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.
Category: fiction (Page 8 of 11)
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.
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.
Two time Prometheus Award winner James P. Hogan died suddenly on July 12, 2010 at his home in Ireland. I admit to being stunned when I read the tweet late on July 12. Various SF news sites (Locus, io9, SFF Site, etc) posted announcements on July 13, and cause of death currently is unknown. The first Hogan bookI ever read was either Code of the Lifemaker or The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, when I “earned” a massive box of sf books from helping a friend paint his house in 1986. I remember reading virtually all his books in the 1980’s and 1990’s, but I stopped reading widely in sf starting in the 2000’s and did not keep up with his most recent novels. I interviewed Hogan for Prometheus in the late 1990’s and spoke with him at several conventions. He was 69, and from what I can tell was planning trips to at least two conventions later this year, including ArmadilloCon 32 in Austin next month. I am planning a longer obituary for the Fall issue of Prometheus, as the summer issue is done and shortly off to the printer.
Currently reading my second Nevil Shute book in as many weeks. This one has a decidedly sf/fantastic element, since the events of part of the novel take place 30 years in the future. Contains some interesting ideas about the “multiple vote” and rips into British socialism as it survives in the 1980s. While Canada and Australia and other parts of the world have food aplenty, socialist England must buckle down and has lost 25% of the population to emigration.
Another interesting article on the possible childhood sources for George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four from Jeff Riggenbach, over at the Market Oracle.
Other than a post on mises.org I have zero info on a novel called Withur We, by Matthew Alexander, but there is a free PDF download…
Someone over at the Charlottesville Sci-Fi and Fantasy book group recently posted several 2010 sf award lists, including the Prometheus Award. Two statements caught my attention, First:
I never knew there was a group out there called the Libertarian Futerist Society. They exist though, and they yearly give out the Prometheus Award which honors that year’s novel which best ‘examines the meaning of freedom’.
And then this one:
So the award is really more for the presentation of the idea than it is the actual quality of the work, though I’m sure that factors into the mix, but the idea’s most important. Interesting.
Ah, well. The LFS has only been around since 1982, and I think the quality of the winners speak for themselves.
