Friday, December 31, 1993

1993 Prometheus Award Nominees

Location: Unknown.

Comments: In 1993, after flirting with the book for years, the Libertarian Futurist Society finally decided to induct Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed into its Hall of Fame. On the one hand, this was a good choice, because The Dispossessed is a better novel than many of the previous inductees into the Prometheus Awards Hall of Fame. On the other hand, when one read The Dispossessed, it becomes readily apparent that the tenor of the novel is decidedly not sympathetic towards libertarian position, and in fact is highly critical of the ideology. This isn't new for the Prometheus Awards - they have previously nominated and awarded works that are only related to libertarianism to the extent that they are highly critical of it. I don't know if this is because the members of the Libertarian Futurist Society are trying to be broad-minded and include criticisms of their espoused ideology among the works they honor, or if they are simply so politically tone-deaf that they don't realize their position is being skewered and just assume if libertarianism is mentioned in a book it must be friendly to it.

Best Novel

Winner:
The Multiplex Man by James P. Hogan

Other Nominees:
The Memory of Earth by Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Steel Beach by John Varley
Timemaster by Robert L. Forward
A Woman's Place by Rex Denver Borough

Hall of Fame

Winner:
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Other Nominees:
None

Go to previous year's nominees: 1992
Go to subsequent year's nominees: 1994

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