2017 Prometheus Award Finalists Announced

The annual prize honors libertarian-themed science fiction.

HarperCollins

The Libertarian Futurist Society gives the annual Prometheus Award to the book it deems the best libertarian-themed speculative-fiction novel of the past year. This year's finalists:

• The Corporation Wars: Dissidence, by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• The Corporation Wars: Insurgence, by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047, by Lionel Shriver (HarperCollins)
• The Core of the Sun, by Johanna Sinisalo (translated by Lola Rogers) (Grove Press/Black Cat)
• Blade of p'Na, by L. Neil Smith (Phoenix Pick)

For capsule descriptions of those books—and for a list of the nominees that didn't make the finalist cut—go here.

I have read exactly zero of these novels, so I won't express any preferences. But my colleague Katherine Mangu-Ward hasn't just read The Mandibles; she interviewed the author. To read that conversation, go here. I spoke with the author of those Corporation Wars books way back in 2000; to read that interview, go here. For a list of past Prometheus winners, go here. And to see what's up for the Libertarian Futurist Society's other annual prize—the Hall of Fame Award—go here.

Comments

[albo]

Ken Macleod? The guy's a straight up socialist.

[Citizen X - #6]

He is, but even he can't help making anarcho-capitalist futures out to be way better places to live than socialist ones.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

What about anarcho-socialist societies... the ones where you're forced to leave everyone alone.

[Citizen X - #6]

In anarcho-socialism, all means of production are owned by the state, which doesn't exist!

[Brandybuck]

Nope, we're talking anarcho-socialism, and NOT anarcho-Marxism. Anarcho-socialism typically means a stateless society where there is no private ownership of property (other than personal possessions). A lot of AnSocs are Marxists, especially since Marx promised a withering of the state, but it doesn't have to be explicitly Marxist.

AnCaps assume property rights are a given, but are they really? How does a stateless society organize in the absence of government enforced property rights? You may claim such rights, but what do you do when society does not recognize such rights? Perhaps anarcho-courts will emerge, but will they recognize the same rights you do? What if society at large considers YOU to be the initiator of force by shooting a trespasser?

One reason Ayn Rand and most Objectivists are not anarchists, is because they recognize the need of the state to recognize property rights. One could imagine society self-organizing around the concept of property rights, but it's hardly a given. I can imagine some form of property-like rights would emerge in the absence of the state, but Rothbard/Tannenbaum style AnCap property rights is rather speculative.

[$park? leftist poser]

Too bad these are books about libertarian themes that happen to contain science fiction rather than science fiction books that happen to contain libertarian themes.

[Citizen X - #6]

I see you haven't read MacLeod or Shriver, but you've apparently read L. Neil Smith.

[chemjeff]

Just read the description for The Mandibles, and it is depressingly realistic.

[Rhywun]

"This is not science fiction."

?~?

[chemjeff]

I have read exactly zero of these novels,

from:

Books Editor Jesse Walker

C'mon man! Put down the twitterz and read some books!

[Jesse Walker]

The books editor doesn't read books; he assigns them to other people.

[Not a True MJG]

It's good to be the editor.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

You know who else assigned work to other people?

[Rhywun]

Donald J. Trump?

[Citizen X - #6]

You, by asking this question?

[I can't even]

The Amazon description of The Core of the Sun gave me a good LOL.

http://www.amazon.com/Core-Sun-Johann.....of+the+Sun

[I can't even]

The Amazon description of The Core of the Sun gave me a good LOL.

http://www.amazon.com/Core-Sun-Johann.....of+the+Sun

[I can't even]

The Amazon description of The Core of the Sun gave me a good LOL.

[Citizen X - #6]

WE KNOW.

[Raston Bot]

WTF

this is odd.. the following "LOL" comment along with a link to Amazon (that i deleted before clicking submit) were pre-entered into my comment box.

W T ever-living F

The Amazon description of The Core of the Sun gave me a good LOL.

no, no it did not b/c i have not read the Amazon description of The Core of the Sun. fucking server squirrels acting particularly malicious lately.

[Agammamon]

Ken McLeod? I mean, all his stuff is good - but the only thing he's ever written that was 'libertarian science-fiction' was 'The Star Fraction' - and that was still socialist 'that state is withering away' bullshit.

[dbcooper]

The first MacLeod book was pretty good. It seems to be about competing AI's developing a new solar system, in a future without FTL travel or communication.

His prose is much more tolerable than many of his peers - I've found Stross, Morgan, and Banks to be unreadable. The first two are just dreadful.

[Ricardo Obsolete]

I love that the Libertarian Futurist Society website looks like it hasn't changed since the last century.