{"id":9069,"date":"2025-05-26T00:03:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=9069"},"modified":"2025-05-27T20:38:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T01:38:06","slug":"sequels-part-7-sarah-hoyt-victor-milan-and-the-kollins-brothers-all-wrote-best-novel-winners-not-sequels-themselves-that-inspired-solid-sequels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/sequels-part-7-sarah-hoyt-victor-milan-and-the-kollins-brothers-all-wrote-best-novel-winners-not-sequels-themselves-that-inspired-solid-sequels\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequels, part 7: Sarah Hoyt, Victor Milan and the Kollins brothers all wrote Best Novel winners (not sequels themselves) that inspired solid sequels"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Quite a few good novels have inspired sequels that won a Prometheus Award – 11, by my latest count and all discussed in previous parts of this ongoing series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sarah Hoyt, the 2011 Prometheus winner (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When SF\/fantasy authors conceive original stories that imagine fresh worlds and compelling characters for the first time, it\u2019s not surprising that they occasionally choose to return to those worlds and characters for a sequel – especially if the first novel receives wide readership and acclaim.<\/p>\n

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

One such source of recognition is a Prometheus Award – and quite a few Best Novel winners, while not sequels themselves, have inspired sequels that have gone on to further Prometheus recognition at different levels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dani Kollin (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Previous posts in this series on sequels have explored two outstanding Prometheus-winning examples of this pattern: Travis Corcoran\u2019s The Powers of the Earth <\/i><\/a>and its sequel Causes of Separation;<\/i> and Cory Doctorow\u2019s Little Brother<\/a> <\/i>and its sequel Homeland. <\/i><\/a>All four novels ended up winning the top Prometheus Award for Best Novel – a rare feat in our award\u2019s 46-year history.<\/p>\n

Yet, several other Prometheus-winning authors have accomplished something approaching that feat – including Sarah Hoyt, Victor Milan and the brothers and co-authors Dani and Eytan Kollins.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although none of their sequels to their Best Novel winners won our top award, they all received further Prometheus recognition, from a basic nominations to being recognized among Best Novel finalists.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a fairly good indication that their SF\/fantasy fans, including LFS members found the sequels entertaining and satisfying follow-ups to previous favorites.<\/p>\n

SARAH HOYT\u2019S DARKSHIP NOVELS<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Darkship Thieves<\/i><\/a>, Sarah Hoyt\u2019s 2011 Best Novel winner, launched an engrossing series blending Heinleinesque adventure, romance and anarchy in the asteroids.<\/p>\n

Among Hoyt\u2019s sequels: Darkship Renegades, A Few Good Men<\/i> and Darkship Revenge, <\/i>all Best Novel finalists, and Through Fire<\/i>, a Best Novel nominee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first novel focuses on Athena Hera Sinistra, a reluctant heroine who never wanted to leave Earth or go into space.<\/p>\n

Forced to flee her father\u2019s luxury cruiser in a small lifeboat, Athena discovers the legendary Darkships, mysterious vessels that steal Earth\u2019s power supply.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Her unexpected journey leads her to a hidden asteroid colony, thriving amid challenges with an anarchy-capitalist economy and individualistic but highly cooperative frontier culture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Athena\u2019s experiences widen in Hoyt\u2019s sequels into a battle for survival against authoritarian Earth aristocrats and a larger quest for freedom that could transform humanity\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Some good news<\/a>: Hoyt recently mentioned plans to return to her Darkship Thieves series to write more novels.<\/p>\n

DANI AND EYTAN KOLLIN\u2019S UNINCORPORATED NOVELS<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Unincorporated Man,<\/i><\/a> 2010 winner Dani and Eytan Kollin\u2019s ingenious 2010 Prometheus Best Novel winner, explores core libertarian themes of self-ownership and liberty in a projected trilogy that expanded into a far-flung tetralogy.<\/p>\n

Set in an expansive but challenging solar-system-wide future, the story begins with a billionaire businessman, secretly frozen in the 21st century with hopes of life extension, who is revived and given a healthy young body.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In this drastically changed future, each person is formed into a legal corporation at birth. Most people must struggle for years to attain meaningful control over their own life by getting a majority of their own shares.<\/p>\n

Chronicling humanity\u2019s expansion throughout our solar system, the novels build to a war between the inner planets and the Outer Alliance, which stretches from the asteroid belt to the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto.<\/p>\n

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

Each novel in the tetralogy builds on its predecessors and expands to explore new settings and characters (including artificial intelligences) that complicate the suspenseful narrative and deepen its themes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Eytan Kollin (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the Kollin brothers\u2019 sequels: The Unincorporated War, The Unincorporated Woman<\/i> and The Unincorporated Future<\/i>, all Best Novel nominees with the latter becoming a finalist.<\/p>\n

VICTOR MILAN\u2019S CYBERNETIC SAMURAI NOVELS<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>During his life and long career, Victor Mil\u00e1n (2018) wrote almost 100 novels and many short stories, including several shared-universe works for the Star Trek, BattleTech, Wild Cards, Outlanders<\/i>\u00a0and Forgotten Realms<\/i>\u00a0series.<\/p>\n

Mil\u00e1n won the 1986 Best Novel award for Cybernetic Samurai,<\/i><\/a> a pioneering cyberpunk tale of love, duty and justice.<\/p>\n

One of the undeservedly forgotten works of the early cyberpunk scene, Mil\u00e1n\u2019s prescient 1985 novel explores the tensions between duty and free will, duty and love and duty and justice in a harsh future where some people struggle to be free within a largely totalitarian Earth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Imagining a 21st century between the third and fourth world wars in a story whose hero is the world\u2019s first sentient computer, Milan portrays a bloody and terrible future in which much of the world is destroyed but Japan becomes the last refuge of a dying free society and free market.<\/p>\n

Although the computer-being, named Tokugawa by his female creator Dr. O\u2019Neill, is imbued with personality and a sense of honor and immediately can access the world\u2019s accumulated knowledge, he begins his self-aware life as ignorant and as innocent as a child and develops to maturity with help from an unauthorized \u201chalf-pacifist libertarian\u201d mentor Michiko.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Victor Milan at an sf convention panel (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the success of Cybernetic Samurai,<\/i> Milan wrote a sequel: The Cybernetic Shogun.<\/em> Both novels were praised as two of his best works by his old friend, bestselling novelist George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones),<\/i> in a tribute after Mil\u00e1n\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Cybernetic Shogun,<\/i> a 1991 Prometheus Best Novel finalist, focuses on the aftermath of an act of nuclear hara-kiri initiated by the first computer to possess genuine intelligence, as the superconductor samurai’s two offspring battle over how best to save humanity from total destruction.<\/p>\n

Brimming with thought-provoking drama and mature insights, Milan\u2019s duology poignantly raises perennial questions for liberty lovers: Is power inevitable?<\/p>\n

Can anyone wield proper and limited power responsibly without abusing it? Can something with ultimate power consider and act on the ultimate sacrifice?<\/p>\n

Good questions to ponder – in an original novel or a sequel.<\/p>\n

For further reading:<\/b> Other sequels that have won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel are discussed in Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a> , Part 3<\/a>, Part 4<\/a>, Part 5<\/a> and Part 6<\/a> of this Prometheus Blog series exploring the popularity and appeal of sequels.<\/p>\n

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

ABOUT THE LFS AND 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 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.<\/p>\n

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 Quite a few good novels have inspired sequels that won a Prometheus Award – 11, by my latest count and all discussed in previous parts of this ongoing series. When SF\/fantasy authors conceive original stories that imagine fresh worlds and compelling characters for the first time, it\u2019s not surprising that they occasionally … Continue reading Sequels, part 7: Sarah Hoyt, Victor Milan and the Kollins brothers all wrote Best Novel winners (not sequels themselves) that inspired solid sequels<\/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":[32,2206,2605],"tags":[2619,424,18,172,416,171],"class_list":["post-9069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-sarah-hoyt","category-sequels","tag-dani-and-eytan-kollins","tag-darkship-thieves","tag-sarah-hoyt","tag-the-cybernetic-samurai","tag-the-unincorporated-man","tag-victor-milan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2mh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069","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=9069"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9223,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9069\/revisions\/9223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}