Tag: Robert Heinlein

The 46th Prometheus Awards: Cato scholar Ilya Somin’s keynote speech (Part 2) on Heinlein, Star Trek, dystopias, technological optimism, SF/fantasy in popular culture and why it’s the most libertarian genre


Libertarian scholar Ilya Somin Photo: Creative Commons license)

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the keynote speech that Cato Institute scholar and law professor Ilya Somin, a lifelong SF/fantasy fan, gave when he presented the 2026 Prometheus Hall of Fame award.  His speech, a highlight of the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony in August, explores libertarian currents in SF/fantasy.

By Ilya Somin

There are, of course, many other libertarian themes in prominent science fiction and fantasy works. I do not have time to go over them all. I’ll just mention a few.

Robert Heinlein, as most of you, like we know, was one of the founding fathers of modern American science fiction, and he of course, was consciously libertarian, his ideology.

The same thing is true of a number of other very prominent science fiction writers like L. Neil Smith, Larry Niven, and David Brin, though obviously for example Brin has a very different strain of libertarianism than Heinlein.

Continue reading The 46th Prometheus Awards: Cato scholar Ilya Somin’s keynote speech (Part 2) on Heinlein, Star Trek, dystopias, technological optimism, SF/fantasy in popular culture and why it’s the most libertarian genre


Heinlein remembered at the LA Worldcon

By Michael Grossberg

Grand Master Robert Heinlein was remembered during LACon V, the recent World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles/Anaheim, California.

L-R: John Tilden, Marie Guthrie, Jason Aukerman, Robert James, Mike Sheffield at LACon V’s Heinlein panel (Photo courtesy of File 770 and Worldcon)

An “LA and Heinlein” panel discussion, highlighted in a File 770 post with this picture, included speakers from academia and the Heinlein Society.

“RAH has been gone for decades but he was still very much alive in the “L.A. and Heinlein” panel… It was an interesting hour of being walked through the Los Angeles years of Heinlein’s life and hearing about how he was an Influence for some of the then-fledgling writers there,” Rich Lynch wrote in his brief report.

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The 46th Prometheus Awards: J. Kenton Pierce discusses good characters, conflicts and restrictions on liberty in his Best Novel acceptance speech for A Kiss for Damocles 


Editor’s note: J. Kenton Pierce, who won the 2026 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for A Kiss for Damocles, delivered his acceptance speech Aug. 16, 2026, during the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony.

By J. Kenton Pierce

I am deeply grateful for this tremendous honor.  Giving a speech wasn’t a problem I imagined having, considering that A Kiss for Damocles was up against books by people who’ve written some of my favorite stories.

I’m no deep political or philosophical thinker.  I’m just a character-driven reader, so I lean in on crafting characters I’d enjoy spending time with. 

Continue reading The 46th Prometheus Awards: J. Kenton Pierce discusses good characters, conflicts and restrictions on liberty in his Best Novel acceptance speech for A Kiss for Damocles 


The first Special Award for Young Adult Fiction isn’t actually the first Prometheus Award to recognize Young Adult works


By Michael Grossberg

Dave Freer’s novel Storm-Dragon will be the first work to receive a Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction Aug. 16 at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony. Yet, it’s far from the only example of Young Adult Fiction to be recognized in the awards’ history.

By my latest count – and including this year’s three winners – 111 works of fantastical fiction have been named as winners of a Prometheus Award since 1979. Of those works, 14 fall clearly into the Young Adult realm or are deemed accessible enough to appeal to younger readers.

Those works should be of great interest to younger readers, roughly anyone between the ages of eight and 18.

They also should spark the curiosity of parents, grandparents, teachers and other adults seeking good pro-freedom SF/fantasy to share or gift.

So which Prometheus Award winners do fit the parameters of Young Adult Fiction?

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Brave New World: Huxley’s 1932 dystopian classic ranks among the oldest works to win the Prometheus Hall of Fame award


By Michael Grossberg

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is one of the oldest works to win the  Prometheus Award for Best Classic Fiction.

Published in 1932 by Chatto & Windus, Aldous Huxley’s pioneering dystopian novel has become so well-known around the world that its title has become an emblematic catchphrase signaling the dangers of authoritarianism.

Brave New World is the third-oldest work and the second-oldest novel to be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame. (The roughly hourlong Zoom ceremony, open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday Aug. 16 (Eastern time), with the Zoom link posted a week or so ahead on the Prometheus Blog.)

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“Fly Me to the Moon” – The Smithsonian museum highlights the power of science fiction in sparking advances in air and space



By Michael Grossberg

On a recent visit to the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., I was delighted to discover some recognition of the work of a Prometheus-winning author. And not just any author, but the Golden Age Grand Master who has received more Prometheus Awards than anyone else: Robert A. Heinlein.

Destination Moon, a 1950 Technicolor feature film co-written by Heinlein, is highlighted in the Destination Moon gallery (Gallery 206) at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

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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

Review: Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon offers Heinleinesque Young Adult tale of discovery, self-reliance and courage against abuses of power


By Michael Grossberg

Storm-Dragon, a 2026 Prometheus Best Novel finalist, offers an entertaining tale embodying golden-age SF themes of initiative, imagination, resilience and self-reliance.

Dave Freer’s Young Adult novel appeals to adults, too — especially those of us who grew up reading YA novels by Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton.

The novel revolves around a boy who adopts an intelligent-alien pet on Vann’s World, an ocean-dominated planet with a small human colony facing dangers alien and human, visible and hidden.

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Discovering libertarian ideas through fiction: It usually begins with Rand and Heinlein – but in my unusual case, it was James Blish’s The Star Dwellers


“People come to libertarianism through fiction. They come through Ayn Rand… Robert Heinlein…. L. Neil Smith.”
– Libertarian feminist author Wendy McElroy at the 2000 Prometheus Awards ceremony

By Michael Grossberg

For quite a few libertarians, “It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand.” Or Robert Heinlein. Or other freedom-loving science fiction writers.

James Blish in the 1960s (Creative Commons license)

For me, though, my introduction to libertarian and classical-liberal ideas and ideals began earlier – at least in part – with James Blish.

Specifically, Blish’s The Star Dwellers.

When I read Blish’s 1961 novel as a pre-teen in the early 1960s, I came to understand for the first time key insights about voluntary consent and mutual exchange for profit as the best foundation for peace and progress.

Now a finalist for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction, The Star Dwellers is a young-adult-oriented science fiction novel that revolves around a fraught “second contact” between star-faring humans and an ancient, advanced alien species.

Continue reading Discovering libertarian ideas through fiction: It usually begins with Rand and Heinlein – but in my unusual case, it was James Blish’s The Star Dwellers


The Prometheus Awards and the Forry award for lifetime achievement: Cherryh, Anderson, Heinlein, Pratchett, Ellison among 13 authors recognized by both


By Michael Grossberg

Just as the Prometheus Awards overlaps to some extent with the Hugo and Nebula wards in terms of the works and writers recognized, our list of Prometheus-winning writers overlaps with the Forry Awards.

C.J. Cherryh, who co-wrote the 2020 Prometheus Best Novel winner (Alliance Rising) with her partner Jane S. Fancher, is the 13th Prometheus winner to also be recognized in the Forry awards.

C.J. Cherryh (File photo)

Cherryh recently won the 2025 Forrest J Ackerman Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. (See our previous post about Cherryh’s latest honor.)

It’s interesting to see what writers have been recognized by both the LASFS, the world’s oldest continuously active science fiction and fantasy club, and the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), established in 1982 to sustain the Prometheus Awards.

Such broad cross-recognition should be another reminder of just how embedded libertarian and anti-authoritarian ideas and values are within our popular culture – and have been, for generations, even amid various socio-economic developments and political trends, both positive and negative.

So if Cherryh is the 13th Prometheus winner to be recognized with a Forry award, who else is on that illustrious cross-checked list?

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