Prometheus Award Winners for Best Novel

In 1979 libertarian writer L. Neil Smith decided that there should be an award for science fiction that reflected his preferred political philosophy, so he got a panel together and they handed out the first Prometheus Best Novel award to F. Paul Wilson's Wheels Within Wheels. Without any funding or a supporting organization, the award vanished for two years before the Libertarian Futurist Society was created to revive it in 1982. The Best Novel award was promptly handed to none other than L. Neil Smith for his novel The Probability Broach. This time the award had staying power, and has been voted upon (and with the exception of one year, awarded) every year since then.

The Prometheus Award for Best Novel is something of an odd duck. While there are some familiar names that also appear on other genre award ballots and winner rosters, many of the names, and most of the repeat winners - F. Paul Wilson, L. Neil Smith, James P. Hogan, Victor Koman, and so on - are names that only appear on the Prometheus Award's lists. Not only that, almost all of the authors listed here are men, and the only female honorees have come in the last handful of years. Libertarian science fiction has, it seems, long been an inward looking boys club. The most recent couple of years indicate that this may be changing, but it is too soon to tell if this is an aberration or a trend.

1979: Wheels Within Wheels by F. Paul Wilson
1982: The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith
1983: Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan
1984: The Rainbow Cadenza by J. Neil Schulman
1985: No Winner
1986: The Cybernetic Samurai by Victor Milán
1987: Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge
1988: The Jehovah Contract by Victor Koman
1989: Moon of Ice by Brad Linaweaver
1990: Solomon's Knife by Victor Koman
1991: In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn
1992: Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael F. Flynn
1993: The Multiplex Man by James P. Hogan
1994: Pallas by L. Neil Smith
1995: The Stars Are Also Fire by Poul Anderson
1996: The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod
1997: Kings of the High Frontier by Victor Koman
1998: The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod
1999: The Golden Globe by John Varley
2000: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
2001: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
2002: Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury
2003: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
2004: Sims by F. Paul Wilson
2005: The System of the World by Neal Stephenson
2006: Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
2007: Glasshouse by Charles Stross
2008: (tie) The Gladiator by Harry Turtledove
          (tie) Ha'Penny by Jo Walton
2009: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
2010: The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin
2011: Darkship Thieves by Sarah A. Hoyt
2012: (tie) The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman
          (tie) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2013: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

2014: (tie) Homeland by Cory Doctorow

          (tie) Nexus by Ramez Naam
2015: Influx by Daniel Suarez
2016: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
2017: The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (translated by Lola Rogers)
2018: The Powers of the Earth by Travis J.I. Corcoran
2019: Causes of Separation by Travis Corcoran

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