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<\/a><\/p>\nPierce, nominated for the first time for a Prometheus Award, describes what inspired his novel and how it fits into his future history in an interview posted on the website of the book\u2019s publisher, Raconteur Press.<\/a><\/p>\n Launching Pierce\u2019s ambitious projected multi-book Tales of the Long Night saga, A Kiss for Damocles<\/i> is set in a complex future where interstellar war has ravaged worlds and where the homesteaders on one planet are struggling to rebuild.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n TALES OF THE LONG NIGHT At the center of the story is Shaifennen \u201cShai\u201d Roehe, a plucky young woman who is doing her best to survive on a harsh planet after bombing from space triggered a mega-volcanic eruption that has taken centuries to clean up in order to restart agriculture.<\/p>\n As Shai\u2019s simple homestead community of farmers and free traders becomes a boomtown, they reach out to other communities for \u201ctrade, not trouble,\u201d operating on mutual respect, good will and an ethos of \u201cmind your own business.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, major dangers and barriers remain formidable, with dangerous local lifeforms and a threat from above. Especially Damocles, an orbiting space platform whose weapons remain functional and can be triggered by any detection of emerging advanced technology on the planet.<\/p>\n The Pierce interview<\/a> focuses on how A Kiss For Damocles<\/em> fits into the larger dramatic arc of his future history, and reveals how Pierce uniquely first established his story universe in short-story anthologies published by Raconteur Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n NOMINATION NEWS<\/b><\/p>\n A separate post<\/a> on the Raconteur Press blog highlights the news of the recent Prometheus Best Novel nomination for A Kiss for Damocles<\/i>.<\/p>\n \u201cFolks, we are excited and tremendously pleased to announce A Kiss For Damocles by our own J. Kenton Pierce has been nominated by Libertarian Futurist Society members as a candidate for the 2026 Prometheus Award.<\/p>\n \u201cTypically, only around a dozen books are nominated for the Prometheus Award. For Pierce\u2019s first novel to even be nominated is a tribute to his incredible story-telling skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Before launching his career as an sf writer, Pierce served ten years as an Army\/Air Force reservist and worked in in biotechnology and \u201ctoo much retail.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>For more about Pierce, visit his Substack blog.<\/a> ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS<\/b><\/p>\n *\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n * Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on 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\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n *\u00a0Watch 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\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n * Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n * Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael Grossberg J. Kenton Pierce\u2019s A Kiss for Damocles, nominated for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel, offer space opera with young-adult appeal. Pierce, nominated for the first time for a Prometheus Award, describes what inspired his novel and how it fits into his future history in an interview posted on the website … Continue reading Raconteur Press interviews J. Kenton Pierce, nominated for a Prometheus Best Novel award for A Kiss for Damocles<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,31,36],"tags":[2774,2773,2775],"class_list":["post-10320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-awards-news","category-interviews","tag-a-kiss-for-damocles","tag-j-kenton-pierce","tag-raconteur-press"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2Gs","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10320"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10322,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10320\/revisions\/10322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nIn the background of Pierce\u2019s world-building, sometimes hidden but sometimes emerging unpredictably, are fallen empires, lost civilizations, orbiting unmanned war machines and hostile zenos.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n