Dear Anders,

On the same day I received your e-mail that Robert Sawyer’s Free Space story made the final Hugo ballot, I saw the May issue of Liberty in which Victor Koman does a fine job of defending the anthology against a bad review it received from Martin Morse Wooster. Quite a day for Free Space.

There is more to say about Liberty. Following Victor Koman’s piece, and a defense of L. Neil Smith by Rex May, there is a letter from Michael Grossberg and Victoria Varga that almost defies description. They quote Sturgeon’s Law in the first paragraph; Sturgeon’s Law that states 90 percent of everything is crap. Ted Sturgeon never would have applied his law to an anthology or a collection.

Grossberg and Varga have “a few serious disagreements” with Wooster, but that doesn’t stop them from applauding—yes, applauding—his “hard-hitting critique.”

The LFS is being respectful to a man who says that Neil Smith is an unreadable hack. As for some other Free Spacers. Bill Buckley’s story is forgettable, Dafydd ab Hugh’s is ludicrous, Neil Schulman’s is wildly implausible and I do gassy monologues (such as this letter, no doubt). Writing in the pages of Liberty, Wooster ignores that one of the Free Space contributors is Wendy McElroy who has written vast amounts of material for Liberty! That alone says it all.

Wooster makes light of James P. Hogan; and ignores Ray Bradbury and Robert Anton Wilson.

I could go on but the point is made. Most Free Space contributors who won the Prometheus Award are attacked or ignored by Wooster, and all the LFS can think to do is send in a kiss-ass letter! I do not understand why Michael Grossberg is so tolerant of our enemy, Martin Morse Wooster. And if Grossberg doesn’t recognize an enemy when it comes wreathed in garlands of malice, then what good does he do in a fighting organization? The LFS is not here to apologize to those who despise our winners.

If there is a future for the Prometheus Award, the fearless leaders of the LFS shouldn’t work so hard to make enemies out of past winners.

— Brad Linaweaver