Prometheus Hall of Fame – Prometheus Blog

L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach: The Prometheus winner that one Best Novel judge dreams of seeing on screen someday 

By Michael Grossberg

It’s relatively rare for a Prometheus-winning work of pro-freedom science fiction or fantasy to be adapted into a movie or for television. But that happened this year, with the recent 2026 release of an animated film of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, inducted in 2011 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

While the misconceived third film version of Orwell’s anti-authoritarian and anti-communist classic fable proved disappointing, our hopes remain high for more Prometheus-winning novels or stories to be filmed – and some are already in the works.

Meanwhile, sparked by this year’s film release, I asked Libertarian Futurist Society members I work with as fellow Best Novel judges which Prometheus-winning works they’d like to see on screen.

Adam Tuchman’s top choice is The Probability Broach, L. Neil Smith’s alternate-history SF novel that won the 1982 Best Novel award.

Continue reading L. Neil Smith’s The Probability Broach: The Prometheus winner that one Best Novel judge dreams of seeing on screen someday 

The rewards of patience: The Prometheus Hall of Fame’s track record of recognition and frequent renominations

By Michael Grossberg

Patience can be a virtue – especially when it comes to nominations for the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Not all works that become Hall of Fame finalists or winners do so in the first year that they are nominated. But that’s never a permanent obstacle to recognition, because in this annual Prometheus category, Libertarian Futurist Society members benefit from the luxury of time.

If at first a work is overlooked or doesn’t rank high enough to become a finalist, it can be nominated and renominated in future years.

Continue reading The rewards of patience: The Prometheus Hall of Fame’s track record of recognition and frequent renominations

Calling for nominations for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame – and outside suggestions 

It’s time to begin considering what’s worth nominating for potential induction into the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Even as Libertarian Futurist Society members are voting to select the 2026 Hall of Fame winner from the current slate of finalists, it’s not too early to nominate eligible works for the 2027 Hall of Fame.

Only LFS members have the right to nominate works for any category of the Prometheus Award. However, publishers, authors and other SF/fantasy fans and libertarians are welcome to contact us to make suggestions.

Continue reading Calling for nominations for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame – and outside suggestions 

A historic first: The Pope quotes a Prometheus-winning classic (and it makes sense that it’s Tolkien) 

By Michael Grossberg

A Pope has quoted a Prometheus-winning classic in an encyclical letter.

So far as I can tell, that seems to be a first.

The American Pope Leo XIV has quoted the British author J.R.R. Tolkien in his latest papal encyclical, published May 15, 2026: “On Safeguarding The Human Person In The Time Of Artificial Intelligence.”

The Pope quotes a powerful and wise statement by Gandalf from The Return of the King, the third volume of The Lord of the Rings. Libertarian Futurist Society members inducted the trilogy in 2009 into our Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading A historic first: The Pope quotes a Prometheus-winning classic (and it makes sense that it’s Tolkien) 

“What is a Hater?” – Economist David Henderson applies Orwell’s 1984 insights about how authoritarians abuse language to discount criticism and demonize others 

By Michael Grossberg

One of the most chilling and distasteful aspects of the totalitarian dictatorship that George Orwell envisioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four was the “two-minute hate.”
Fuelled by State propaganda demonizing dissidents and alleged enemies, and reflecting the mob psychology of true believers manipulated by power-hungry rulers, the “two-minute hate” is the type of Reign of Terror phenomenon that no sane and decent person would wish to be part of – or be victimized by – in real life.

Yet, increasingly in American and European politics and culture, extreme partisans of Left and Right indulge in hateful rhetoric while ironically accusing others of “hate” – even when a bit of introspection and understanding of human behavior might reveal fewer people than one might think are actually motivated by that dark emotion.

Referencing Orwell and his Prometheus Hall of Fame-winning classic Nineteen Eighty-Four, libertarian economist David Henderson identifies the disturbing trend of using and abusing language to demonize anyone who holds differing views.

Continue reading “What is a Hater?” – Economist David Henderson applies Orwell’s 1984 insights about how authoritarians abuse language to discount criticism and demonize others 

Kurt Vonnegut’s Prometheus-winning “Harrison Bergeron” recognized for real-world relevance to “millionaires’ tax” debate 

By Michael Grossberg

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” is a cautionary and satirical tale warning about the imagined future excesses of radical egalitarianism and attacks on individualism and personal excellence carried to absurd and coercive extremes.

The classic story, inducted in 2019 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, suddenly seems as relevant as recent headlines about state and federal efforts to impose unprecedented confiscatory taxation on wealthier people.

Challenging the view that everything is or should become property of the State, NR Online writer Andrew Stuttaford invokes Vonnegut’s themes in a perceptive column.

Continue reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Prometheus-winning “Harrison Bergeron” recognized for real-world relevance to “millionaires’ tax” debate 

Hall of Fame Finalist Review: C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength dramatizes warring ideologies of good and evil, freedom and tyranny

By Michael Grossberg

Bestselling British author C.S. Lewis wrote more than 30 books of fiction and non-fiction. With estimated sales approaching 200 million copies in print, Lewis (1898-1963) is best-known for his children’s fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia and his devilish epistolary novel The Screwtape Letters.

Lewis also wrote science fiction – most notably, his Space Trilogy, which culminates with That Hideous Strength, Lewis’ most libertarian novel.

Selected by LFS judges as one of this year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists for Best Classic Fiction, That Hideous Strength offers a dystopian and metaphysical vision that dramatizes warring ideologies of good and evil, freedom and tyranny.

Continue reading Hall of Fame Finalist Review: C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength dramatizes warring ideologies of good and evil, freedom and tyranny

Hall of Fame Finalist Review: Adam Roberts’ Salt explores conflicting conceptions of freedom between neighboring anarchist and statist communities 

By Michael Grossberg

Freshly exploring utopian and dystopian themes, Salt contrasts an anarchist community and its statist neighbor on a harsh desert planet.

Suspenseful and thought-provoking, Adam Roberts’ science fiction novel illuminates how customs, attitudes and ideologies on both sides spark mutual misunderstandings and accelerating conflicts.

A finalist for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction, Robert’s cautionary tale invites us to question our deepest assumptions about freedom.

Continue reading Hall of Fame Finalist Review: Adam Roberts’ Salt explores conflicting conceptions of freedom between neighboring anarchist and statist communities 

Prometheus Hall of Fame news: Novels by James Blish, Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Adam Roberts and Charles Stross selected as 2026 finalists

By Michael Grossberg

Fresh titles dominate this year’s slate of just-announced finalists for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.

This year’s five finalists – first published between 1932 and 2003 – include novels by James Blish (The Star Dwellers), C.S. Lewis (That Hideous Strength), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Adam Roberts (Salt) and Charles Stross (Singularity Sky).

James Blish in the 1960s (Creative Commons license)

Blish and Roberts are first-time Hall of Fame nominees, while this is the first time that Huxley’s classic dystopian novel has been recognized as a finalist.

Blish, a Hugo-winning author widely admired in the 1950s and 1960s during the peak of the so-called Golden Age of modern sf, has never before been nominated for the Prometheus Award – perhaps in retrospect a major omission that at last has been corrected.

Although Huxley’s classic dystopian novel was nominated during the first decade of our awards in the 1980s, this is the first nomination for Brave New World in roughly four decades.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame news: Novels by James Blish, Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Adam Roberts and Charles Stross selected as 2026 finalists

Which Prometheus Hall of Fame winner is ranked among the best SF stories of all time?

By Michael Grossberg

If you were picking the 26 best science fiction short stories of all time, what would be on your list?

That requires some serious thought, but in the meantime, it can be helpful to check out what’s on other’s best lists.

Case in point: New Scientist magazine, whose writers recently compiled such a list – one that interestingly includes a story inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading Which Prometheus Hall of Fame winner is ranked among the best SF stories of all time?