Free Live Free—No way! This book was cute and fun, but that's definitely it. I can't use the word "libertarian" about a novel full of anti-heroic characters who spend their time justifying their neuroses and repeatedly, remorselessly, performing a singularly non-libertarian act—stealing. The traces of libertarian undertones will never justify the "heroism of the little guy" routine of which the book is made.

A Matter of Time—The main character is definitely more heroic, but again, you are correct in your analysis: the style and organization take a lot of getting used to. How good does a novel have to be for the Prometheus award?

Trinity—I enjoyed this but I wouldn't give it the Prometheus Award because of its tendency toward fantasy instead of sci-fi. I'd love to see "Night Win" expanded—Nancy Kress really has a great premise there. I also loved "Explanations, Inc."

Voyage of the Space Beagle was written in 1939, but my current edition is from Pocket Books, 1977.

Briefly, it concerns a scientific space expedition reminiscent of the Enterprise, which it predates considerably you'll note. To the usual roster of experts aboard ship, a new department has been added: the aerialist. Elliott Grosvenor heads the new department, which is responsible for integrating the ideas of the other staff specialists. In short. Grosvenor has been trained to think—to use available data to locate the best solution to a given problem. Members of the other departments view Grosvenor as a threat to their own power. As the Beagle plunges through spaces we are treated to exciting, creative, adventure, all kinds of aliens, and the pleasure of seeing Grosvenor's precisely reasoned solutions to the problems posed by these situations.

Slan (written in 1940—my edition was published in 1968 by Doubleday) is also a treat for those who love to watch the mind at work. Tommy Cross is a slan—a mutated form of human being. forced to run for his life from humans in a world filled with seemingly irrational hatred for his kind. Why do humans hate slans so relentlessly? Why are there slan without the golden slan tendrils that enable a slan to read minds? What, exactly, are slans, and how did they come to be? Cross, alone in the midst of life-threatening turmoil, decides that there is no justification for war and killing, that the problems of his race have to be solved peacefully. Another amazing work from Van Vogt!