FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Dec. 8, 2020

2021 PROMETHEUS HALL OF FAME AWARD FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The Libertarian Futurist Society has selected five finalists for the 2021 Hall of Fame Award. This year's finalists are:

• The Winter of the World, a 1975 novel by Poul Anderson, envisions a distant future Earth whose civilizations are recovering from the destructive impact of an ice age. A rising imperial power based at the future mouth of the Mississippi River seeks to conquer the thinly populated lands to the north and meets unexpected opposition.
• "As Easy as A.B.C.," by Rudyard Kipling (first published 1912 in London Magazine), the second of his "airship utopia" stories, envisions a twenty-first century world founded on free travel, the rule of law, and an inherited abhorrence of crowds. Officials of the Aerial Board of Control are summoned to the remote town of Chicago, which is convulsed by a small group's demands for revival of the nearly forgotten institution of democracy. Notable for its bitter condemnation of lynching and mob violence.
• "The Trees," a 1978 song by Rush (released on their album Hemispheres), presents a fable of envy, revolution, and coercive egalitarianism among the different kinds of trees that make up a forest.
• Emphyrio, a 1969 novel by Jack Vance, portrays a world where skilled craftsmen are economically exploited by a state-imposed monopoly that markets their work to off-planet buyers, and prohibits the use of labor-saving devices and mass production. Assuming the name of a legendary hero, a young craftsman struggles against bureaucratic officials and aristocratic rulers, seeking the truth about his society and its history.
• "Lipidleggin'," a story by F. Paul Wilson (first published 1978 in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine), takes a humorous look at a future United States where saturated fats have become controlled substances.

In addition to these nominees, the Prometheus Hall of Fame Finalist Judging Committee considered five other works: Watership Down, by Richard Adams; The End of Eternity, by Isaac Asimov; Time Will Run Back/The Great Idea, by Henry Hazlitt; director Nicholas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell to Earth (based on a novel by Walter Tevis); and A Time of Changes, by Robert Silverberg.

The final vote will take place in mid-2021. All Libertarian Futurist Society members are eligible to vote. The award will be presented at a major science fiction convention.

Nominations for the 2021 Hall of Fame Award can be submitted to committee chair William H. Stoddard (halloffame@lfs.org) at any time. All LFS members are eligible to nominate. Nominees may be in any narrative or dramatic form, including prose fiction, stage plays, film, television, other video, graphic novels, song lyrics, or epic or narrative verse; they must explore themes relevant to libertarianism and must be science fiction, fantasy, or related genres.

First presented in 1979 (for Best Novel) and presented annually since 1982, the Prometheus Awards have recognized outstanding works of science fiction and fantasy that dramatize the perennial conflict between Liberty and Power, favor private social cooperation over legalized coercion, expose abuses and excesses of obtrusive government, critique or satirize authoritarian ideas, or champion individual rights and freedoms as the mutually respectful foundation for peace, prosperity, progress, justice, tolerance, civility, and civilization itself.

The awards include gold coins and plaques for the winners for Best Novel, Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame), and occasional Special Awards. The Prometheus Award is one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in sf.

The LFS welcomes new members who are interested in science fiction and the future of freedom. More information is available at our website, www.lfs.org.