L. Neil Smith Wins Prometheus Award

The Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Award for best novel of 2000 went to L. Neil Smith's Forge of the Elders, published by Baen Books. The award was announced at the 2001 World Science Fiction Convention, Millenium PhilCon, held in Philadelphia over Labor Day Weekend.

Forge of the Elders had a complex publishing history; its first two parts had appeared previously as separate volumes. However, this version is the first appearance of the complete work in the form Smith originally intended. The new version won out against strong competition: Michael Flynn's Lodestar, Ken MacLeod's The Sky Road, Terry Pratchett's The Truth, and Steve White's Eagle against the Stars.

Smith won the Prometheus Award in 1982 for his first novel, The Probability Broach, which gained him recognition as a leading libertarian writer. He received a second Prometheus Award in 1994 for Pallas. Several of Smith's other novels have been Prometheus Award finalists. Smith actually created the Prometheus Awards in 1979, when the first one went to F. Paul Wilson's Wheels within Wheels.

Follow the link for a description of the presentation and acceptance speeches