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.
E.M. FORSTER
If you guessed E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops,” you’re correct.
Although Forster is best known for his acclaimed novels, especially A Passage to India, A Room with a View and Howards End (all adapted into fine films), he also wrote many short stories – including science fiction.
“The Machine Stops,” inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 2012, is widely hailed as a pioneering 1909 story in the category of technological dystopian fiction.
The story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, Forster’s story anticipates several modern technologies, from the Internet to instant messaging.
“Forster wrote about a society of enforced physical isolation where everyone can be in constant communication via the Machine,” Chris Hibbert wrote in his review-essay Appreciation of the Hall of Fame inductee for the Prometheus Blog.
“This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of government and the possibilities for absolute control growing out of people’s demands. Early in the story we’re told that people’s distaste for contact with nature and each other drove the development of the technology. Eventually the technology is used to control people’s choices.”
Read the full Prometheus Appreciation of Forster’s classic.
Coming up on the blog: Other Prometheus-winning authors included on the New Scientist best-26 list (though not for their particular works recognized by the Prometheus Awards.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including 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, which now 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.
* 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.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt), Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
* 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 association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters. We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more 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.
