David Brin’s recent novel reviewed.
Category: sf (Page 2 of 5)
Over at lewrockwell.com, Thomas Luongo presents a libertarian view of Philip K. Dick. Very interesting article, and a different perspective of many of the elements of PKD’s novels.
I’m a few days late posting my thoughts on io9’s annual nod to libertarian themed science fiction from April 18, which contains some unexpected titles and the usual political debate in comments.
I’m a little puzzled by the inclusion of William Morris and H.G. Wells on this list, and I think F. Paul Wilson’s An Enemy of the State is a better candidate than Wheels Within Wheels. I am surprised that neither L. Neil Smith nor Vernor Vinge made the list with some of their fiction. I have a list of 50 works of fiction I’d recommend to people that deals with liberty and power; few of my books are on this list, though I cover books across multiple genres.
Reading the comments is funny yet sad. One person sees these books as ones to avoid (way to broaden one’s mind) and that libertarians are all about “me, me, me” while he cares about the nebulous “community as a whole” in true collectivity fashion. Libertarianism is about individuals, which perhaps some people confuse with solipsism. Some comments are far more rational, but many spout the “I disagree with you so I’m going to call you a lunatic” philosophy so prevalent these days among both left and right.
Unfortunately, no other novels were suggested in the comments, so instead of discussing liberty and fiction the comments revolved around the idea of libertarianism and and capitalism being good or evil.
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.
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
)
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.
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.
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 Libertarian Futurist Society announced on July 22 the winners of the annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian futurist fiction. Winner for Best Novel is The Unincorporated Man by Eytan Kollin and Dani Kollin, and for best classic work, the short story “No Truce With Kings,” by Poul Anderson.
From the LFS:
The Unincorporated Man is the first novel publication by the Kollin brothers. It is the first novel in a planned trilogy to be published by Tor. The Unincorporated Man presents the idea that education and personal development could be funded by allowing investors to take a share of one’s future income. The novel explores the ways this arrangement would affect those who do not own a majority of the stock in themselves. For instance, often ones investors would have control of a person’s choices of where to live or work. The desire for power as an end unto itself and the negative consequences of the raw lust for power are shown in often great detail. The story takes a strong position that liberty is important and worth fighting for, and the characters spend their time pushing for different conceptions of what freedom is.
Poul Anderson’s novels have been nominated many times, and have won the Prometheus Award (in 1995, for The Stars Are Also Fire), and the Hall of Fame Award (1995 for The Star Fox and 1985 for Trader to the Stars). He also received a Special award for lifetime achievement in 2001. This was the first nomination for “No Truce With Kings.”
Poul Anderson’s “No Truce with Kings” was first published in 1963. Like many science fiction stories of that era, it was set in a future that had endured a nuclear war. Anderson’s focus is not on the immediate disaster and the struggle to survive, but the later rebuilding; its central conflict is over what sort of civilization should be created. The story’s title comes from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Old Issue,” which describes the struggle to bind kings and states with law and the threat of their breaking free. Anderson’s future California is basically a feudal society, founded on local loyalties, but it has a growing movement in favor of a centralized, impersonal state. As David Friedman remarked about this story, Anderson plays fair with his conflicting forces: both of them want the best for humanity, but one side is mistaken about what that is. This story is classic Anderson and, like many of his best stories, reveals his libertarian sympathies.
Some sites that posted the news of the Prometheus Awards announcement include IO9 (with close to 100 comments, most of them snarky and dismissive of libertarianism), Liberty & Power, and Locus Online.
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.
This is the sort of essay I wish appeared in Prometheus first, but these days print no longer competes with the internet. Jeff Riggenbach has a long essay at Mises.org asking if Robert A. Heinlein really was a libertarian.
