Samurai, Syndic, and Illuminatus Win

Victor Milán's epic novel, The Cybernetic Samurai, won the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Award for 1986. Samurai is the story of a future Japan, a computer that becomes sentient, and the computer's metamorphosis from a samurai-trained "youngster" to an anarchist "adult."'

Milán's book defeated four other finalists for the award—Glen Cook's A Matter of Time, Philip K. Dick's Radio Free Albemuth, Kay Nolte Smith's Elegy for a Soprano, and L. Neil Smith's The Gallatin Divergence.

Two novels were entered into the LFS Hall of Fame—The Syndic by C.M. Kornbluth, and The Illuminatus! by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Kornbluth's The Syndic is a fascinating tale of an anarchist "United States" run by a future benevolent version of the Mafia. Only this Syndicate mostly serves as a supplier and protector, and not at all as a ruler. As Kornbluth died in 1958, Frederic Pohl, who often collaborated with Kornbluth, very graciously accepted the award for him.

Accepting the award for The Illuminatus! was co-author Robert Shea. Shea gave a marvelous acceptance speech which was full of praise for R. A. Wilson. (All speeches are reproduced in this issue.)

Wilson and Shea's conspiracy novel makes the reader distrust every authority, which from a libertarian standpoint can only be to the good.

The awards were presented at Confederation, the World Science Fiction Convention in Atlanta on September 1st. Brad Linaweaver was the moderator, Victoria Varga presented the Hall of Fame awards, and J. Neil Schulman, former Prometheus Award winner for The Rainbow Cadenza, presented the Prometheus Award to Victor Milán.