{"id":3710,"date":"2021-10-16T17:29:18","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T22:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2025-06-19T20:36:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T01:36:30","slug":"a-prometheus-milestone-a-progress-report-on-completion-of-the-blogs-hall-of-fame-appreciation-series-and-how-to-access-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/a-prometheus-milestone-a-progress-report-on-completion-of-the-blogs-hall-of-fame-appreciation-series-and-how-to-access-it\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prometheus milestone: a progress report on completion of the blog\u2019s Hall of Fame appreciation series, and how to access it"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prometheus Blog\u2019s ongoing Appreciation series has reached a milestone -after two productive years of regularly published review-essays exploring and explaining the libertarian and anti-authoritarian themes of past Prometheus winners.
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With the recent publication of an appreciative review-essay about the 2021 winner (F. Paul Wilson\u2019s short story \u201cLipidleggin\u2019)<\/a>, the appreciation series for the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction is now complete – and conveniently accessible via links from our Prometheus Awards page.<\/a><\/p>\n

Or at least it\u2019s now as up-to-date as possible \u2013 until next year\u2019s winner is announced.<\/p>\n

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The Libertarian Futurist Society, which launched the ambitious series in 2019 to celebrate the 40th\u00a0<\/sup>anniversary of the Prometheus Awards, plans to continue writing and publishing new appreciations each year of the latest winners of the two annual award categories for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

Appreciations for the Best Novel category are also now virtually up to date, with the recent posting of an appreciation for the 2020 winner: Alliance Rising,<\/em> by C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Best Novel appreciation series was mostly written, published and brought up to date in 2019 and 2020. As part of the first annual updates, we are planning to add an appreciation for the 2021 winner.<\/p>\n

THE BENEFITS OF READING THE APPRECIATIONS
\n<\/strong>If you\u2019ve ever wondered why a particular work of fiction has been recognized with a Prometheus Award and what libertarian sf fans see in these award-winning works, then our published series of Appreciations should be illuminating.<\/p>\n

If you have friends and acquaintances who don’t fully understand libertarianism or how the Prometheus Awards celebrate science fiction and fantasy that dramatizes libertarian and anti-authoritarian themes, they can now easily click on an Appreciation link next to a winning work from our Prometheus Awards page to find out why it was recognized.<\/p>\n

Plus, we hope that these review-essays will remind readers of works that otherwise might be overlooked in the 2020s \u2013 and that you\u2019re likely to find rewarding if you\u2019re simply looking for something enjoyable and stimulating to read within the realm of science fiction and fantasy \u2013 fiction that also happens to explore abiding questions about the perennial tensions between Liberty and Power.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From both the Prometheus blog index and the Libertarian Futurist Society website, you can now easily access the published review-essay appreciations\u201dof every Hall of Fame inductee from 1982 through 2021.<\/p>\n

That includes 46 appreciations of 45 Hall of Fame winners, from Ayn Rand\u2019s Atlas Shrugged\u00a0<\/em>(which merited two appreciations from different perspectives) and Anthem to<\/em>\u00a0George Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four\u00a0<\/em>and Animal Farm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Counting appreciations for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction winners, \u00a0we have now published seven for Robert Heinlein works (starting with The Moon is a Marsh Mistress<\/a>) – <\/em>a Prometheus Awards record for the most award-winning author.<\/p>\n

So far, other Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction appreciations have been published for five Poul Anderson<\/a> works, five F. Paul Wilson<\/a> works and three works each by Cory Doctorow<\/a>, Ken MacLeod<\/a> and L. Neil Smith.<\/a><\/p>\n

Plus, among our most notable appreciations are review-essays explaining why libertarians cherish J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s <\/a>The Lord of the Rings\u00a0<\/em>and Hans Christian Anderson\u2019s \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes.\u201d <\/em><\/a>(Just a hint: It has something to do with the tragic tendency for power to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely.)<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s something here for readers of all kinds and all ages \u2013 and with the now-published appreciations, LFS members, other libertarians and science fiction fans have an immediately accessible way to read why each Hall of Fame winner was inducted and how it dramatizes or illuminates the value of liberty and the dangers of tyranny.<\/p>\n

The third and final phase of the Appreciation series is scheduled to begin this fall with periodic postings (not necessarily every week) of each of the works of fiction that have received occasional Special Prometheus Awards over the years.<\/p>\n

That series of eight Special Award appreciations will begin soon with a review-essay of Free Space<\/em>, the first explicitly libertarian sf anthology and the first Prometheus Special awardwinner in 1998. (And stay tuned, because this Special Award series will include one appreciation by a guest contributor, Prometheus-winning novelist Travis Corcoran<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

HOW TO ACCESS THE APPRECIATIONS<\/strong>
\nFor your convenience, there are two easy ways to access past Appreciations:<\/p>\n

* Visit the \u201cAppreciation\u201d links added by Chris Hibbert to the past awards lists on the LFS website\u2019s Prometheus Awards page<\/a>. Just click on \u201cAppreciation\u201d to the right of each Prometheus winning title on the list and it will take you to the blog essay, no matter when it was published.<\/p>\n

* Or visit the Prometheus Blog page,<\/a> scroll down the left side past the \u201cRecent Posts,\u201d \u201cTop Posts,\u201d \u201cRecent Comments\u201d and \u201cArchives\u201d links until you come to \u201cCategories.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAppreciations\u201d is the first subcategory on the list, with subcategories just below for \u201cBest Novels,\u201d with 46 blog appreciations published so far; and \u201cHall of Fame (Classic Fiction),\u201d with 46 appreciations published so far.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also recently added a new category for \u201cYoung Adult Fiction,\u201d cross-referenced with 10 review-essays of winners selected from the Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction categories that we think are most suitable for young readers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Check It out \u2013 for yourself and your children or grandchildren \u2013 and let us know if you agree that these works of fiction work well to introduce new generations to the science-fiction and fantasy literature of liberty.<\/p>\n

Once the Special Awards series begins, an additional subcategory for \u201cSpecial Awards\u201d will appear on this list.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to scroll down further, on the left column of this blog, to see what links we\u2019ve added to reviews, essays and interviews under \u201cBest of the Blog\u201d \u2013 and at the bottom, under \u201cSelected Reviews\u201d (which includes both novels and films.)<\/p>\n

OUR INSPIRATION \u2013 AND OUR THANKS
\n<\/strong>Why did the LFS launch the series? And just how diverse are the past four decades and more of Prometheus winners?<\/p>\n

For more thoughts on that, read our introductory essay: \u201cA 40th\u00a0<\/sup>Anniversary Retrospective: Introducing a Reader\u2019s Guide to the Prometheus Award Winners.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

A 40th Anniversary Retrospective: Introducing a Reader\u2019s Guide to the Prometheus Award Winners<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n