Fire in the Mind

1995 Prometheus and Hall of Fame nominees selected

This year's list of Prometheus Award nominees may be small compared to some previous years. But rarely have we seen brighter works of libertarian science fiction and speculative fiction.

In perhaps his best novel ever, The Stars are also Fire, Poul Anderson continues his grand scale space epic that began with Harvest of Stars, and that promises to continue with a new novel later this year.

More mainstream perhaps, yet blending such diverse genres as thriller, suspense, horror and science fiction, is Dean Koontz' Dark Rivers of the Heart. A brilliant and superlative work, this realistic near-future dystopia is an awakening call to the horrors of the state. Koontz may not be typical libertarian fare, but this novel is laser-sharp in its allegiance to individual rights and its concurrent opposition to the intrusive state.

Richard Fuller projects another near future dystopia in his novel, Deadly Care, about a nationalized health care system concerned less with health and care than politics and agendas. The novel is a bold and fearless attack on sacred ideas. Read Victoria Varga's review of this novel on page four.

One of the premier masters of horror fiction today, Prometheus Award winner and multi-genre writer F. Paul Wilson, examines the darker side of medicine and medical colleges in his suspense/horror novel, The Select. Eschewing supernaturalism for the more terrifyingly real effect of monomaniacal human beings, Wilson achieves a chilling, non-stop scare.

Another nominee is A. A. Attanasio's entrancing science fiction novel, Solis. Exploring cryogenics in a far future distant in time and space, yet eerily similar to our own, Attanasio blends genres and styles in a way that brings a fresh joy to reading science fiction.

Lovelock, the collaboration between Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd, rounds off this phenomenal slate of nominees. Powerful, unique, and enlightening, the action in Lovelock hints at greater things—not only in the sense of sequels, but also in hope and ideas.

For a complete list of Prometheus and Hall of Fame nominees, see page 8 of this newsletter.