{"id":9282,"date":"2025-05-31T20:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T01:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=9282"},"modified":"2025-06-01T21:44:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T02:44:45","slug":"in-their-own-ways-the-2025-best-novel-finalists-embody-the-dramatic-potential-of-novels-with-epic-scope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/in-their-own-ways-the-2025-best-novel-finalists-embody-the-dramatic-potential-of-novels-with-epic-scope\/","title":{"rendered":"In their own ways, the 2025 Best Novel finalists embody the dramatic potential of novels with epic scope\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

One aspect of fantastical fiction that can make it especially vivid and dramatic is when authors create an imaginative story with epic scope.<\/p>\n

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

A work of fiction that offers such a vast and even cosmic perspective can enhance that distinctive sense of wonder that has defined some of the best science fiction or fantasy.<\/p>\n

Each of this year\u2019s Prometheus Best Novel finalists benefits in some ways from aspiring to and achieving great scope.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

THE ENHANCED VISTAS OF A SERIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

While individual novels can attain epic scope, writers often can achieve it more easily by creating on a much larger canvas – such as writing a series of linked novels or sequels set within the same fictional universe.<\/p>\n

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

Among this year\u2019s five Best Novel finalists, one finds that larger canvas most obviously in the two sequel novels: Alliance Unbound<\/a>,<\/i> C.J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher\u2019s direct sequel to the 2020 Best Novel winner Alliance Rising<\/i><\/a> and set within the Alliance-Union future history; and Beggar\u2019s Sky<\/a>,<\/i> Wil McCarthy\u2019s sequel to the 2022 Best Novel winner Rich Man\u2019s Sky <\/i><\/a>and the third book in what\u2019s likely to end up as a tetralogy.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Prometheus finalists skillfully show us new vistas, fresh situations and new characters in their future histories about humanity\u2019s exploration and developments beyond our solar system – and make us want to see more.<\/p>\n

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

Other examples of superior SF\/fantasy series, which I rank among my favorites, include Lois McMaster Bujold\u2019s The Vorkosigan Saga (including her Prometheus-winning Falling Free<\/a>)<\/i>, Orson Scott Card\u2019s Ender series, Frank Herbert\u2019s Dune<\/i> novels, Terry Pratchett\u2019s Discworld comedy-fantasy series (including the Prometheus-winning Night Watch<\/i><\/a> and The Truth<\/i><\/a>), Alastair Reynolds\u2019 Revelation Space (including Machine Vendetta, <\/i><\/a>nominated this year for Best Novel), and Neal Stephenson\u2019s Baroque Cycle (including his Prometheus-winning The System of the World.)<\/a>
\n<\/i>
\nROBERT HEINLEIN’S EPIC CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet, in some ways, I think it\u2019s even more impressive when an author can build a world of epic scope within one book.<\/p>\n

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

One of my favorites in that regard is Citizen of the Galaxy,<\/i><\/a> perhaps the best and certainly the most epic story of Robert Heinlein\u2019s many beloved sf \u201cjuveniles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inducted in 2022 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, Citizen of the Galaxy<\/i> offers a coming-of-age story that takes its central character Thorby from boyhood to adulthood, from the lowest class to the highest and from slavery to freedom.<\/p>\n

In the process, Thorby experiences the many different levels and conditions of life on different planets and becomes fully familiar with the extremes, pluses and negatives of his future interstellar civilization – a truly vast range indeed, and brilliantly revealed by Heinlein through Thorby\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Reading the current crop of Prometheus Best Novel finalists, I was reminded of Citizen of the Galaxy<\/i> in particular as a good example of the potential rewards when a novel takes its central character from one end of a society and world to the other.<\/p>\n

MICHAEL FLYNN’S IN THE BELLY OF THE WHALE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In addition to Alliance Unbound <\/i>and Beggar\u2019s Sky,<\/i> Michael Flynn\u2019s In the Belly of the Whale<\/i><\/a> ends up showing us every corner and class and conflict within its focus – a large asteroid ship with 40,000 human colonists, facing a variety of technological, social and political problems two centuries into a much longer projected voyage to establish a colony in another star system.<\/p>\n

LIONEL SHRIVER’S MANIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meanwhile, Lionel Shriver\u2019s Mania,<\/i><\/a> set within an alternate-history recent America, focuses on a radically individualistic teacher and mother who\u2019s canceled for questioning the deranged new egalitarian orthodoxy denying any variability in intelligence or talent. Yet, ultimately, Shriver\u2019s darkly satirical and cautionary fable reveals a complete picture of this brave new world and how everything is warped by the latest mania.<\/p>\n

DANNY KING’S CANCELLED<\/strong><\/p>\n

Danny King\u2019s Cancelled: The Shape of Things to Come<\/a>, <\/i>roughly parallel in many ways to\u00a0Shriver\u2019s Mania<\/em> as a timely dystopian warning about the excesses of true believers, achieves the same epic scope in a somewhat different way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Through King\u2019s relentless focus on his protagonist Sienna as the single narrator, we see the brave new world of an an authoritarian New Britannia through her eyes.<\/p>\n

Initially in a privileged position in this dystopian future dominated by a progressive-feminist politics warped into a totalitarian pseudo-religion, Sienna eventually is reduced in status and forced to open her eyes to the many downsides and hidden horrors of her world.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Cancelled<\/i> reveals New Britannia from its top to its bottom, completing an epic arc of disillusionment, comeuppance and bittersweet redemption.<\/p>\n

Where Heinlein\u2019s hero in Citizen<\/i> begins as a slave, achieves his freedom and rises to the top of his interstellar future, though, King\u2019s Sienna goes through the same radical and disruptive transformation – but in reverse, reduced from privilege to slavery and the brink of death.<\/p>\n

For some, that reverse progression may make Cancelled<\/i> more difficult to read and appreciate than Heinlein\u2019s more optimistic and inspiring juvenile classic.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the dystopian aspects dramatized in both Mania <\/i>and In the Belly of the Whale<\/i> may make these Best Novel finalists more daunting to experience, at least at first, than the more positive glimpses of our possible future explored by McCarthy, Cherryh and Fancher.<\/p>\n

But patient readers will be rewarded by all five Best Novel finalists, each a powerful and haunting work of fantastical fiction that sparks deeper thoughts while touching the emotions and expanding our imagination.<\/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 One aspect of fantastical fiction that can make it especially vivid and dramatic is when authors create an imaginative story with epic scope. A work of fiction that offers such a vast and even cosmic perspective can enhance that distinctive sense of wonder that has defined some of the best science fiction … Continue reading In their own ways, the 2025 Best Novel finalists embody the dramatic potential of novels with epic scope\u2028<\/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],"tags":[2545,1540,414,671,2581,2549,2655,2129,407,1372,2310,204,1484],"class_list":["post-9282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay","tag-alliance-unbound","tag-beggars-sky","tag-best-novel-finalists","tag-c-j-cherryh","tag-cancelled","tag-danny-king","tag-epic-scope","tag-in-the-belly-of-the-whale","tag-jane-s-fancher","tag-lionel-shriver","tag-mania","tag-michael-flynn","tag-wil-mccarthy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2pI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282","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=9282"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9291,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282\/revisions\/9291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}