James Davis Nicoll, a recent nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer, writes about “40 Years of the Prometheus Award,” for Tor.com. He concludes that “following this particular award can be rewarding for readers of all stripes. Probably not every work above will be to your taste, but certainly some will be.”
The comments, including back and forth between Nicoll and readers, also are interesting.
Continue reading Tor.com looks at the Prometheus Award on its 40th anniversary
Drug Lord is the second volume in the authors’ High Ground series about international entrepreneur and libertarian idealist Charles Knight. I can’t fault it as a libertarian work; of course, libertarians disagree about a lot of specific issues, but any libertarian reader will recognize the basic point of view. And I didn’t bog down in reading it, or find it a struggle to turn the next page.
Nonetheless, I have to say I’m ultimately not satisfied with Drug Lord as a book.
Continue reading Review: Doug Casey and John Hunt’s Drug Lord offers action thriller with libertarian hero
By Eric S. Raymond
The history of modern SF is one of five attempted revolutions — one success and four enriching failures. I’m going to offer a look at them from an unusual angle, a political one. This turns out to be a useful perspective because more of the history of SF than one might expect is intertwined with political questions, and SF had an important role in giving birth to at least one distinct political ideology that is alive and important today.
CAMPBELL AND HEINLEIN
The first and greatest of the revolutions came out of the minds of John Wood Campbell and Robert Heinlein, the editor and the author who invented modern science fiction. The pivotal year was 1937, when John Campbell took over the editorship of Astounding Science Fiction. He published Robert Heinlein’s first story a little over a year later.
Continue reading Freedom in the Future Tense: A Political History of SF
For many years, the Libertarian Futurist Society has distributed a quarterly paper newsletter, Prometheus, which featured book reviews, essays, interviews and news about our doings, sending it out using the U.S. mail system that according to legend was begun by Benjamin Franklin.
As much as we admire Ben and enjoyed our newsletter, we have decided that it is time to enter the digital age, and turn our publication into a website. This will allow wider access for our news and views, and allow members of the Libertarian Futurist Society to share pieces they enjoy with a wider audience, posting links via social media or using their own blogs.
