{"id":1200,"date":"2019-11-14T16:40:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T22:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=1200"},"modified":"2024-05-29T13:41:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T18:41:40","slug":"40th-anniversary-celebration-an-appreciation-of-brad-linaweavers-moon-of-ice-the-1989-prometheus-best-novel-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/40th-anniversary-celebration-an-appreciation-of-brad-linaweavers-moon-of-ice-the-1989-prometheus-best-novel-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternate history, warped ideology, national socialism and the omnipotent State: An Appreciation of Brad Linaweaver\u2019s Moon of Ice, the 1989 Prometheus 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 fit the Prometheus award’s distinctive focus on Liberty vs. Power. Here is our Appreciation for Brad Linaweaver\u2019s Moon of Ice,\u00a0<\/em>the 1989 Best Novel winner:<\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brad Linaweaver conceived a richly detailed, provocative, and acclaimed alternate-history saga in Moon of Ice.<\/em><\/p>\n

The meticulously researched 1988 novel –\u00a0expanded from a 1981 novella published in Amazing Stories\u00a0<\/em>and nominated in 1982 for the Nebula Award – imagines an increasingly libertarian United States that provides a refuge for those fighting the evils of statism and collectivism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Linaweaver darkly imagines a national-socialist\/fascist empire in an alternative world where Germany won World War II in Europe and America developed the A-bomb in time to provide a nuclear stalemate to Hitler\u2019s oppressive National Socialist (Nazi) Workers Party.<\/p>\n

A central focus is the evolution of Hilda Goebbels, daughter of Hitler\u2019s propaganda minister, from pampered child in a totalitarian and pathological Europe to a world-famous anarchist revolutionary who publishes her father\u2019s diaries to reveal the evils of the omnipotent State three decades after the Nazi victory.<\/p>\n

Linaweaver\u2019s portraits of evil are complex and culturally insightful. For instance, rather than making Hitler\u2019s influential henchman Joseph Goebbels a cardboard cut-out monster, he\u2019s shown to be a man with ideas that allows him to commit atrocities while forgiving himself for them \u2013 undeniably dangerous, but human in his warped ideology and rationalizations of tyranny and abuse of power \u201cfor reasons of state.”<\/p>\n

Unlike many alternate-WWII stories, which tend to accept conventional contrasts between the good United States and the undeniably evil Nazi\u00a0 regime, Linaweaver draws from history and biography to draw uncomfortable and insightful comparisons that provoke thought and challenge modern assumptions.<\/p>\n

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

Most provocatively, the story not only finds and draws parallels between Hitler and Stalin and between National Socialism and Soviet communism but also between Hitler and U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt \u2013 who in this cautionary reality is impeached by Congress in 1942 because of his authoritarian\/centralist tendencies.<\/p>\n

Note: <\/strong>Brad Linaweaver (1952-2019) won two Prometheus Awards during his career, including the LFS\u2019 first Special Award in 1998 for co-editing (with Edward E. Kramer) the major TOR Books libertarian sf anthology Free Space.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/em>Linaweaver was also nominated for a Prometheus Award in 1997 for Best Novel for Sliders: the Novel, <\/em>based on the syndicated TV series.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read the Prometheus blog news post about Linaweaver\u2019s death<\/a> in August, 2019.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE<\/strong><\/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 recently updated and enhanced Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>on the LFS website, which includes links to Appreciations of more than 100 other Prometheus winners.<\/p>\n

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

* Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join<\/strong> <\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists 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<\/em><\/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 fit the Prometheus award’s distinctive focus on Liberty vs. Power. Here is our Appreciation for Brad Linaweaver\u2019s Moon of Ice,\u00a0the 1989 Best Novel winner: By Michael Grossberg Brad Linaweaver conceived a … Continue reading Alternate history, warped ideology, national socialism and the omnipotent State: An Appreciation of Brad Linaweaver\u2019s Moon of Ice, the 1989 Prometheus 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":[2399,43,159,2353,8],"tags":[199,128,75,203,202,77,545,76,198,201,200,546,547],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternate-history","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-book-reviews","category-review","tag-adolf-hitler","tag-alternate-history","tag-brad-linaweaver","tag-edward-e-kramer","tag-franklin-roosevelt","tag-free-space","tag-heroine","tag-moon-of-ice","tag-national-socialism","tag-soviet-communism","tag-stalin","tag-the-omnipotent-state","tag-warped-ideology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-jm","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","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=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7568,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/7568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}