{"id":1095,"date":"2019-10-03T17:32:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T22:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=1095"},"modified":"2024-05-11T15:00:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T20:00:08","slug":"40th-anniversary-prometheus-celebration-an-appreciation-of-james-p-hogans-voyage-from-yesteryear-the-1983-best-novel-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/40th-anniversary-prometheus-celebration-an-appreciation-of-james-p-hogans-voyage-from-yesteryear-the-1983-best-novel-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Authoritarian imperialism vs. free-market anarchy in an interstellar future: An Appreciation of James P. Hogan\u2019s Voyage From Yesteryear, the 1983 Best Novel winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Libertarian Futurist Society’s ongoing Appreciation series strives to make clear what libertarian futurists see in each of our past winners and how each fits the Prometheus award’s distinctive focus on Liberty vs. Power. Here\u2019s our Appreciation for James P. Hogan\u2019s Voyage to Yesteryear<\/em>, the 1983 Prometheus winner for Best Novel:<\/em><\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg<\/a>
\n
\n\"\"<\/a><\/em>Two human civilizations, long separated across light years, confront significant philosophical and political differences when they make renewed contact decades after a World War III devastated the Earth and led to the rise of widespread authoritarian governments there.<\/p>\n

When the Earth\u2019s three superpower governments engage in a space race to renew contact with the lost colony on Chiron in the Alpha Centauri system colony\u2019s descendants, the Americans arrive first with an authoritarian goal of invasion and domination.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Chiron colonists \u2013 sent from Earth generations before in a ship with babies raised by robots in order to start fresh and avoid the bad habits and prejudices of Earth – have developed a radically free libertarian society founded on the belief that each individual has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
James P. Hogan signing autographs in 2005 at the Worldcon (Creative Commons photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hogan\u2019s fast-paced and idea-oriented utopian\/dystopian novel dramatizes the differences between libertarian and authoritarian perspectives and cultures, and highlights the consequences when ships from Earth arrive to take over Chiron only to be shocked by the colonists\u2019 independent-minded and liberty-loving attitudes.<\/p>\n

The novel, in part, is one of the few depictions of a libertarian anarchist society, along with such other Prometheus winners as J. Neil Schulman\u2019s Alongside Night<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>and L. Neil Smith\u2019s The Probability Broach<\/i>.<\/a><\/p>\n

In portraying the Old Earth characters often as fumbling or clueless bureaucrats, Hogan injects some humor into an implicit critique of our actual world culture.<\/p>\n

Hogan, who died in 2010, was concerned about the bureaucratic and statist trends in the late 20th\u00a0<\/sup>century \u2013 which sadly and ominously, in some ways have continued and worsened in the 21st\u00a0<\/sup>century with its disturbing and regressive authoritarian\/populist tendencies visible on the Left and Right.<\/p>\n

No doubt, if Hogan were still alive, he’d be writing other novels contrasting the benefits of liberty with the evils and dangers of centralized State power.
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: James P. Hogan (1941-2010), a British sf writer who moved to the United States for much of his adult writing career, also won the 1993 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The Multiplex Man.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Other Hogan books were Best Novel finalists in 1990 (Mirror Maze)<\/i>, 1991 (The Infinity Gambit),<\/i>\u00a01997 (Paths to Otherwhere) <\/i>and 2000\u00a0(Cradle of Saturn.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Check out the Prometheus Blog’s posthumous multi-part publication of a 2000 interview<\/a> with Hogan about his life, career and evolution of his views.<\/p>\n


\n<\/i>IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>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\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\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

*\u00a0Watch <\/strong>videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 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\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us! <\/em><\/strong>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 association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s rights, individuality and human dignity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* See related introductory essay<\/strong><\/a> about the LFS\u2019 40th<\/sup>anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards\u2019 four-decade history.<\/p>\n

* Other Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For a full list of winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the Prometheus Awards page<\/a> on the LFS website.<\/p>\n

* Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists<\/a> believe cultural change is as vital as political change (and often more fun!) in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Libertarian Futurist Society’s ongoing Appreciation series strives to make clear what libertarian futurists see in each of our past winners and how each fits the Prometheus award’s distinctive focus on Liberty vs. Power. Here\u2019s our Appreciation for James P. Hogan\u2019s Voyage to Yesteryear, the 1983 Prometheus winner for Best Novel: By Michael Grossberg Two … Continue reading Authoritarian imperialism vs. free-market anarchy in an interstellar future: An Appreciation of James P. Hogan\u2019s Voyage From Yesteryear, the 1983 Best Novel winner<\/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":[43,159,2353,2045,8],"tags":[170,23,161,29,164,163,169,46,168,162],"class_list":["post-1095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-book-reviews","category-james-p-hogan","category-review","tag-cradle-of-saturn","tag-j-neil-schulman","tag-james-p-hogan","tag-l-neil-smith","tag-libertarian-futurist-society","tag-mirror-maze","tag-paths-to-otherwhere","tag-prometheus-awards","tag-the-infinity-gambit","tag-the-multiplex-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-hF","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095","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=1095"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7576,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1095\/revisions\/7576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}