The Libertarian Futurist Society announced the winners of this year’s Prometheus Awards, which will be handed out in a ceremony at Aussiecon 4, this year’s WorldCon (in Melbourne, Australia, 2-6 September). We detailed the nominees in this article.
The winner of the Best Novel award is The Unincorporated Man by Dani and Eytan Kollin (published by Tor Books). The Hall of Fame award winners is “No Truce with Kings” by Poul Anderson (first published in 1964). The Kollin brothers will each receive a plaque and a one-ounce gold coin, while a smaller gold coin and a plaque will be presented to Anderson’s estate.
Chris Hibbert, president of the Libertarian Futurist Society, says The Unincorporated Man is the first novel publication by the Kollin brothers. “It is the first novel in a planned trilogy to be published by Tor. The Unincorporated Man presents the idea that education and personal development could be funded by allowing investors to take a share of one’s future income. The novel explores the ways this arrangement would affect those who do not own a majority of the stock in themselves. For instance, often ones investors would have control of a person’s choices of where to live or work. The desire for power as an end unto itself and the negative consequences of the raw lust for power are shown in often great detail. The story takes a strong position that liberty is important and worth fighting for, and the characters spend their time pushing for different conceptions of what freedom is.”
Of “No Truce with Kings”, he says: “Like many science fiction stories of that era, it was set in a future that had endured a nuclear war. Anderson’s focus is not on the immediate disaster and the struggle to survive, but the later rebuilding; its central conflict is over what sort of civilization should be created. The story’s title comes from Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘The Old Issue’, which describes the struggle to bind kings and states with law and the threat of their breaking free. Anderson’s future California is basically a feudal society, founded on local loyalties, but it has a growing movement in favor of a centralized, impersonal state. As David Friedman remarked about this story, Anderson plays fair with his conflicting forces: both of them want the best for humanity, but one side is mistaken about what that is. This story is classic Anderson and, like many of his best stories, reveals his libertarian sympathies.”
Anderson’s previous wins include the Prometheus Award in 1995, for The Stars are Also Fire, the Hall of Fame Award (in 1995 for The Star Fox and in 1985 for Trader to the Stars). He also received a Special award for lifetime achievement in 2001.
The Prometheus awards honor “outstanding science fiction/fantasy that explores the possibilities of a free future, champions human rights (including personal and economic liberty), dramatizes the perennial conflict between individuals and coercive governments, or critiques the tragic consequences of abuse of power—especially by the State.” They were established—and are sponsored by—the Libertarian Futurist Society in 1979.