Tag: Prometheus Hall of Fame

Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS President William H. Stoddard’s speech introducing the Prometheus Hall of Fame and guest presenter David Friedman

Libertarian Futurist Society president William H. Stoddard emceed the 45th Prometheus Awards and introduced the Prometheus Hall of Fame category for Best Classic Fiction, which was presented by libertarian luminary and Prometheus-nominated fantasy novelist David Friedman.

LFS President William H. Stoddard (Photo by Carol Stoddard)

The August 30, 2025 awards ceremony, presented live via Zoom on August 30, 2025, was recorded and later posted on Youtube. Here is the text of Stoddard’s speech:

By William H. Stoddard

The Prometheus Hall of Fame award was established in 1983.

Initially we gave it to two classic works of libertarian science fiction each year. Our first two winners were virtually inevitable choices: Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the book that established libertarian science fiction as a recognized genre, and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the fictional treatment of libertarian ideas that brought large numbers of people into what became the libertarian movement.

The next year’s award went to two classic dystopias, George Orwell’s 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Since then we’ve settled down to one winner a year, and opened the award not merely to novels but to work in any narrative or dramatic form. Such works become eligible 20 years after their original publication.

To present this year’s award, we have the honor of having David Friedman as a guest speaker.

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: LFS President William H. Stoddard’s speech introducing the Prometheus Hall of Fame and guest presenter David Friedman

Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Economist and novelist David Friedman on Anderson, Heinlein, Vinge and how science fiction influenced the development of his ideas



David D. Friedman added excitement and intellectual stimulation as the guest presenter at the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony.

David Friedman (Photo provided by Friedman)

A leading libertarian theorist (The Machinery of Freedom), economist (Price Theory: An Intermediate Text) and law-and-economics professor (Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters), David is also a Prometheus-nominated sf/fantasy novelist (Harald, Salamander, Brothers).

Friedman presented the Prometheus Hall of Fame category for Best Classic Fiction during the Aug. 30 ceremony. Here is the text of his speech, which followed an introduction by LFS President William (Bill) Stoddard.

By David D. Friedman

Bill mentioned my friend Vernor Vinge, who is in part responsible for my writing my second novel.

I described to him my idea for that and for the alternative, a sequel to my first novel (Harald, a 2007 Prometheus Best Novel nominee). He thought Salamander would more interesting, so I wrote it. He was right.

I thought I’d start by saying a little about what I’ve learned relevant to libertarianism from science fiction.

As some of you may know, Vernor’s story “The Ungoverned” (inducted in 1994 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame) is about a stateless society, modeled on my ideas, being invaded by an adjacent state.

Seeing that society through the eyes of a novelist rather than an economist showed me things about it that would not have occurred to me….

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Economist and novelist David Friedman on Anderson, Heinlein, Vinge and how science fiction influenced the development of his ideas



Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Astrid Anderson Bear’s acceptance speech for her father Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner

Astrid Anderson Bear, daughter of the late SFWA Grand Master Poul Anderson (1926-2001) and wife of the late sf author Greg Bear, accepted the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction for Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise.

Astrid Anderson Bear (Photo courtesy of Bear)

Astrid spoke during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, presented live via Zoom on Aug. 30, 2025, and recorded to post later on Youtube and on the Prometheus Blog.

By Astrid Anderson Bear

Thank you to the members of the Libertarian Futurist Society  for voting to induct my dad’s novel, Orion Shall Rise, into the Prometheus Awards Hall of Fame.

Published in 1983, this wide ranging book is in his Maurai universe, a loosely connected series  of works set on a post-apocalyptic future Earth.

 

Orion Shall Rise takes place  roughly 500 years in our future, and brings together characters from the principal powers on the planet: the Domain, controlling much of  western Europe by means of a huge aerostat, Skyholm, that has survived since the nuclear wars hundreds of years previously; the Maurai Federation, a coalition of Pacific Islanders centered in New Zealand; and the Northwest Union and its powerful Lodges in the  Pacific Northwest of North America. 

Continue reading Celebrating the 45th Prometheus Awards: Astrid Anderson Bear’s acceptance speech for her father Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise, the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner

What classic works deserve to be nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame? Let us know your suggestions before the end of September!

By Michael Grossberg

With only a month left before this year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame nominating deadline, it’s time for Libertarian Futurist Society members to seize the opportunity to consider what might be worthy of our recognition.

So far, just seven widely varied works have been nominated for possible induction into our Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Between eight and 12 classic works – first published, performed, recorded, released, screened or staged at least two decades ago – have been nominated annually by LFS members in recent years for this annual Prometheus category. In each of the past two years, an eclectic variety of 10 works were nominated – including novels, novellas, stories and songs (just a subset of the many types of fiction eligible to consider for the Hall of Fame). So there’s certainly room for a few more nominations.

What older works of fantastical fiction (including but not limited to science fiction and fantasy) do you believe have stood the test of time and ripened into classics deserving of a nomination?

If you have any candidates to formally nominate or simply suggest, please let us know before this year’s deadline of Sept. 30, 2025. (The earlier, the better.)

Continue reading What classic works deserve to be nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame? Let us know your suggestions before the end of September!

The Ray Bradbury interview, part 2: How the master of the magical and mysterious developed his writing craft


By Michael Grossberg

Here is part two of my feature profile of the late great Ray Bradbury, first published in 1985 and based on my interview and conversations with the Prometheus-winning author:

Bradbury’s playful spirit and suspenseful stories have endeared him to legions of fans.

Next fall (1986), over the Labor Day weekend, an estimated 6,000 fans will gather in Atlanta during the 44th annual World Science Fiction Convention to personally thank the sprightly 65-year-old man who has always remained a child at heart.

It’s about time, because Bradbury’s recognition as a Worldcon’s Guest of Honor was long overdue.

Considering Bradbury’s large body of work and vast appeal, it would not be much of an exaggeration to say that Bradbury owns the “B” in science fiction’s classic alphabet of first-rank authors. (For those not in the know, the “A” is owned by Isaac Asimov and the “C” by Arthur Clarke.)

Think of science fiction’s Golden Age, and one immediately thinks of the author of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Halloween Tree, I Sing the Body Electric! and, his acknowledged masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451.

Continue reading The Ray Bradbury interview, part 2: How the master of the magical and mysterious developed his writing craft


The Day Before the Revolution: Ursula K. Le Guin story, a prequel to her Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed, recommended by Reactor Magazine


By Michael Grossberg

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Day Before the Revolution has been highlighted and recommended by Reactor Magazine among “five SF stories in which hope survives.”

The story, available in the Le Guin short-story collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, should be of interested to LFS members and other freedom-loving SF/fantasy fans because it’s considered a sequel to Le Guin’s classic novel The Dispossessed, an early Prometheus Hall of Fame winner.

“Science fiction has the power to remind us that hope is valuable, and necessary,” James Davis Nicoll wrote in the Reactor column.

That insight, and sentiment, rings true to Prometheus Awards voters and fans. After all, our award in part aims to recognize worthy works of speculative fiction that in many cases do remind us that even amid troubled times and authoritarian societies, better and freer futures remain possible.

Continue reading The Day Before the Revolution: Ursula K. Le Guin story, a prequel to her Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed, recommended by Reactor Magazine


Ursula K. Le Guin’s Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed honored and probed on its 50th anniversary


By Michael Grossberg

Many bestsellers or award-winning books or plays or movies or record albums tend to fade over the years, but a few manage to pass the test of time.

In that latter category is Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1974 novel The Dispossessed, inducted in 1993 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Recently honored on its 50th anniversary with a Harper’s 50th Anniversary Edition, Le Guin’s novel contrasts two alleged utopian worlds.

One human-settled planet is anarchist (but without property rights and with mob rule and group think); the other is mostly capitalist (but with recurrent wars and extremes of wealth and poverty.)

Continue reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed honored and probed on its 50th anniversary


Poul Anderson’s novel Orion Shall Rise to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame

By Michael Grossberg

Orion Shall Rise, a 1983 novel by Poul Anderson, has won the 2025 Best Classic Fiction award and will be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Poul Anderson (Creative Commons license)

Published by Timescape and first nominated for the Prometheus Award in 1984, when it became a Best Novel finalist, Orion Shall Rise explores the corruptions and temptations of power and how a free society might survive and thrive after a post-nuclear-war apocalypse on a largely depopulated Earth.

This will be Anderson’s fifth work to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, following Trader to the Stars (in 1985), The Star Fox (in 1995), “No Truce with Kings” (in 2010) and “Sam Hall” (in 2020.)

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Two-time Prometheus winner George Orwell honored in United Kingdom with Royal Mint coin, but “Big Brother is (still) watching you”


By Michael Grossberg

Great Britain’s Royal Mint is honoring George Orwell – also worth celebrating today on the anniversary of his birthday June 25, 1903 – with a new coin, 75 years after his death in 1950.

Best known for his Prometheus-winning classics Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, the British novelist and essayist will be celebrated with a new  £2 coin.

In the Orwellian spirit of the well-known Nineteen Eighty-Four catch phrase that “Big Brother is watching you,” coin artist Henry Gray created a coin design that appears to be an eye, but at its center is actually a camera lens surrounded 360 degrees by the famous phrase.

Continue reading Two-time Prometheus winner George Orwell honored in United Kingdom with Royal Mint coin, but “Big Brother is (still) watching you”


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

By Michael Grossberg

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