David Friedman fondly remembers the late Leslie Fish, a 2014 Prometheus winner


By Michael Grossberg

Leading libertarian economist David Friedman has paid eloquent tribute to Leslie Fish, a widely admired folksinger, author and SF/fantasy fan.

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Leslie Fish, playing the guitar and singing her songs (Creative Commons license)

Fish won a Special Prometheus Award in 2014 for her libertarian fantasy novella Tower of Horses and her related filk song The Horsetamer’s Daughter.

Friedman, an SF/fantasy novelist and Prometheus Best Novel nominee himself and the guest presenter at last year’s Prometheus Awards ceremony, was inspired to remember Fish, who died in late 2025, when he joined others earlier this year at his bardic circle.

“It was dark of the first night of my Pennsic bardic circle this year, people sitting around a fire entertaining each other. Someone came in, sat down, started to play something on a guitar. For a moment I thought it was Leslie, long a regular at the circle,” Friedman writes on his Substack column.

“It was Morgan, the other guitar player among my regulars. Not even Leslie could show up at my circle eight months after she died.”

Continue reading David Friedman fondly remembers the late Leslie Fish, a 2014 Prometheus winner


Prometheus winners Burgess and Orwell referenced to reinforce Atlantic Monthly essay “The End of Reading” 


By Michael Grossberg

To drive home its central points about the importance of literacy to sustain our liberty, The Atlantic Monthly’s urgent essay on “The End of Reading” references Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and George Orwell.

ImageThat seems apt. Of the 50 works that have been inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame since it was launched in 1983, Burgess’ dystopian 1962 novel and George Orwell’s two resonant masterpieces Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm rank high indeed.

Rose Horowitch’s thoughtful and empirical essay warns that the end of reading is here. Its subtitle: “Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.”

Continue reading Prometheus winners Burgess and Orwell referenced to reinforce Atlantic Monthly essay “The End of Reading” 


A practical awards guide, part 3: Where to find the four stories nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame


By Michael Grossberg

Where can you find the four stories nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame?

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A previous post highlighted where LFS members can obtain this year’s nominated novel, song, TV series and films. But stories can be harder to find than novels.

After all, it’s often not immediately obvious in what anthologies the stories may have appeared. Plus, it’s not as easy to track down many stories, which unlike novels don’t usually lend their titles to books. So we’ve also provided that vital information about the anthologies where each of the four stories has been published – including where you can find each to read or download without charge.

Continue reading A practical awards guide, part 3: Where to find the four stories nominated for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame


A practical awards guide, part 2: Where to find or watch the three Hall of Fame nominees in visual media


By Michael Grossberg

Unlike the Best Novel category of the Prometheus Award, the Prometheus Hall of Fame is open to classic fantastical works of any narrative or dramatic form – including visual media.

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This year’s diverse slate of nine Hall of Fame nominees includes one novel, one song, one TV series, two films and four stories.

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The three works of visual media are the focus of this second post in our series offering a practical Prometheus Awards guide with tips about where you can buy, read, watch or hear the nominees.

ImageThe good news: The nominated films Brazil and The Man in the White Suit and the nominated TV series Babylon 5 are available and affordable in several formats, from DVDs and Blu-Ray videos to various streaming options.

And if you’re looking for a bargain, there are streaming channels where you can watch each of the three visual-media nominees without charge.

Continue reading A practical awards guide, part 2: Where to find or watch the three Hall of Fame nominees in visual media


A practical awards guide: Where to find the Hall of Fame nominees (all free to read or watch!)


By Michael Grossberg

Where can you find the latest crop of Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees for Best Classic Fiction?

As a service to Libertarian Futurist Society members and other sf/fantasy fans interested in keeping up with our awards, we’ve researched where you can read, watch or hear the recently announced slate for the 2027 award.

ImageThe Prometheus Hall of Fame Judging Committee is currently reviewing and discussing the nominees and won’t select the finalists until December.

ImageEven as that awards-judging process continues, LFS members and other SF/fantasy fans are invited to get a head start on familiarizing themselves with the four stories, two films and one song, novel and TV series under consideration.

Happily, this year, all nine nominees are widely accessible. In fact, from our research and by latest count, all nine works can be read, viewed or heard online or downloaded for free!

Continue reading A practical awards guide: Where to find the Hall of Fame nominees (all free to read or watch!)


File 770 pays insightful tribute to the late Vernor Vinge, a five-time Prometheus winner


By Michael Grossberg

Vernor Vinge died in 2024, but he is still widely remembered and admired as one of the best, most brilliant and prescient science fiction writers of our era.

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Vernor Vinge in 2009 (Creative Commons license)

Vinge is one of only four writers to receive the Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement.* So it’s gratifying to read an eloquent and insightful tribute to Vinge in File 770, a leading publication covering the SF/fantasy field.

“Vernor Vinge’s oeuvre is readily completely consumable, he hasn’t written much, but the shadow of what he writes, even if not intended at the time, casts long over SF, even when he didn’t intend to,” wrote Paul Weimer on Oct. 2, the anniversary of Vinge’s birthday in 1941.

Interestingly, Weimer singles out for praise three of the four works that earned Vinge a Prometheus Award.

Continue reading File 770 pays insightful tribute to the late Vernor Vinge, a five-time Prometheus winner


How the Prometheus Hall of Fame has evolved and broadened its scope beyond novels in the 21st century


Note: This is part 2 of an overview and analysis of how the Prometheus Hall of Fame has broadened its scope over the past 43 years.

By Michael Grossberg

Looking back at the pattern of nominees since the Prometheus Hall of Fame was first presented, novels overwhelmingly dominated the Hall of Fame nominations throughout the 20th century.

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In retrospect, it makes sense that LFS members would focus almost exclusively on novels when considering what classic pro-liberty SF/fantasy works to nominate for the first decade or two of the Prometheus Hall of Fame.

Novels tend to be more widely praised and remembered within the SF/fantasy genres, and by far the best-known libertarian SF works published between the 1950s and the 1980s were novels.

Continue reading How the Prometheus Hall of Fame has evolved and broadened its scope beyond novels in the 21st century


The new slate of Hall of Fame nominees reflects shift from novels to shorter works


By Michael Grossberg

This year’s recently announced slate of Prometheus Hall of Fame nominees is notable in several ways, with a remarkable range of diverse works.

ImageEspecially when compared to last year’s nominees, the new slate for the 2027 award highlights a deeper shift in this annual awards category: Where novels once overwhelmingly dominated the list of annual nominees, they no longer do.

If you examine the pattern of nominees since the Prometheus Hall of Fame was first presented in 1983, a deeper and more gradual shift becomes obvious since the turn of the century – a significant move away from a nearly exclusive focus on novels to a consideration of a far broader range of shorter works, from stories and novellas to films and songs.

ImageThat trend was most dramatically underscored by a notable difference between last year’s and this year’s nominees.

For instance, five novels ended up as Best Classic Fiction finalists this past year — with Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic Brave New World ultimately being the 50th work to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

That won’t be possible this next year, when Libertarian Futurist Society members begin reading or viewing the 2027 Hall of Fame finalists.

Continue reading The new slate of Hall of Fame nominees reflects shift from novels to shorter works


Nine works have been nominated for the next Hall of Fame award, including a majority of first-time Prometheus nominees


By Michael Grossberg

Libertarian Futurist Society members have nominated nine works for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction.

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Of those, six works have been nominated for the first time in the history of the Prometheus Awards – reflecting an infusion of fresh candidates that deserve recognition.

That includes Roger Zelazny’s Hugo-winning novel Lord of Light, the films Brazil and The Man in the White Suit, and short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Jane Lindskold and James H. Schmidt.

Continue reading Nine works have been nominated for the next Hall of Fame award, including a majority of first-time Prometheus nominees


Special Award Appreciation: Dave Freer’s Prometheus-winning Storm-Dragon offers Young Adult adventure of curiosity, courage, resistance and resilience


As part of the LFS’ ongoing Appreciation series of review-essays explaining how each Prometheus Award-winner fits the distinctive dual focus of our award on both liberty and literary quality and why it deserved to win, here is an Appreciation of 2026 Special Award winner Storm-Dragon by Dave Freer.

By Michael Grossberg

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Storm-Dragon, the first work to receive a Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction, is an entertaining tale embodying golden-age themes of initiative, imagination, curiosity, courage, resilience and resistance.

Fun to read, Dave Freer’s 2025 adventure novel offers much the same appeal as classic “juveniles” by Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton.

The story revolves around a boy who adopts an unusual pet on Vann’s World, an ocean-dominated planet with a fledgling human colony facing dangers alien and human.

Continue reading Special Award Appreciation: Dave Freer’s Prometheus-winning Storm-Dragon offers Young Adult adventure of curiosity, courage, resistance and resilience