The Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS) has announced the finalists for this year’s Prometheus Awards (for the best pro-freedom novel of 2010) and the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, which “honors novels, novellas, stories, graphic novels, anthologies, films, TV shows/series, plays, poems, music recordings and other works of fiction first published or broadcast more than five years ago.”
The Prometheus Award finalists (along with brief descriptions by LFS Board President Chris Hibbert) are:
For the Win by Cory Doctorow (Tor): “A portrait of a future in which the world’s poor adopt entrepreneurial strategies and Internet/virtual technologies to challenge the statist status quo and achieve freedom through self-empowerment. Doctorow has been nominated several times for the Prometheus Award and won in 2009 for Little Brother.”
Darkship Thieves by Sarah Hoyt (Baen): “Features an exciting, coming-of-age saga in which a heroic woman fights for her freedom and identity against a tyrannical Earth. Hoyt’s novel depicts a plausible anarchist society among the asteroids. This is Hoyt’s first time as Prometheus finalist.”
The Last Trumpet Project by Kevin MacArdry (self-published): “Tells the story of a future in which virtual reality and uploading people’s minds into computers have merged. In this milieu, freedom struggle against a tyrannical government allied with religious zealots who will go to any length to ensure their vision of the future. The hopeful and utopian work is MacArdry’s first published novel.”
Live Free or Die by John Ringo (Baen): “Rollicking saga of entrepreneurial humans using free-market capitalism and the spirit of old-fashioned Yankee individualism to defend Earth from imperialist aliens after first contact embroils us in galactic politics. This is Ringo’s first time as a Prometheus finalist.”
Ceres, by L. Neil Smith (Big Head Press): “The sequel to Smith’s Prometheus Award-winning novel Pallas (1994), dramatizes a conflict between a libertarian society based in the asteroids and a statist Earth government. Smith also won the Prometheus Award for The Probability Broach (1982) and The Forge of the Elders (2001).”
Additionally, Hibbert offers the list of almosts, noting “Ten novels published in 2010 were nominated for this year’s Best Novel category. The other nominees were Directive 51 by John Barnes (Ace); Zendegi by Greg Egan (Night Shade); Migration by James Hogan (Baen); The Unincorporated War by Dani and Eytan Kollin (Tor) [according to our records, this book was published in 2009, since it was a Prometheus nominee last year]; and A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Tor).”
This year’s five finalists for the 2011 Hall of Fame Award were chosen from 21 nominated narrative and dramatic works. In chronological order, the finalists are:
“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster (1909). A short story portraying the breakdown of a dystopian future society whose inhabitants are dependent on a technology they can no longer control or understand. Forster described the story as a reaction against H.G. Wells’s visions of the future.
“As Easy as A.B.C.” by Rudyard Kipling (1912). A short story exploring the political implications of worldwide freedom of movement, unusual for its time in its bitter condemnation of racial hatred.
Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945). A short novel, retells the story of the Russian Revolution in the literary form of beast fable, reflecting the post-World War II disillusionment of many communists.
“‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison (1965). A short story about an absurdist rebellion against a future society of enforced conformity. Ellison’s structural and stylistic experiments made him a key figure in the New Wave of 1960s science fiction.
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (1988). A hard science fiction novel about genetically engineered “quaddies” seeking freedom from their corporate creators and owners. Bujold’s engineer hero embodies not only technological competence but professional and ethical dedication to truth and integrity.
Ellison’s story was a finalist for the Hall of Fame last year. Kipling’s has been on the ballot the last four years. Bujold’s novel was on the ballot two years ago.
All members of the Libertarian Futurist Society are eligible to vote, in June and early July. The winners will be announced after the counting of the votes, and the award will be presented at Renovation, this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, in August, in Reno, Nevada.
The Prometheus awards for Best Novel, Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) and (occasionally) Special 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.