When Libertarian Futurist Society leaders added Young Adult (YA) fiction as an additional category of pro-freedom fantastical fiction that might be recognized with a Special Prometheus Award, quite a few worthy YA works already had won a Prometheus Award.
That’s why the LFS also set up a Prometheus Award Young Adult Honor Roll at the same time – a list that parents, grandparents and others should be aware of when choosing presents for the holidays or birthdays.
After all, what better present for a child or teenager than a good book?
The Honor Roll lists previous Best Novel winners, Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees, several Prometheus finalists and other nominees that either qualify as YA works targeted at teenagers and older children or that are adult works that also have a broad appeal to younger readers.
PROMETHEUS WINNERS ON THE HONOR ROLL
Of the 20 works listed on the YA Honor Roll, five are Best Novel winners: Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and its sequel Homeland, Ken MacLeod’s Learning the World, Harry Turtledove’s The Gladiator and Delia Sherman’s The Freedom Maze.
Four works on the YA Honor Roll are Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees: Hans Christian Anderson’s fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Robert Heinlein’s novels Citizen of the Galaxy and Red Planet and J. Neil Schulman’s novel Alongside Night.
Two interrelated works won a Special Award: Tower of Horses, Leslie Fish’s fantasy novella and The Horsetamer’s Daughter, Leslie Fish’s filk song about the same world and characters.
Four works were Best Novel finalists: Pierce Brown’s Golden Son, Thomas L. James and Carol C. Carlsson’s In the Shadow of Ares, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (by far the most libertarian of her bestselling and overall anti-authoritarian fantasy series) and Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman’s RebelFire: Out of the Gray Zone.
BOOKS FOR ALL (OR ALMOST ALL) AGES
Six other works on the list were written for all ages or primarily for adults, but also have significant appeal to older children, in the judgment of Prometheus judges and LFS leaders.
Of those, two are Prometheus Hall of Fame inductees: George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Ayn Rand’s Anthem.
The three other works didn’t win a Prometheus Award, but either were recognized as Prometheus finalists or nominees: T.H. White’s The Once and Future King and its long-delayed and belatedly published conclusion The Book of Merlyn; and O.T. Nelson’s The Girl Who Owned a City.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUNGER READERS
Parents and grandparents are invited to look over the list when buying books to give to their children or teenagers – for the upcoming holidays or birthday presents or whatever.
My recommendations for younger children, in particular, would start with Anderson’s fable, perhaps as part of a collection of Anderson’s classic stories.
Then I’d suggest Sherman’s The Freedom Maze, a lesser-known but moving child’s-perspective story about the evils of slavery in the American South; and White’s The Once and Future King. (If they like that novel, then offer them The Book of Merlyn, which contains several resonant animal fables.)
Older children, depending on their reading level and maturity, might find rewarding two of the shorter novels: Rand’s Anthem and Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Younger teenagers, if they haven’t already been introduced to Heinlein, would enjoy Red Planet and Citizen of the Galaxy, two of his best “juvenile” sf novels.
The rest of the titles on the list may be partly a matter of taste and level of maturity, but tend to appeal more to teenagers and older children.
Whatever books you pick to give to the next generation, know that it’s not just a work likely to give them hours of pleasure and enlightenment but also fiction that can inspire, educate and open the minds of younger generations to enduring values and themes.
ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
