{"id":1305,"date":"2020-01-09T00:33:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T06:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2024-06-14T12:38:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T17:38:28","slug":"appreciating-victor-komans-kings-of-the-high-frontier-the-1997-prometheus-best-novel-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/appreciating-victor-komans-kings-of-the-high-frontier-the-1997-prometheus-best-novel-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Free enterprise in space: An Appreciation of Victor Koman\u2019s Kings of the High Frontier, the 1997 Prometheus Best Novel winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Libertarian Futurist Society’s 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 freedom. Here\u2019s our Appreciation for Victor Koman\u2019s Kings of the High Frontier, <\/em>the 1997 Best Novel winner.<\/p>\n

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

Victor Koman\u2019s 1997 novel dramatizes the dream of getting into space with an libertarian twist: The massive effort is achieved through the voluntary social cooperation of mutual trade and mutual aid through private enterprise.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in a subtly alternate reality, the story imagines a profit-enhanced competition to reach the stars, which anticipated the X Prize that saw Burt Rutan\u2019s SpaceShipOne reach space in 2004.<\/p>\n

Kings of the High Frontier\u00a0<\/em>highlights the shortsighted bureaucratic and political efforts of a government-run program like NASA, with its consequences in corruption, wasteful mismanagement and stagnation.<\/p>\n


\nExplicitly libertarian, the story indicts NASA for its political pressures that partly led to the space shuttle Challenger\u2019s explosion.
\nYet, the thrust of the story is fundamentally positive and hopeful in its portrayal of a better alternative: resourceful and heroic efforts of private enterpreneurs to make better and faster progress in human space travel.<\/p>\n

The stakes are raised with the urgency of the quest intensified by an impending United Nations bill that would impose strict UN control over all travel beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The imaginative and suspenseful story also explores basic questions affecting the future of space travel: Who owns space? Will moon colonists have to pay taxes to Earth governments? What about those who live in orbit?<\/p>\n

First published online at pulpless.com and only later published in print, this novel set a Libertarian Futurist Society milestone when it became the first online (non-print) \u201cebook\u201d novel to win the Prometheus Award.<\/p>\n

ABOUT VICTOR KOMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: Koman, a California-based writer and agorist, previously won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for The Jehovah Contract<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(1988) and Solomon\u2019s Knife <\/em><\/a>(1990).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Victor Koman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His novel Kings of the High Frontier\u00a0<\/em>won the 1997 award over the Prometheus finalists\u00a0Forester,\u00a0<\/i>by Michael Flynn;\u00a0Wildside,\u00a0<\/em>by Steven Gould; \u00a0Paths to Otherwhere<\/em>, by James P. Hogan; and Sliders<\/em>, by Brad Linaweaver.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, during the LFS awards voting that year, Brad Linaweaver sent out a letter endorsing Kings of the High Frontier\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 then only available in the then-new online eBook format, and the first online-only novel to be nominated for the Prometheus Award.<\/p>\n

Linaweaver\u2019s letter was shared by Prometheus<\/em> editor Anders Monsen in a mailing to LFS members that included the Best Novel finalist ballot.<\/p>\n

Linaweaver (who died in August 2019) remarkably and admirably urged LFS members to vote for Koman\u2019s novel over his own finalist, writing: \u201cWhile I appreciate anybody voting for me, I think that Kings of the High Frontier<\/em> is such a breakthrough novel that I appreciate it more if they vote for Kings<\/em> instead. I think it is the most important libertarian sf novel in years and it is a holy crusade\u00a0<\/em>that we get this book honored, because that might make the difference in getting a print publisher to bring this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koman\u2019s short stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction and several anthologies (including Weird Menace, The King is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem\u00a0<\/em>and Free Space<\/em>, a libertarian sf anthology, edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer, that received the first Special Prometheus Award in 1998.<\/p>\n

* See related introductory essay<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about 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

* Read our previously published Appreciations of Victor Koman\u2019s two other Prometheus-winning novels: Solomon\u2019s Knife<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/i>the 1990 winner,\u00a0<\/i>and The Jehovah Contract<\/i><\/b><\/a>, <\/i>the 1988 winner.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a><\/b><\/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

* 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<\/a>with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a>and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, 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>for 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

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread ideas and ethical principles that help humanity overcome tyranny, end slavery, reduce the threat of war, repeal or constrain other abuses of coercive power and achieve universal liberty, respect for human rights and a better world (perhaps ultimately, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Libertarian Futurist Society’s 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 freedom. Here\u2019s our Appreciation for Victor Koman\u2019s Kings of the High Frontier, the 1997 Best Novel winner. By Michael Grossberg Victor Koman\u2019s 1997 novel dramatizes … Continue reading Free enterprise in space: An Appreciation of Victor Koman\u2019s Kings of the High Frontier, the 1997 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":[43,159,2353,8,2429],"tags":[75,263,153,264,46,213,191,66],"class_list":["post-1305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-book-reviews","category-review","category-victor-koman","tag-brad-linaweaver","tag-kings-of-the-high-frontier","tag-nasa","tag-private-space-enterprise","tag-prometheus-awards","tag-solomons-knife","tag-the-jehovah-contract","tag-victor-koman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-l3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305","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=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7792,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions\/7792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}