Nice review over at the Wall Street Journal of a recent Poul Anderson collection, Admiralty: The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 4, NESFA’s continuing effort to publish all his short works. Discusses the evolution of Anderson from a more rigid engineer view of society to a libertarian world view.
Author: Anders Monsen (Page 51 of 92)
Long review of part 1 of the recently released Atlas Shrugged movie. Not sure if or when it will make it to theaters near me, but it has been many years since I last read the novel.
On April 4 the Libertarian Futurist Society announced the finalists for the 2011 Prometheus Award. Five novels made the cut, out of the ten nominated. I’ve read two of the five nominees, and am in the middle of reading a third.
- 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
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Cory Doctorow won a few years ago for Little Brother, a book that I thought was great until the final chapter. I’m 100 pages into his novel For the Win, and so far the theme appears to be “virtual workers of the world, unite.” This theme reared it’s little head ca. 75 pages into the novel, which up until then had seemed quite interesting, sort of a cross between Vernor Vinge and Charlie Stross. Oh, well. Maybe it will make sense later. I’ve never read anything by John Ringo, but from I hear he is far from a libertarian. Strange choice, if that’s the case. Military sf never really makes any libertarian sense. I like parts of Sarah Hoyt’s book, and will have to read Smith’s Ceres once more as I first read it five years ago. I’ve not heard of MacArdry, but the premise seems interesting.
I get occasional comment spam. Not too much, but then I hardly write anything here to warrant spammer attention. However, I am trying out a pair of new plug-ins to see if they have any effect on the few spammer who notice this blog. Let’s see what happens.
A recent post from Cory Doctorow hints that his novel, For the Win, is a finalist for the 2011 Prometheus Award. As the saying goes, more details to follow.
The Libertarian Futurist Society announces this year’s crop of Hall of Fame finalists. I’m almost happy to see there’s a title on there of a story that I have not yet read. Every year there are far too many of the same stories. That’s not to say these candidates are not deserving of the award, but surely there must be some other good books and stories out there on which the LFS could sine some attention.
From the Wall Street Journal (of all places), a fascinating article on the life and fiction of Russian writer and revolutionary Victor Serge (1890- 1947).
Fiction was his means of giving voice to the voiceless, of resisting the seductions of a coercive, monolithic truth, of confronting utopian falsehood with the complications and contradictions of reality.
Although labeled a socialist and communist, a key description that merits further investigation is the author’s statement that “he remained a dedicated libertarian, defending freedom of expression and the rights of the individual, often at great personal risk.”
Children of the Sky, a sequel to Vernor Vinge’s Hugo and Prometheus Award winning novel, A Fire Upon the Deep, is slated for publication from Tor Books in October 2011, according to a report over at io9. Set anticipation level to “high,” as Vinge’s novels are superbly crafted works of the best that science fiction offers.
My former home country finally gets it right, awarding the Nobel Peace prize to a peaceful and resolute dissident. Somehow there has to be a way to break through China’s wall of censorship and wake up that nation.
The NY Times has a very long and fascinating essay on the publishing phenomenon of deceased Swedish mystery writer Stieg Larsson. The Times quotes John-Henri Holmberg, a long-time Swedish libertarian author and editor, and someone who knew Larsson, about the author of these suddenly in-demand books.
John-Henri Holmberg, a Swedish editor, translator and critic who was a mentor to Larsson, wrote in an e-mail message: “He was very soft-spoken but held uncompromising views. He was a steadfast friend who would drop you entirely if you in some way proved not to be worthy of his friendship. . . . Among other things . . . he would not tolerate derogatory opinions of others based on their secondary characteristics, such as ethnicity or gender. Politically, in his youth, Stieg was a libertarian Socialist, active in a Trotskyite group; later on, I believe that he became more of a libertarian anarchist, but regardless of that the important part was his continual passion for liberty. And he would not suffer even previously close friends once he had reason to believe that in fact they harbored racist, sexist or prejudicial views.”
I haven’t yet read any of the books in the trilogy, but would consider reading them in the original language if I can locate any copies. I read somewhere the books were tough to read in translation.
