{"id":9934,"date":"2025-11-29T00:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T06:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=9934"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:54:50","slug":"how-arc-manor-books-caezik-sf-fantasy-and-phoenix-pick-support-prometheus-winning-authors-including-this-years-best-novel-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/how-arc-manor-books-caezik-sf-fantasy-and-phoenix-pick-support-prometheus-winning-authors-including-this-years-best-novel-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"How Arc Manor Books, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and Phoenix Pick support Prometheus-winning authors, including this year\u2019s Best Novel winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Besides the late great Michael Flynn, Arc Manor Books has published quite a few other Prometheus-winning authors – including Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, L. Neil Smith, Harry Turtledove and Jack Williamson.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Two of Arc Manor\u2019s major imprints are CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, launched in 2020 with a \u201cnew\u201d previously unpublished novel by Robert A. Heinlein, and Phoenix Pick, which reprints classic SF and Fantasy \u201cfrom the ashes\u201d of other publishing houses, with some new titles.<\/p>\n

Thus, the Maryland-based small-press, created by Shahid Mahmud in 2006 to utilize the exciting new emerging technologies being developed in the publishing marketplace, should be better known, especially by Libertarian Futurist Society members and other freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

ARC MANOR\u2019S AWARD-WINNING IMPRINTS<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Through his CAEZIK SF & Fantasy and Phoenix Pick imprints as well as through Arc Manor, Mahmud has published works of science fiction and fantasy that have won the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Prometheus Award, and IBPA\u2019s Franklin Award and have been nominated for the Hugo and Sidewise awards.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an impressive track record for such a relatively young publisher.<\/p>\n

THREE PROMETHEUS WINNERS<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Looking over its current slate of books and back list on the Arc Manor website<\/a>, the publisher is offering Flynn\u2019s In the Belly of the Whale,<\/em><\/a> the 2025 Prometheus Best Novel winner; Smith\u2019s novel Pallas<\/a>, <\/i>which won the 1994 Prometheus Award for Best Novel and James Hogan\u2019s The Multiplex Man<\/i>, which won the 1990 Prometheus Award for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s nice to see that all three works are explicitly described on the Arc Manor website as Prometheus Best Novel winners.<\/p>\n

HOGAN, HEINLEIN AND ANDERSON
\n<\/b>
\nAlso available are Hogan\u2019s novels Code of the Lifemaker <\/i>and The Immortality Option, <\/i>and Flynn\u2019s collection The Forest of Time and Other Stories.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first book to be published in 2020 under the new Arc manor imprint of CAEZIK SF & Fantasy was a rediscovered Heinlein novel, The Pursuit of the Pankera<\/a>, which went on to become a Locus magazine national bestseller.<\/p>\n

Among the other Heinlein books available from the publisher are Double Star, Expanded Universe, Friday,<\/a> The Number of the Beast <\/i>and Podkayne of Mars.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s works reprinted under Phoenix Picks at Arc Manor include The Burning Bridge<\/i> and Security.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
L. Neil Smith, as drawn by Scott Bieser (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

L. NEIL SMITH\u2019S LEGACY
\n<\/b>
\nMahmud had a long working relationship with Smith, and is today the major publisher of the late libertarian-sf novelist (1946-2021). Smith won three Prometheus Best Novel awards for The Probability Broach<\/a>, Pallas <\/i>and The Forge of the Elders<\/em><\/a> and received a Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2016.<\/p>\n

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

Other Smith novels, almost all Prometheus nominees or finalists, available from Arc Manor include Ceres<\/i>, (the sequel to Pallas<\/i> and Book II of the Ngu Family Saga), Tom Paine Maru, The Venus Belt, Brightsuit MacBear, The Crystal Empire, Blade of p\u2019Na, Their Majesties\u2019 Bucketeers, Taflak Lysandra <\/i>and Sweeter Than Wine.<\/i><\/p>\n

Also available: Smith\u2019s nonfiction book Down With Power: Libertarian Policy In a Time of Crisis.<\/i><\/p>\n

NIVEN AND POURNELLE\u2019S OATH OF FEALTY<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Oath of Fealty, <\/i>by Niven and Pournelle, might be especially timely to read or reread, since it was recently discussed by leading libertarian theorist David D. Friedman.<\/p>\n

Friedman, an economist, law-and-economics professor and Prometheus-nominated novelist. Friedman commented on one of the themes and lessons of Oath of Fealty<\/em> in his speech<\/a> as guest presenter of this year’s Prometheus Hall of Fame award.<\/p>\n

Friedman discussed the impact of the works of Heinlein, Niven, Pournelle and Poul Anderson on the evolution of his libertarian views and economic theories during the 45th Prometheus Awards ceremony, presented live Aug. 30, 2025, and recorded for posting on YouTube and the LFS website\u2019s Videos page.<\/p>\n

To join the free subscription list for Arc Manor and get email updates and book offers, visit
\nhttps:\/\/www.arcmanorbooks.com\/<\/a><\/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 international 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