Prometheus Hall of Fame – 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

Hall of Fame finalist review: Rudyard Kipling’s heterotopia “As Easy as A.B.C.” offers critique of lynching, racial prejudice, mob rule

By William H. Stoddard

As an epigraph for his novel Glory Road, Robert Heinlein quoted a passage from Bernard Shaw’s play Caesar and Cleopatra, which included the following memorable line:

. . . he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

These lines captured, for me, what I have come to feel is one of the great pleasures of science fiction: stories set in worlds whose customs are different from those of our own time, or as I like to call them, heterotopias—neither “good places” nor “bad places” but “other places,” where customs other than ours are followed and indeed taken for granted.

Such visions implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, invite us to adopt the heterotopian perspective and look back on our own lives and our own world as if we inhabited some nearly unimaginable alien realm. The literary critic Darko Suvin coined the phrase cognitive estrangement for this experience.

One of the first works of fiction that made me feel this effect was one of Rudyard Kipling’s “airship utopia” stories, “As Easy as A.B.C.” – now one of four classic works selected as finalists for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading Hall of Fame finalist review: Rudyard Kipling’s heterotopia “As Easy as A.B.C.” offers critique of lynching, racial prejudice, mob rule

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

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” – Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable continues to resonate and inform today’s culture and commentary

By Michael Grossberg

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is in the news again, offering resonant metaphors that some find applicable to today’s sociopolitical culture.

Hans Christian Anderson statue in Copenhagen

Gerard Baker, a Wall Street Journal columnist, found intriguing parallels between the themes of Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable and the surprising results of the recent 2024 U.S. presidential election.

“It’s an “Emperor’s New Clothes” event for America and perhaps for the rest of the West too, an overdue recognition and repudiation of the regime of oppressive insanities we have been subjected to for a decade or more,” Baker wrote in his Wall Street Journal column.

Continue reading “The Emperor’s New Clothes” – Hans Christian Andersen’s Prometheus-winning fable continues to resonate and inform today’s culture and commentary

Hall of Fame finalist review: Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky offers cornucopia of cutting-edge SF and libertarian themes

By Michael Grossberg

Although published more than two decades ago, Singularity Sky (Ace Books, 2003) still feels fresh and brilliant in its cutting-edge SF and explicitly libertarian vision.

A strong write-in candidate for Best Novel in the year it was first published more than two decades ago, Singularity Sky has been nominated for the first time for the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Fabulously inventive and sophisticated in its cornucopia of world-building, Stross’ widely acclaimed first novel successively introduces a wild variety of clashing cultures, divergent interests, hidden motives and compelling characters. Although some story elements might seem fanciful or within the realm of fantasy, all are ultimately rooted in plausible science fiction.

Continue reading Hall of Fame finalist review: Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky offers cornucopia of cutting-edge SF and libertarian themes

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 5: Capsule reviews of Turtledove’s Between the Rivers and Stross’ Singularity Sky 

By Michael Grossberg

Of the 10 nominees for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, the two most recently published are novels – one a historical fantasy set at the dawn of civilization, and the other, a work of futuristic science fiction set among interstellar colonies.

Between the Rivers, by Harry Turtledove, was published in 1998 by TOR Books.

Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, was published in 2003 by Ace Books.

Both authors are Prometheus Award winners for Best Novel, with Stross winning in 2007 for Glasshouse and Turtledove winning in 2008 for The Gladiator.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 5: Capsule reviews of Turtledove’s Between the Rivers and Stross’ Singularity Sky 

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 

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 3: Capsule reviews of Vinge’s “Conquest by Default” and Schmitz’s The Demon Breed 

By Michael Grossberg

Of the 10 works of fiction nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, two coincidentally were published in 1968.

One is “Conquest by Default,” a novelette by Vernor Vinge – a frequent Prometheus Award nominee, finalist and winner.

And the other is The Demon Breed, a novel by James H. Schmitz – a first-time Prometheus nominee.

Here, in part 3 of the Prometheus Blog’s series about this year’s candidates for induction into our Hall of Fame, are capsule review-descriptions of each work.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, part 3: Capsule reviews of Vinge’s “Conquest by Default” and Schmitz’s The Demon Breed 

Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, Part 1: Capsule reviews of Kipling’s 1912 novelette and C.S. Lewis’ 1945 novel 

By Michael Grossberg

“As Easy as A.B.C.,” a novelette by Rudyard Kipling, was published in 1912.

That Hideous Strength, a novel by C.S. Lewis, was published in 1945.

Of the 10 classic works of fiction nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame, these Kipling and Lewis works are the oldest.

Thus, perhaps these two classic works are a good place to begin our Prometheus Blog series offering capsule reviews of each nominee.

Continue reading Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees, Part 1: Capsule reviews of Kipling’s 1912 novelette and C.S. Lewis’ 1945 novel 

From the late great Kipling, Lewis and Clarke to living authors Turtledove and Stross, LFS members nominate 10 classic works for the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame 

By Michael Grossberg

Five are novels, two are novelettes, one a novella, one a story and one a song, reflecting the wide range of fiction eligible for consideration in the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Author Arthur C. Clarke (Creative Commons license)

The authors of these classic works range from the late great Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Lewis and Arthur C. Clarke to still-living authors, such as Harry Turtledove and Charles Stross.

Ten works of speculative fiction, first published or performed more than 20 years ago, have been nominated by LFS members for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.

Continue reading From the late great Kipling, Lewis and Clarke to living authors Turtledove and Stross, LFS members nominate 10 classic works for the 2025 Prometheus Hall of Fame 