Vernor Vinge's Acceptance Speech

An address given at the 1987 NASFiC, CactusCon, on September 5th. Vinge won the Prometheus Award for his 1986 novel, Marooned in Realtime. This speech was read by Vinge's editor, Jim Baen, of Baen Books.

I am very proud to receive the Prometheus Award. Speculative fiction provides a marvelous opportunity to speak of issues in an environment where readers are willing to give new or different ideas a chance. The Prometheus Award is a great encouragement to those who want to write good stories about the ideas of liberty and rights and wrongs. It is an honor to Join the company of Neil Smith, Jim Hogan, Neil Schulman, and Victor Milán.

I am told that the trophy itself is a half-ounce Hayek gold piece. I don't know of any award whose trophy is more appropriate, both as art and as substance. In fact, the intrinsic merit is so great that Jim Baen has suggested he hold the piece against my advance on royalties; I have assured him I will come after him for it in the very near future.

I would like to thank David Friedman for writing The Machinery of Freedom. I would like to thank my editors, Stan Schmidt, Jim Frenkel, and Jim Baen for getting Marooned in Realtime into print and keeping it there. Finally, I want to thank [the members of LFS] for liking the story.