Libertarian Futurist Society
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the 2018 Prometheus Award winners for Best Novel and the Prometheus Hall of Fame (Best Classic Fiction). The Society has chosen The Powers of the Earth, by Travis Corcoran, as the 2018 winner in the Best Novel category of the 38th annual Prometheus Awards. LFS members also voted to induct "With Folded Hands …", a 1947 short story by Grand Master Jack Williamson, into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for best classic fiction.
The LFS, which has presented the Prometheus Awards annually since the early 1980s at the World Science Fiction Convention, will hold this year's ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17, in the San Jose McEnery Convention Center during San Jose Worldcon 76. The Powers of the Earth (Morlock Publishing), the first volume in The Aristillus Series, is set in a near-future ungoverned lunar settlement, developed while Earth leaders ignored and denied its existence. The settlement struggles to retain its independence from Earth's invading force in Corcoran's panoramic story about people carrying on their lives in liberty. Corcoran's novel is both a tribute to Robert Heinlein's classic The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and a re-examination of its assumptions about how such a lunar colony would function, and what kinds of people would live there.
Other Best Novel finalists: by Doug Casey and John Hunt (High Ground Books);
Williamson (1908-2006) was the second writer after Robert Heinlein to be named Grand Master of Science Fiction (in 1976) by the Science Fiction Writers of America. His novelette "With Folded Hands …", inspired by Williamson's lifelong distrust of "benevolent" but intrusive paternalism and published in 1947 in Astounding, launched his Humanoids Series (including the 1949 novel The Humanoids and the 1980 sequel The Humanoid Touch) which explored the disastrous and authoritarian implications of powerful new technology (robots with an imperative to control and protect humans) to undermine individual liberty and moral autonomy.
Other Hall of Fame finalists:"Starfog," a short story (1967) by Poul Anderson; "As Easy as A.B.C.,"a short story (1912) by Rudyard Kipling; The Island Worlds, a novel (1986) by Eric Kotani and John Maddox Roberts; and "Conquest by Default," a short story (1968) by Vernor Vinge. The annual Prometheus Hall of Fame award is open to works published or broadcast at least five years ago in any narrative or dramatic form, including novels, stories, stage plays, film, television, other video, graphic novels, song lyrics, or epic or narrative verse.
The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established and first presented in 1979, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in sf.
Presented annually since 1982 at the World Science Fiction Convention, the Prometheus Awards include a gold coin and plaque for the winners – with a one-ounce gold prize for Best Novel and smaller gold coins for the Prometheus Hall of Fame (for Best Classic Fiction in all written and broadcast/on-screen mediums) and the occasional Prometheus Special awards.
For close to four decades, the Prometheus Awards have recognized outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that dramatize the perennial conflict between Liberty and Power, favor cooperation over coercion, expose the abuses and excesses of government, critique or satirize authoritarian ideas, or champion individual rights and freedoms as the mutually respectful foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, mutual respect, and civilization itself.
For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in all categories, visit www.lfs.org. Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is open to any science fiction fan interested in how fiction can promote a broader appreciation of the value of liberty and respect for natural rights.
For more information, contact LFS Publicity Chair Chris Hibbert (publicity@lfs.org)
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