Prometheus Award finalists named

The Prometheus Award finalists have been named, with a final winner to be announced last this year. I'm posting this because I assume there will be some associational interest, because the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award was the only literary award Robert Anton Wilson ever won, at least to my knowledge, and because I interviewed Kevin MacArdry after I noticed that his novel (one of the finalists) explores themes RAW was interested in. Official press release follows:


The Libertarian Futurist Society has selected Best Novel finalists for
the Prometheus Awards.

Winners for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) will be
presented in an awards ceremony which will be presented at the World
Science Fiction Convention, which will be held during Renovation, the
69th World Science Fiction Convention to be held Aug. 17-21 in Reno, Nevada.

*The Prometheus Award finalists for Best Novel are (in alphabetical
order by author):
* For the Win, by Cory Doctorow (TOR Books)
* Darkship Thieves, by Sarah Hoyt (Baen Books)
* The Last Trumpet Project, by Kevin MacArdry (www.lasttrumpetproject.com)
* Live Free or Die, by John Ringo (Baen Books)
* Ceres, by L. Neil Smith (Big Head Press, also published online at
www.bigheadpress.com/lneilsmith/?Page_id=53)

For the Win is Doctorow's portrait of a future in which the world's poor
adopt entrepreneurial strategies and Internet/virtual technologies to
challenge the statist status quo and achieve freedom through
self-empowerment. Doctorow has been nominated several times for the
Prometheus Award and won in 2009 for Little Brother.

Darkship Thieves features an exciting, coming-of-age saga in which a
heroic woman fights for her freedom and identity against a tyrannical
Earth. Hoyt's novel depicts a plausible anarchist society among the
asteroids. This is Hoyt's first time as Prometheus finalist.

The Last Trumpet Project tells the story of a future in which virtual
reality and uploading people's minds into computers have merged. In this
milieu, freedom struggle against a tyrannical government allied with
religious zealots who will go to any length to ensure their vision of
the future. The hopeful and utopian work is MacArdry's first published
novel.

Live Free or Die is Ringo's rollicking saga of entrepreneurial humans
using free-market capitalism and the spirit of old-fashioned Yankee
individualism to defend Earth from imperialist aliens after first
contact embroils us in galactic politics. This is Ringo's first time as
a Prometheus finalist.

Ceres, the sequel to Smith's Prometheus Award-winning novel Pallas
(1994), dramatizes a conflict between a libertarian society based in the
asteroids and a statist Earth government. Smith also won the Prometheus
Award for The Probability Broach (1982) and The Forge of the Elders (2001).

Ten novels published in 2010 were nominated for this year's Best Novel
category. The other nominees were Directive 51, by John Barnes (Ace
Books); Zendegi, by Greg Egan (Night Shade Books); Migration, by James
Hogan (Baen Books); The Unincorporated War, by Dani and Eytan Kollin
(TOR Books); and A Mighty Fortress, by David Weber (TOR Books)

The Prometheus Award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society
(LFS), was established in 1979, making it one of the most enduring
awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based
awards currently in sf. Presented annually since 1982 at the World
Science Fiction Convention, the Prometheus Awards include a gold coin
and plaque for the winners.

The Prometheus awards honor outstanding science fiction/fantasy that
explores the possibilities of a free future, champions human rights
(including personal and economic liberty), dramatizes the perennial
conflict between individuals and coercive governments, or critiques the
tragic consequences of abuse of power--especially by the State.


For a full list of past Prometheus Award winners in three categories,
visit www.lfs.org. Membership in the Libertarian Futurist Society is
open to any science fiction fan interested in how fiction can promote an
appreciation of the value of liberty.