and futures: Daniel Suarez’s 2024 Prometheus Award Best Novel acceptance speech for Critical Mass

By Daniel Suarez

Two-time Prometheus-winning author Daniel Suarez Photo: Steve Payne

It is wonderful to receive this award, especially for a novel that means so much to me. 

First: my thanks to the Libertarian Futurist Society — both for the principles this Prometheus Award represents and also for awarding it to me in a pivotal year for freedom of expression in science fiction. 

Authoritarianism is on the march in this world once more, and the first step in resisting it, is to be free in one’s own thoughts and imagination. That is, after all, where sci-fi lives, and the LFS is helping to keep free-thinking science fiction alive.

Continue reading How SF offers a critical forum to imagine new ideas and futures: Daniel Suarez’s 2024 Prometheus Award Best Novel acceptance speech for Critical Mass

TOR Books founder Tom Doherty wins Heinlein Award

 

Publisher-editor Tom Doherty, who founded TOR Books, has won the 2024 Robert A. Heinlein Award.

Robert Heinlein (Photo courtesy of the Heinlein Trust)

The award, funded by the Heinlein Society and named after the Grand Master who has won more Prometheus Awards than anyone else, is bestowed for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.

According to a Heinlein Society press release, the Heinlein award was given to Doherty in recognition of his work “in bringing the inspiring books of hundreds of authors writing about our future in Space to public awareness.”

One of the leading publishers of sf/fantasy, TOR Publishing Group has won every major award in the sf field – including Hugo, Nebula and Prometheus awards.

Continue reading TOR Books founder Tom Doherty wins Heinlein Award

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

Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, C.T. Rwizi’s House of Gold and R.H. Snow’s Trail of Travail: Guide to the 2024 Best Novel nominees, Part 4

By Michael Grossberg

* A mythologized historical fable of the cyclic struggle for civilization by a world-renowned British-born Indian-American novelist.

* An Afrofuturist science-fiction story of oligarchy and resistance by an African-born and American-raised writer.

* And the latest sequel in a post-apocalyptic dystopian wild-west Texas saga of genetic manipulation and individualistic resilience by a Texas writer.

Those are just three of 17 wide-ranging sf/fantasy novels published in 2023 and nominated for the next Prometheus Award – a sample of the remarkable variety in subjects, themes, genres and styles possible in stories that explore in different ways pro-liberty, anti-tyranny, anti-slavery or other anti-authoritarian themes.

Here is Part 4 of the Prometheus Blog guide to the Best Novel nominees, with capsule descriptions to whet your appetite for Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, C.T. Rwizi’s House of Gold and R.H. Snow’s Trail of Travail.

Continue reading Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, C.T. Rwizi’s House of Gold and R.H. Snow’s Trail of Travail: Guide to the 2024 Best Novel nominees, Part 4

A guide to the Best Novel nominees, Part 3: Capsule descriptions of Liberty’s Daughter, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, and Sandra Newman’s Julia

By Michael Grossberg

Here is Part 3 of the Prometheus Blog guide to this year’s Best Novel nominees, an effort to illuminate why LFS members nominated 17 2023 sf/fantasy novels for the next Prometheus Award.

These capsule descriptions also aim to highlight the diverse range of novels nominated while outlining how each nominee fits the distinctive focus of the Prometheus Awards.

The nominees highlighted in Part 3, alphabetized by author, include Naomi Kritzer’s Liberty’s Daughter, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, and Sandra Newman’s Julia.

Continue reading A guide to the Best Novel nominees, Part 3: Capsule descriptions of Liberty’s Daughter, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, and Sandra Newman’s Julia

“You can’t enslave a free man” – Heinlein Society acceptance speech for “Free Men,” the 2023 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner

John Tilden, president of The Heinlein Society, spoke Aug. 19 during the 2023 Prometheus Awards ceremony to accept the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction for Robert Heinlein’s short story “Free Men.”

Tilden spoke eloquently about Heinlein’s legacy in general and about the setting and themes of his winning story in particular, while shedding some fascinating light on its provenance and place in Heinlein’s Future History series.

For the record, here is a transcript of Tilden’s speech:

BY JOHN TILDEN

It is my pleasure to provide a few remarks on this occasion of Robert Heinlein’s short story “Free Men” being inducted into the Prometheus Award’s Hall of Fame. I add my thanks to the Libertarian Futurist Society for this honor.

 

Continue reading “You can’t enslave a free man” – Heinlein Society acceptance speech for “Free Men,” the 2023 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner

The foundations of liberty (and of Cloud-Castles): Part 2 of Dave Freer’s 2023 Best Novel acceptance speech

The 2023 Prometheus Awards plaque and gold coin

Following the recently posted first part of Dave Freer’s 2023 Best Novel acceptance speech, here is the conclusion, in which the 2023 Prometheus winner describes his winning novel Cloud-Castles, how it reflects Australia’s outback culture and why he wrote it.

BY DAVE FREER

Cloud-Castles was born out of a libertarian to outright anarchist concept: that the best defense of liberty is the ability to leave any form of bondage easily.

Autocracies inevitably have barriers to keep people IN. The freer the society… the less they care if you leave. In fact, if anything, they have to try and keep themselves from being swamped by people who want in.

Continue reading The foundations of liberty (and of Cloud-Castles): Part 2 of Dave Freer’s 2023 Best Novel acceptance speech