{"id":9183,"date":"2025-10-12T00:03:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T05:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=9183"},"modified":"2025-11-02T17:24:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T23:24:48","slug":"sequels-part-9-by-the-numbers-prometheus-awards-history-is-full-of-best-novel-sequels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/sequels-part-9-by-the-numbers-prometheus-awards-history-is-full-of-best-novel-sequels\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequels, part 9: By the numbers, Prometheus Awards history is full of Best Novel sequels"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a>
\n<\/b>
\nThroughout the 46-year history of the Prometheus Award, 505 novels have been nominated for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s a surprisingly large number, at least to me – and a cumulative total that I don\u2019t believe has been calculated and reported before, or at least not in many years.<\/p>\n

Yet, when I counted them up recently, I was even more surprised by the number of Best Novel nominees that turn out to be sequels. (Quite a few were hard to identify as sequels, by the way, until I researched each title – with some so obscure, and not immediately recognizable as sequels when nominated and read by Prometheus judges and LFS members, because many work fine as stand-alone stories without any obvious indications of previous works.)<\/p>\n

Can you guess how many Best Novel nominees have been sequels?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Here\u2019s the answer: 194 sequels have been nominated- or almost 40 percent of all Best Novel nominees. (That doesn\u2019t include the many additional candidates for nomination considered, read and discussed by Prometheus judges and other LFS members over the decades that ultimately were not formally nominated for our award.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an astonishingly high quotient, and far more than I imagined when I started counting them up, or even after I began writing this Prometheus blog series about the popularity of sequels and their particular challenges.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Beyond that, quite a few nominated sequels have become Best Novel finalists.<\/p>\n

That includes two of this past year\u2019s Best Novel finalists: C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher\u2019s Alliance Unbound<\/i><\/a> (the sequel to Alliance Rising<\/a>,<\/em> the 2020 Best Novel winner) and Wil McCarthy\u2019s Beggar\u2019s Sky<\/a> <\/i>(the sequel to Rich Man\u2019s Sky<\/a>,<\/em> the 2022 Best Novel winner.)<\/p>\n

(Read a report with capsule descriptions<\/a> of all five 2025 Best Novel finalists.)<\/p>\n

THE 11 SEQUELS THAT HAVE WON BEST NOVEL
\n<\/b>
\nOverall, 11 nominated sequels have gone on to win the Prometheus Award.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s about 24 percent of the 46 Best Novel winners since the Prometheus Awards were first presented in 1979.<\/p>\n

All have been discussed in previous parts of this series about the popularity and challenges of sequels, but here for the first time is the full list, including the year each work won its Prometheus Award:<\/p>\n

* Daniel Suarez\u2019s Critical Mass<\/i><\/a> (2024)
\n* Barry Longyear\u2019s The Hook <\/i><\/a>(2021)
\n* Travis Corcoran\u2019s Causes of Separation<\/i><\/a> (2019)
\n* Cory Doctorow\u2019s Homeland<\/i><\/a> (2014)
\n* Jo Walton\u2019s Ha\u2019Penny<\/i><\/a> (2008)
\n* Neal Stephenson\u2019s The System of the World<\/i> <\/a>(2005)
\n* Vernor Vinge\u2019s A Deepness in the Sky <\/i><\/a>(2000)
\n* Ken MacLeod\u2019s The Stone Canal <\/i><\/a>(1998)
\n* Poul Anderson\u2019s The Stars Are Also Fire <\/i><\/a>(1995)
\n* Vernor Vinge\u2019s Marooned in Real Time<\/a> <\/i>(1987)
\n* F. Paul Wilson\u2019s Wheels Within Wheels<\/i><\/a> (1979)<\/p>\n

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

SEQUELS AND SERIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, the above list doesn\u2019t include a few winners that work well as stand-alone novels, with self-contained stories that aren\u2019t direct sequels to any previous novel, but also are part of a much-larger series of novels and stories set within the same fictional universe.<\/p>\n

Science fiction and fantasy authors have frequently and for generations tended to return to the same fictional universe, once imagined and richly detailed, to write fresh stories that aren\u2019t formal sequels. I consider such \u201cseries\u201d fiction to be distinct from sequels, at least for the purposes of this series exploring the particular challenges and pleasures of writing and reading sequels.<\/p>\n

Still, two other Best Novel winners within the \u201cseries\u201d category deserve at least a brief mention here, if only because in some ways, they also can be considered sort-of sequels.<\/p>\n

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

Terry Pratchett\u2019s Night Watch,<\/i><\/a> the 2003 Best Novel winner, is set within his vast Discworld fantasy series.<\/p>\n

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

C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher\u2019s Alliance Rising<\/em><\/a>, the 2020 Best Novel winner, is set within Cherryh\u2019s vast Alliance-Union series, with many separate novels dramatizing different aspects of her interstellar-colony future history.<\/p>\n

And of course, Robert Heinlein<\/a> wrote many of his novels and stories – including quite a few of his nine works inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction – within what he informally grouped together for convenience, clarity and internal consistency into a loose future history of humanity\u2019s emergence into an interstellar civilization.<\/p>\n

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

Whether direct sequels or loosely tied together in series, such novels provide readers with the pleasures of returning to favorite fictional worlds and beloved characters for more adventures while adding fresh twists and levels of detail and discovery.<\/p>\n

For further reading: <\/b>The 11 sequels that have won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel, along with other Prometheus winners that inspired sequels, are discussed in Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a> , Part 3<\/a>, Part 4<\/a>, Part 5<\/a>, Part 6<\/a>,\u00a0 Part 7,<\/a> Part 8<\/a>\u00a0of this Prometheus Blog series exploring the popularity and appeal of sequels.<\/p>\n

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

ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS AND THE LFS<\/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. 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 Throughout the 46-year history of the Prometheus Award, 505 novels have been nominated for Best Novel. That\u2019s a surprisingly large number, at least to me – and a cumulative total that I don\u2019t believe has been calculated and reported before, or at least not in many years. Yet, when I counted them … Continue reading Sequels, part 9: By the numbers, Prometheus Awards history is full of Best Novel 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":[9,1910,2205,2204,1861,1860,2605,2021],"tags":[306,594,122,2262,2727,399,190,342,46,1557,341,1174,240,260,350,72],"class_list":["post-9183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay","category-f-paul-wilson","category-ken-macleod","category-neal-stephenson","category-poul-anderson","category-robert-heinlein","category-sequels","category-vernor-vinge","tag-a-deepness-in-the-sky","tag-best-novel","tag-causes-of-separation","tag-critical-mass","tag-hapennny","tag-homeland","tag-marooned-in-real-time","tag-night-watch","tag-prometheus-awards","tag-sequels","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-hook","tag-the-stars-are-also-fire","tag-the-stone-canal","tag-the-system-of-the-world","tag-wheels-within-wheels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2o7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9183","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=9183"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10014,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9183\/revisions\/10014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}