Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi inspired by Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning novel to create “Project 451”



By Michael Grossberg

One of the many Prometheus-winning works that continues to be widely read and referenced in popular culture for its enduring dramatic power and themes is Fahrenheit 451.

Inducted in 1984 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame, Ray Bradbury’s civil-libertarian, anti-censorship and pro-reading novel envisions a dystopian future in which “firemen” burn books and literacy is suppressed, along with any memory of great literature.

While many find the novel relevant to our era, in which both free speech and the reading of books often seem threatened or in decline, few go as far as investigative reporter and media critic Matt Taibbi or as fervently.

Continue reading Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi inspired by Bradbury’s Prometheus-winning novel to create “Project 451”



Travis Corcoran is writing several Young Adult novels, including two for his Prometheus-winning Aristillus series


By Michael Grossberg

Two-time Prometheus Awards-winning author Travis Corcoran, a passionate believer in encouraging younger generations to read, is writing several Young Adult novels that promise to be published in 2026.

Two will be part of Corcoran’s Aristillus series, set in our solar system’s future and launched with his two Prometheus-winning novels The Powers of the Earth and Causes of Separation.

Tentatively set for publication this fall by Morlock Publishing, Corcoran’s two Aristillus YA novels are The Aristillus Engineering Club and the Journey to the Center of Mars and The Aristillus Engineering Club Around Mars in 80 Sols.

Continue reading Travis Corcoran is writing several Young Adult novels, including two for his Prometheus-winning Aristillus series


The Prometheus Awards and the Forry award for lifetime achievement: Cherryh, Anderson, Heinlein, Pratchett, Ellison among 13 authors recognized by both


By Michael Grossberg

Just as the Prometheus Awards overlaps to some extent with the Hugo and Nebula wards in terms of the works and writers recognized, our list of Prometheus-winning writers overlaps with the Forry Awards.

C.J. Cherryh, who co-wrote the 2020 Prometheus Best Novel winner (Alliance Rising) with her partner Jane S. Fancher, is the 13th Prometheus winner to also be recognized in the Forry awards.

C.J. Cherryh (File photo)

Cherryh recently won the 2025 Forrest J Ackerman Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. (See our previous post about Cherryh’s latest honor.)

It’s interesting to see what writers have been recognized by both the LASFS, the world’s oldest continuously active science fiction and fantasy club, and the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), established in 1982 to sustain the Prometheus Awards.

Such broad cross-recognition should be another reminder of just how embedded libertarian and anti-authoritarian ideas and values are within our popular culture – and have been, for generations, even amid various socio-economic developments and political trends, both positive and negative.

So if Cherryh is the 13th Prometheus winner to be recognized with a Forry award, who else is on that illustrious cross-checked list?

Continue reading The Prometheus Awards and the Forry award for lifetime achievement: Cherryh, Anderson, Heinlein, Pratchett, Ellison among 13 authors recognized by both


Prometheus winner C.J. Cherryh recognized with the “Forry” lifetime achievement award

By Michael Grossberg

C.J. Cherryh in the 1990s (File photo)

Congratulations to C.J. Cherryh for her latest well-deserved honor.

Cherryh, who co-wrote the 2020 Prometheus Best Novel winner (Alliance Rising) with her partner Jane S. Fancher, is the winner of the 2025 Forrest J Ackerman Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.

The Forry Award, as it’s known informally, is Cherryh’s fourth career honor, according to a news note in File 770, a leading publication covering the sf/fantasy field.  She was named a SFWA Grand Master in 2016 from the Science Fiction Writers Association, received the Skylark Award from the New England Science Fiction Association in 1988, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award from our friends in the Heinlein Society in 2021.

Continue reading Prometheus winner C.J. Cherryh recognized with the “Forry” lifetime achievement award

Power myths, clashing cultures and the necessity of freedom: The first Prometheus review of Poul Anderson’s “brilliant” Orion Shall Rise


By Michael Grossberg

With Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise inducted most recently into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction, it’s interesting to look back on our initial review of the 1983 novel for its insights and first impressions.

Victoria Varga, the first LFS Director and editor of the print edition of Prometheus from 1983 to 1988, reviewed Anderson’s science fiction novel when it was first nominated for a Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Thanks in part to her positive review, Orion Shall Rise was selected by Libertarian Futurist Society members as a 1984 Best Novel finalist (the year that J. Neil Schulman’s The Rainbow Cadenza won our award.)

Most notably, Varga praised Anderson for doing “a brilliant job of creating mythologies, religious and secular, for his characters and their civilizations.”

Continue reading Power myths, clashing cultures and the necessity of freedom: The first Prometheus review of Poul Anderson’s “brilliant” Orion Shall Rise


Two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran has a busy schedule of upcoming books, starting with his 2026 novel Red State Mars

By Michael Grossberg

This year should be a notable one for author Travis Corcoran.

The two-time Prometheus-winning author, who won for Best Novel in 2018 for The Powers of the Earth and again in 2019 for its sequel Causes of Separation, hasn’t published a major work of fiction in several years.

But that’s about to change.

One of the first novels published by Ark Press, a new SF publisher, will be Corcoran’s Red State Mars.

Scheduled for publication May 29, 2026, Red State Mars is billed as “a sweeping epic of Mars’s fight for freedom—an unforgettable saga of war, family, and civilization on the red frontier.”

Continue reading Two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran has a busy schedule of upcoming books, starting with his 2026 novel Red State Mars

Happy birthday, Gregory Benford – one of the best hard-sf novelists, a Prometheus finalist (and a libertarian)


By Michael Grossberg

Sf writer Gregory Benford (File photo)

Today is Gregory Benford’s birthday.

Born Jan. 30, 1941, Benford is 85. We not only wish a happy birthday but also our best wishes for health and happiness to Benford, who suffered a stroke a few years ago.

Known for his hard science fiction informed by his career as an astrophysicist and physics professor, Benford is a Campbell and two-time Nebula winner and a Prometheus Best Novel finalist.

Continue reading Happy birthday, Gregory Benford – one of the best hard-sf novelists, a Prometheus finalist (and a libertarian)


Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

By Michael Grossberg

Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy author Dave Freer understands how liberty and literacy are intimately intertwined – a frequent theme explored here on the Prometheus Blog.

As Freer explains on the Mad Genius Club blog, his commitment to encouraging literacy and younger readers was a key motivation for him to write Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel that’s one of 10 2025 novels nominated so far for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

“We need young people reading,” Freer writes.

“It’s the one way you can future-proof your kids, because it is the one thing that will make them flexible enough to cope with whatever the future throws. It will give them advantages in learning – far more than schooling will,” he said.

Continue reading Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

Time travel and second chances: Sarah Hoyt’s new anthology includes a prequel story to her Prometheus-nominated No Man’s Land

By Michael Grossberg

Prometheus Award winner Sarah Hoyt has published an anthology about time travel and second chances.

Perhaps of greatest interest to LFS members, the six-story collection includes a prequel to Hoyt’s No Man’s Land, a current Best Novel nominee.

Six stories are included in Christmas In Time: Six Stories of Time Travel and Second Chances.

The No Man’s Land prequel is “What Child Is This,” which focuses on how a child’s accidental time-slip can save a man’s life and create the bonds of family love.

Continue reading Time travel and second chances: Sarah Hoyt’s new anthology includes a prequel story to her Prometheus-nominated No Man’s Land

Last call for Prometheus Best Novel nominations: With the mid-February nominating deadline approaching, 13 2025 novels have been nominated so far


By Michael Grossberg

With the annual nominations deadline for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel now less than a month away, Libertarian Futurist Society members are encouraged to bring to our attention any eligible candidates they’ve come across.

This is a reminder and last call for nominations for the oldest category of the awards, now 47 years old.

So far, 13 2025 novels have been nominated by LFS members, somewhat less than average for Best Novel, with Feb. 15 the deadline for LFS members to nominate eligible and worthy works.

The current and interim list includes works by three authors who have previously won Prometheus Awards: Dave Freer (Cloud-Castles), Sarah Hoyt (Darkship Thieves) and Harry Turtledove (The Gladiator.)

This year’s interim slate of nominees also includes the latest novel in Karl K. Gallagher’s Fall of the Censor series, which includes quite a few novels recognized as Best Novel finalists.

But it’s also nice to see nominated works by authors who’ve never previously been recognized in our awards. So far this year, more than half of the novels were written by first-time nominees: Max Harms, Andrew Knighton, John C. A. Manley, Ewan Morrison, Laura Montgomery, Ray Nayler and J. Kenton Pierce.

So what are the novels by these authors that have been nominated so far?

Continue reading Last call for Prometheus Best Novel nominations: With the mid-February nominating deadline approaching, 13 2025 novels have been nominated so far