NEWS | 2011 Prometheus Award Finalists for Best Libertarian Novel Announced

Finalists for the 2011 Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel were announced just yesterday. One finalist, Ceres, by past award-winner L. Neil Smith, has already been reviewed on Prometheus Unbound. Also making the cut is Cory Doctorow’s For The Win. I have a copy of this novel and plan to review it soon, after I publish a few overdue reviews.

As a reminder to our readers, we are open to submissions of reviews (as well as news, articles, interviews). Even if you can’t contribute regularly, we’d like to have a number of part-timers on our staff who only contribute occasionally. We’re even open to one-time contributors.

So if you’d like to read and review one of the other Prometheus Award finalists, nominees, past winners, or another piece of fiction, we’d be happy to consider it for publication.

Below is the full press release from the Libertarian Futurist Society, which presents the Prometheus Award:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, April 4, 2011

2011 PROMETHEUS BEST NOVEL FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

The Libertarian Futurist Society has selected Best Novel finalists for the Prometheus Awards. Winners for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) will be presented in an awards ceremony which will be presented at the World Science Fiction Convention, which will be held during Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention to be held Aug. 17-21 in Reno, Nevada.

The Prometheus Award finalists for Best Novel are (in alphabetical order by author):

• For the Win, by Cory Doctorow (TOR Books)
• Darkship Thieves, by Sarah Hoyt (Baen Books)
• The Last Trumpet Project, by Kevin MacArdry (lasttrumpetproject.com)
• Live Free or Die, by John Ringo (Baen Books)
• Ceres, by L. Neil Smith (Big Head Press, also published online at bigheadpress.com )

For the Win is Doctorow’s 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 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 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 is Ringo’s 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, 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).

Ten novels published in 2010 were nominated for this year’s Best Novel category. The other nominees were Directive 51, by John Barnes (Ace Books); Zendegi, by Greg Egan (Night Shade Books); Migration, by James Hogan (Baen Books); The Unincorporated War, by Dani and Eytan Kollin (TOR Books); and A Mighty Fortress, by David Weber (TOR Books)

The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), was established 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.

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.

For more information, contact LFS Board President Chris Hibbert (hibbert@mydruthers.com); Best Novel awards coordinator Michael Grossberg (mikegrossb@aol.com); or Worldcon awards ceremony coordinator Fred Moulton (programming@lfs.org).

For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in three categories, visit www.lfs.org. Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is open to any science fiction fan interested in how fiction can promote an appreciation of the value of liberty.