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Liberty and Culture Vol. 23, No. 3 Spring 2005

A Century of

J. Neil Schulman on Anarquía

2005 Finalists

Reviews of books by , Vin Suprynowicz, Boston T. Party, & J. Kent Hastings, and Steven Gould Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Defining the Prometheus Awards By William H. Stoddard The newsletter of the Libertarian Futurist Society Once again, it’s time for members of fan who’s curious about , Editor the Libertarian Futurist Society to vote or a libertarian who’d like to read some Anders Monsen on the Prometheus Award and the Hall science fiction, that that book is a good of Fame. That makes it a good time to place to start. Our list of award winners Contributors think about an important question: What and nominees is as close as there is to a Michael Grossberg are our standards, as a society, for choos- Recommended Reading list in this field. J. Neil Schulman ing worthy winners for our awards? The need to think both about whether William H. Stoddard Prometheus Award is supposed to go to we found a book worthwhile, and about Fran Tully the best work of libertarian science fic- whether it’s something we would recom- tion of the preceding fourteen months. mend to a friend who wanted to find out What do we mean by “science fiction,” more about our point of view. by “libertarian,” and by “best”? And that purpose has to inform both One thing to bear in mind, in seeking of our other criteria. “Libertarian” and answers to these questions, is that we “science fiction” are pointers to the give awards for a purpose. The answers type of material we want to consider; we choose to accept—the definitions they aren’t barriers to keep out good Letters and Submissions: we use for our essential ideas—should material that fails to meet some specific Anders Monsen be answers to help us to attain that definition. 501 Abiso Ave purpose. Genre words, like “science fiction,” San Antonio, TX 78209 Giving a literary award to a book exist to help market books more effi- [email protected] makes it more visible, not just to the ciently—which surely is a justifiable goal group that gives in libertar- Subscriptions & Advertisements the award, but ian eyes! By Libertarian Futurist Society to other read- [Books] concerned with putting two 650 Castro St. Suite 120-433 ers as well. The freedom…can be expressed in books in the Mountain View, CA 94041 P r o m e t h e u s same genre, [email protected] several different ways….[They] Award has been a publisher may portray a movement or Basic Membership: $25/yr. ($30 int'l) remarkably suc- or a booksell- Full Membership: $50/yr. cessful in achiev- struggle aimed at creating a er is saying Sponsors: $100/yr. ing such visibil- free society. Or [they] may that someone Benefactors: $200/yr. ity. Our award deconstruct a non-libertarian who likes one winners are an- has a higher Subscriptions: $20/yr. ($25 int'l) work, showing the hidden All memberships include one-year nounced in Locus than average subscriptions. and other pub- implications of its values. chance of lik- lications in the ing the other. Classified ads: 50 cents/word, 10 What defines percent off for multiple insertions. community. Our award ceremonies are the genre of science fiction is the exis- Display ad rates available. All checks usually scheduled events at the World tence of a community of readers for a payable to the Libertarian Futurist Science Fiction Convention. Publishers certain group of books. For example, the Society. announce that their books have won, 2003 Prometheus Award went to Terry or been nominated for, the Prometheus Pratchett’s , which in terms Prometheus © 2005 the Libertarian Award, as a selling point, and provide of literary theory is not science fiction but Futurist Society. The LFS retains a copies of proposed nominees to LFS —but the readerships for these non-exclusive license to republish judges. The Prometheus Award has two types of material overlap so strongly accepted articles on its Web site; all credibility as a mark of good writing; that bookstores almost always shelve other rights revert to the contributor. it’s not just a private ceremony among a them together. Pragmatically, a book Letters and reviews are welcome. Bylined articles are strictly the few friends. That credibility is part of our is “science fiction” if it appears on the opinion of the writer and do not capital, and we need to preserve it. science fiction shelves and in specialty necessarily reflect the opinion of the When we pick a book as “the best,” LFS members. that’s a recommendation to potential readers. We’re telling a science fiction —Continued on page 7

Page 2 Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Prometheus

real sense of what it feels like, sounds patriotism into a raging fire of resistance. eviews like, and looks like to engage an armed I can’t wait to see what Vin will come up R enemy while equipped with bows and with next—and I hope it is soon. guns. After some of the shooting scenes, About the author: Vin Suprynowicz, you’ll actually find yourself with ringing a collector of surplus military firearms, The Black Arrow ears yawning, trying to get your ears to spent his youth in New England and By Vin Suprynowicz pop, as though a low-flying jet had just worked his way through school as a Mountain Media, 2005, $24.95 broken Mach One overhead. disc jockey, short-order cook, motel Reviewed by Fran Tully The masterful word pictures put you night clerk, and member of the relent- on the front line. You feel the cold rain, lessly unsuccessful rock & roll band, The The Black Arrow is a futuristic tale of are aroused by the sex, and smell the Four Shadowings of Doom. Vin has had hope and resistance. Set in the year 2030, dark, dank, vast Gotham underground. an extensive, award-winning career in it opens in the streets of Gotham. The This is a thriller with soul. You will go journalism and is currently a columnist reader is introduced to a world where from laughing out loud, to shaking with and editorial writer at Nevada’s largest homeland security has blossomed and sheer hatred, and then down to a lump newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal. bestowed upon us its wonderful “pro- in your throat—from the tear-jerking He is also the author of two non-fiction tection” against terrorism—not only in romance. books Send in the Waco Killers and our airports, but right off busy sidewalks If you’re part of the “gun culture,” The Ballad of Carl Drega. Both of his at impromptu “portals.” Passers-by are you’ll feel absolutely privileged to be non-fiction works were awarded Free- treated to an inspection for weapons, surrounded by serious, well-trained, dom Book of the Year by Free-Market. illegal software, drugs, and proper ID. freedom fighters that not only practice net and The Black Arrow is certain to Of course, if they don’t find any prob- good muzzle control, but also let you win it this year. lems, inspectors often treat themselves in on their thoughts before and after The targets of Vin’s books and col- to a good grope or other sexual rewards they pull the trigger. You find yourself umns include taxation, gun control, and from the defenseless citizens in this new understanding their justification for the War to Spread Pain (more generally “police state.” Ah, but on the rooftops their conflict and their willingness to dubbed the “War On Some Drugs.”) and in the shadows lurks the Black Ar- “hold the line”—despite their terrible But Homeland Security and our new row—a hero along the lines of Batman, odds of survival. national pastime, the airport grope-and- or Superman. While the book may open Some of the scenes are so heinous grab, also do not escape his literary with an almost comic book feel, we soon that you question the need to be so scalpel. learn that it is a serious, believable novel graphic; after all, no government could that stirs our souls much like the film, be that cruel. And then you recall that Spartacus. you’ve seen these stories before…you Anarquía With The Black Arrow, Vin has given remember that these are real events. By Brad Linaeaver & J. Kent Hastings us a real treasure. For example, when Vin has craftily taken the most horrific Sense of Wonder Press, 2004 was the last time that “Passionate,” injustices to our and magically Hardcover $34.95; Paperback, $19.99 “Sexy,” ”Stylish,” “Thought-provok- made them appear as current news items Reviewed by Anders Monsen ing,” ”Funny,” ”Exhilarating!” ”Action- in 2030. The Black Arrow is a must-read packed!” and “Tear-jerker” were all used for romantics, libertarians, resistance to describe the same book—let alone a fighters, and anyone who is passionate The American Civil War and World book about freedom??? about life. It also provides the ultimate War II bear the scars of incessant strip- The characters are so real, likable, and solution for the elimination of “boot-on- mining from alternate historians. That unique that you believe that you know your-neck” politics. other major war of the early twentieth them. The Black Arrow starts out with The dialogue is witty and sharp. century, the Spanish Civil War, earns a righteous assassination by an archer. The history lessons and quotes from little attention in fiction. This war in The ancient method of attack is chosen the founding fathers are timeless and the bottom left corner of Europe drew to effectively render the vast “SonicNet pertinent. thousands of international volunteers to gunfire detection grid” about as useful Vin has given us a stunning first novel fight side by side with Spaniards against as the ancient Maginot Line. that is sure to be a timeless classic among what they perceived to be the forces of Later, we find that the resistance is such greats as , The evil. The testing grounds for World War equally proficient with blades, martial Count of Monte Cristo, , II were fought on the plain, mountains arts, or firearms. I found it extremely 1984, and Unintended Consequences. and cities. German brigades ranged the refreshing to read a novel with techni- Get the limited edition, leather-bound countryside and Stukas and Junkers cally accurate gun battles. Without go- printing while it lasts and pass it on to pounded cities to dust. Joseph Stalin’s ing overboard or getting too technical, your grandchildren. It is guaranteed to the author provides the reader with a stir even the faintest glowing cinder of —Continued on page 8

Page 3 Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 A Century of Ayn Rand By William H. Stoddard Alissa Rosenbaum was born on Febru- the near of the 1950s, when it public figure and brought her a large ary 2, 1905, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. was published, as that of the 1930s, the number of followers, including an inner In young adulthood, she emigrated to “Red Decade.” But though it’s filled with circle who surrounded her in New York. the , where she took the ingenious inventions, its focus is not on As too often happens, being the focus name Ayn Rand and pursued a career technology or even science. Much of its of a circle of admirers did her harm; as a novelist. Her last two novels, The technology is treated like the gadgets she became addicted to constant praise Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, both in recent technothrillers, which exists and admiration and unable to accept became best-sellers. She then turned to to advance the plot but is not its main dissent or criticism. A love affair with working out and promulgating her phil- focus. Its most important invention, the one of her younger admirers damaged osophical views. Both her philosophy Motor, which “converts static energy into her marriage and eventually wrecked and her fiction became major influences kinetic,” is not so much a scientific con- the Objectivist organization, even as the on the emerging libertarian movement, cept as a dramatized philosophical one: influence of her ideas was helping to including the Libertarian Futurist So- its operation violates the Second Law of spark the libertarian movement. Rand ciety, which chose Atlas Shrugged as Thermodynamics in much the same way never accepted libertarianism, regarding one of its first two Hall of Fame award that, in Rand’s view, the human mind its acceptance of adherents of winners. Now, on the hundredth anni- does—and it’s found on a rubbish pile freedom regardless of the philosophi- versary of her birth, we commemorate in a society that is turning against the cal basis of their ideas as a disastrous her achievements. freedom of the human mind. That turn, mistake; but libertarians, even those As a novelist, Ayn Rand favored dra- and its historical impact, is what the who reject her philosophy, find value matic, tightly plotted stories and larger- novel is really about. Rand’s imagined in her ideas. than-life characters. Her consistent theme solution to the problem of the decay of The Libertarian Futurist Society is was . This took its purest freedom works better as melodrama, or among them. Rand showed us a picture form in the short , a portrait of even as myth, than it does as realistic of the dangers that lie ahead, especially a dystopian future where even singular narrative, but the problem is real, and for the United States—the danger of pronouns had vanished from the lan- has not become less so. forgetting individual rights in favor of guage. The Fountainhead, written more Rand’s philosophy, which she called mass democracy, and of wrecking the or less at the same time, examines the , came into definition as she world’s most productive economy in the same theme in a fairly traditional novel was writing Atlas Shrugged, and she process. And she showed us a picture of about individual characters and their re- spent the rest of her life elaborating it. She a freer society, devoted to creative work lationships with each other, taking place combined classical liberal political ideas and mutually consensual relationships. at specific historical dates and largely in with a new underpinning, taken from the Those two visions are what we look for the real city of New York. Rand made philosophical theories of Aristotle and in fiction, and what we honor with the its hero, Howard Roark, an architect, a Thomas Aquinas; in a sense, Objectivism Prometheus Award. Even the name of the choice that brought together two aspects is an atheistic version of Thomism. Her award was of individualism: as a creative artist, he admiration for Aristotelian logic led her influenced could work out his ideas and make his to struggle for rigorous arguments for her by Rand: choices in the privacy of his own mind; positions, not always successfully. But s h e c o n - but to actually realize any of his ideas her philosophical insights are often bet- sidered the in a building, he needed clients and a ter than the argumentative framework titan who functioning economy to support the that holds them, and her methods of b r o u g h t construction of buildings—and most of argument provide useful tools for appli- fire to man Roark’s dramatic problems in the novel cation to other philosophical questions, the great- grow out of the choices he makes for the which are now gaining her a measure of est figure in sake of gaining the chance to build. recognition. At the most basic, she had human my- Her last novel, Atlas Shrugged, is remarkably sound judgment on what thology and something else entirely, and critics had to defend: the validity of the scientific the proper trouble knowing what to make of it, method, the ethical justification of the symbol for in somewhat the same way that they pursuit of individual happiness, and the produc- often have trouble knowing what to the market economy and its legal basis tive forces make of science fiction. In a sense, Atlas in individual rights. of an indus- Shrugged is science fiction, set in an Her advocacy of this philosophy, and trial society. extrapolated near future—not so much the success of her novels, made Rand a

Page 4 Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Prometheus Anarquía: Afterword By J. Neil Schulman Look, anyone who can read can blurb Hemingway, but a novel. a rich brew by his Anyone who can write can write an far-more talented afterword for a novel. contemporary, and But aside from the authors, them- fellow Nobel lau- selves, the only man who can touch me reate, John Stein- in his commitment to this novel is James beck. A. Rock, publisher of Sense of Wonder My inside track Press, who is issuing the first edition. on this book goes all Nevertheless, with all due respect to the way back to its Mr. Rock, he only bought rights to this conception…and book once. I’m going to reveal I’ve bought them twice. a few secrets for the In 1999, when Anarquía was nothing first time. more than an outline, I obtained the book- In 1992 the idea publishing rights to Anarquía—and for Anarquía origi- paid the authors an advance to write nated in the mind it—in my capacity as publisher and edi- of J. Kent Hast- tor-in-chief of Pulpless.Com. ings … but Kent’s A couple of years later I reverted those inspiration for the rights to the authors so they could accept novel was Brad Jim Rock’s publishing offer. Linaweaver’s 1988 Then, within 24 hours of the manu- novel, Moon of Ice, script’s completion in July, 2003—after an reading only the first four chapters—I of World War II in made an offer to purchase the movie which the United rights. Within a week, the contract was States remains neu- signed, money changed hands, and I had tral, Nazi Germany an option on those rights. uses nuclear weap- You may reasonably conclude that I ons to conquer both consider Anarquía an important work of the Soviet Union literature, and one which, additionally, and Europe, and has great commercial potential both as the Cold War is a book and a movie. not between the I’ll go further than that. Anarquía United States and doesn’t read to me like science-fiction, Russia but between the United States characters: the father of the moon land- of which the alternate history is a sub- and Germany. ing, rocketeer Wernher von Braun; the genre. Neither does it read to me like Kent asked himself, “What would mother of spread-spectrum communica- an historical novel. Anarquía reads to have happened if even before World tions, movie-star Hedy Lamarr, and the me like a contemporary novel written War II started—if even before Nazi Ger- father of modern computing, Konrad in the late 1930’s, about the time that many had made its first conquest —the Zuse. Ernest Hemingway wrote his 1938 anarchists in Spain had prevailed in the By 1998 Kent had reached the limits Spanish Civil War stage-play The Fifth Spanish Civil War?” of research about the Spanish Civil War Column. But Anarquía reads to me not It was a rich vein to prospect for liter- written (or translated into) English, like flat-beer reporting by the newsman ary gold. The Spanish Civil War was in and was studying Spanish so he could many ways a prologue to World War II, read documents and books in their J. NEIL SCHULMAN is the author of two and the literary lions associated with originals. Prometheus award-winning novels, it include not only Hemingway (who Kent and I briefly discussed my col- and , short fiction, nonfiction, covered it) but also (who laborating on the novel, but in 1999 my and screenwritings, including the CBS Twilight Zone episode “Profile in Silver.” This afterword to Brad fought in it). adventures in book publishing shoved Linaweaver & J. Kent Hastings’ novel, Anarquía, is By 1995 Kent had outlined the novel reprinted with permission from the author. with three personal heroes as its main —Continued on page 10

Page 5 Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Finalists Announced for Prometheus Awards Judges make two recommendations for Special Award

By Michael Grossberg

Libertarian Futurist Society judges • The System of the World, by Neal semination of libertarian ideas.” have selected finalists for this year’s Stephenson (William Morrow)—The Only twice before has the LFS pre- Prometheus Awards, which will be development in the 1700s of the modern sented Special Awards, a very rare presented in a ceremony during the world’s classical liberal institutions, honor—first, in 1998 for the first explic- 63rd World Science Fiction Convention which paved the way for modern liber- itly libertarian science-fiction anthology August 4-8 in Glasgow, Scotland. tarianism, is explored in the climax of (Free Space, edited by Brad Linaweaver In addition, two recommendations the author’s ambitious Baroque Cycle and Edward E. Kramer ), and second, in will be submitted to the general mem- trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion), 2000, to writer for lifetime bership for Special Awards—one to Scott which has been hailed by Entertainment achievement. Bieser and L. Neil Smith, for their graphic Weekly as “the definitive historical-sci-fi- All LFS members will be mailed an novel adaptation of The Probability epic-pirate-comedy-punk love story.” awards ballot by early June—the voting Broach, and the other to editors Mark deadline is July 1—to help choose the Tier and Martin Greenberg, for a pair ◆ Best Novel and Classic Fiction winners of anthologies of libertarian and help decide whether to approve the science fiction. This year’s Hall of Fame finalists in- Special Award recommendations. Each Here are the 2004 Best Novel finalists cludes three works first published more Special Award recommendation will be for the 2005 Prometheus Award, listed than half a century ago—a fitting reflec- listed separately for yes-or-no votes by in alphabetical order by author: tion of the special focus of this awards all members, and each recommenda- • State of Fear, by category on time-honored classics. Here tion must separately receive majority (Harper Collins)—A futuristic political are the 2005 Hall of Fame finalists for approval to become a Special Award thriller with a cautionary theme about Best Classic Fiction, listed in alphabetical winner. the dangers of the politicization of sci- order by author: ence and a courageous expose about the •It Can’t Happen Here—a novel ◆ politics and science of global warming. (1936) by Sinclair Lewis •Anarquía, by Brad Linaweaver • —a graphic novel For the 2006 Prometheus Awards, the and J. Kent Hastings (Sense of Wonder (1989) by LFS hopes to expand the number of judg- Press)—An alternate history of the Span- • A Time of Changes—a novel (1971) es on the Hall of Fame committee and ish Civil War, with a powerful vision of by Robert Silverberg the Special Awards committee, so please anarchism as the what-if alternative to • —a trilogy of consider serving on these important communism or fascism, and a cast of novels (1954) by J.R. R.Tolkien committees. There also may be one or characters that includes Hedy Lamarr, • The Weapon Shops of Isher—a two openings on the Best Novel judging Wernher von Braun, George Orwell, novel (1951) by A.E. Van Vogt committee, which is limited to 10 judges. Josef Stalin, Ernest Hemingway, Ayn The Special Awards Committee, (To volunteer, contact board president Rand, and many more. which only meets in those occasional Chris Hibbert (hibbert@mydruthers. • Newton’s Wake, by Ken MacLeod years when a nomination has been com) as soon as possible. ()—A blend- made for a special Prometheus Award, Thanks to all the LFS members ing cutting-edge science and political has approved two recommendations for who volunteered to serve on the three insight, centered on the head of an Special Awards in 2005: awards committees this year. Members ambitious clan of galactic entrepreneurs • : The of the Best Novel finalist-judging com- who stumble upon an ancient relic on a Graphic Novel, an imaginative and mittee, chaired by Michael Grossberg remote planet that threatens the balance vivid condensed adaptation by L. Neil ([email protected]), were Jorge of power. Smith and Scott Bieser, which is “reach- Codina, Steve Gaalema, Chris Hibbert, • Marque and Reprisal, by Elizabeth ing new audiences by presenting a liber- Lynn Maners, Charles Morrison, Adam Moon (Ballantine Books/Del Rey)—A tarian classic in graphic form.” Starchild, William H. Stoddard, Fran Van science fiction adventure that contrasts • Give Me and Visions of Lib- Cleave, and Victoria Varga. the ethos of the market and the military erty, two explicitly libertarian antholo- Best Novel judges read 14 nominees in focusing on a female soldier-turned- gies edited by Mark Tier and Martin H. this past year. The other nominees: trader who battles intrigue, treachery Greenberg and published as companion and terror while at the helm of a com- paperbacks by Baen Books, “for having mercial transport starship. a positive long-term effect on the dis- —Continued on page 11

Page 6 Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Prometheus 2005 Prometheus Awards Finalists

Best Novel Hall of Fame State of Fear, Michael Crichton (Harper Collins) It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis (1936) Anarquía, Brad Linaweaver & J. Kent Hastings V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, David Lloyd (1989) (Sense of Wonder) A Time of Changes, Robert Silverberg (1971) Newton’s Wake, Ken MacLeod (Tor) The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (1954) Marque and Reprisal, Elizabeth Moon The Weapon Shops of Isher, A. E. Van Vogt (1951) (Del Rey) The System of the World, (William Morrow)

Special Award The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel, L. Neil Smith & Scott Bieser (BigHead Press) Give Me Liberty/Visions of Liberty, Edited by Mark Tier and Martin H. Greenberg (Baen Books)

—Defining the Prometheus Awards, continued from page 2 science fiction bookstores, is reviewed in spirit, showing the reader what harm is think about these two categories. If a publications such as Locus, and is read done by the denial of freedom. It may book strikes you as not having any- by science fiction fans and discussed at portray a movement or struggle aimed at thing to do with libertarian beliefs and science fiction clubs and conventions. creating a free society. Or it may decon- values, or as not having any fantastic or And the LFS has largely endorsed that struct a nonlibertarian work, showing speculative content—don’t vote for it. kind of pragmatic definition. We’ve the hidden implications of its values—as But if you find a book well written and been willing to consider books that are Donald Kingsbury’s Psychohistorical compelling; if it makes you think about published for, and marketed to, genre Crisis deconstructed ’s your libertarian beliefs in a new way, or readers; we’ve also considered books Foundation series, or, in a broader sense, appreciate your libertarian values more marketed to general readers, if they have as Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork strongly—then vote for it, and don’t comparable themes and content—such Orange deconstructed the behaviorist worry about technical definitions. That’s as Atlas Shrugged, which was not ideas of B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two. part of being free. marketed as science fiction but is one of Any of these kinds of fiction might be the prototypes for the kind of book we informative and interesting to libertar- want to honor. ians and to other readers interested in Moving? So far as being “libertarian” is con- libertarian ideas. (I offer this list, by the cerned, what we are looking for are books way, not to exclude books that don’t fit concerned with freedom—freedom as into it but to suggest some of the diverse Please send any changes in your libertarians understand it, which has ways in which a book might be, and mailing address to: to do with making choices in which past books have been, found for themselves, in a sphere where their deserving of the Prometheus Award. David Tuchman larger society doesn’t control their ac- Any book that persuasively dramatizes 1364 Mapleton Ave tions. Such a concern can be expressed the value of freedom could be a suitable Suffield, CT 06078 in several different ways. A book may nominee, even if it doesn’t fit any of these Email: [email protected] portray a possible free society. It may categories.) portray an unfree society, in a cautionary When you vote for the awards, do

Page 7 Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005

—Reviews, continued from page 3 nude scene at age seventeen in Ecstasy). path from our own, into the wild black Lamarr chafes in this role, and soon flees yonder. heavy hand crushed the backs of Span- her husband for Hollywood. Along the The book at times seems too slim. Just ish Communists who sought their own way she encounters von Braun on a before we become acquainted with one future, while at the same time dipping train, along with his childhood friend character, off we zoom to the next. The into the country’s golden pockets. This Konrad Zuse, and thus begins a long novel feels smaller than its 193 pages, is a rich breeding ground for fiction and and hot relationship between Lamarr due to the addition of photos reprinted speculation, yet until now, rarely worked and von Braun. on each page. At times it has the feel of save as historical windows in time. With Lamarr reaches Hollywood, meets a screenplay, swtiching scenes rapidly Anarquía, Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent and sleeps with actors and actresses. She and rarely lingering in one place. Hastings repair this gap with a fine new enters an affair with the charismatic co- In addition to the main narrative, novel that boldly ponders the question: star of her new movie, later to meet his the book includes afterwords from What if the anarchists won? wife, a playwright and author based in Bill Patterson (publisher/editor of The Anarquía flies an ambitious black New York called Ayn Rand. The depic- Heinlein Journal), William Alan Ritch flag: the theater in Spain dealt maintly tion of Rand in her brief scene conveys (former editor of Prometheus), one each with Soviet-supported communists and the electricity of Rand’s personality. by Prometheus Award-winners Victor socialists battling the Hitler-Mussolini- There’s little humanity in the authors’ Koman and J. Neil Schulman (Prometheus Franco triumverate of fascism. A handful depiction of Rand, who comes across as reprints Schulman’s afterword on of forgotten syndicalist anarchists also obsessed with the human mind. page 5 of this issue), Randall N. Herrst fought in the war, yet while in real life Meanwhile, in New York, two science (president of The Center for the Study of they suffered at the hands of both Com- fiction pulp writers and close friends Crime), and Daffyd ab Hugh (fictioneer munists and fascists. In Linaweaver and debate the decision of one of them, and Linaweaver collaborator). Hastings’ novel the anarchists in Spain Howard Davidson. He plans a trip to A list of fictional and real characters, are joined by individualist anarchists Spain to write about the conflict. This a brief chronology of real events sur- from America (including counter-eco- fictional writer joins the ranks of other rounding the Spanish Civil War, and nomic Agorists á la Samuel E. Konkin writers, famous then and in our time for glossaries on personalities and acronyms III), and prevail against collectivists of their actions in the war. George Orwell’s are appended after the main narrative. all stripes. Homage to Catalonia is perhaps the most These fill in the historical background, Two of the main protagonists in famous non-fiction account of the war. but also detract from the fictional story. Anarquía are actress Hedy Lamarr and On the other end, Ernest Hemingway’s Nearly unforgivable is the publishers’ scientist Wernher von Braun. We meet superb novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls own insertion of photos of people and the former during a dinner party hosted (1939), condensed the pain, grit, and posters on virtually every page of the by her industrialist husband, for no agony of the entire war in one small novel. No doubt the intent is sincere. In a other than Adolph Hitler. Lamarr stands locale, one single incident. Both Orwell different setting it might even work. Yet up against Hitler, to the anger of her and Hemingway participate as support- the images are the size of postage stamps, husband, who sees the young beauty as ing actors in Anarquía. Orwell comes and act like rocks amidst the flow of the little more than a trophy wife (Lamarr’s off as the better character, nobel and plot. I found myself constantly lifting most famous role at this point was her thoughtful. Hemingway seems more my eyes from the text to glance at the like a cruel bully, not so different from pictures, then gazing around the page his real personality. to find where I had left off reading. Once the war begins in earnest, in Look past the occasional narrative July 1936, the next two years fly past in skips and the over-zealous pictorial brief episodes. The Germans discover to info-dump and you will encounter an their shock a secret weapon used against imaginative and powerful work of fic- them by the Spanish. Powerful rockets tion. Linaweaver and Hastings nearly bring down their aircraft. Wernher von persuade the reader that the stories Braun is in Spain, working against Franco and events in this novel are true, or at and Germans. Allied with Buenaventura least makes you wish they were true. Durruti (in our world killed in late 1936; Anarquía may be the most important in Anarquía he lives and plays a greater book on freedom and alternate history role in the war), von Braun’s rockets turn since L. Neil Smith’s The Probability the tide. The anarchists divert the gold Broach. The level of research and his- headed to Russia into their own hands, torical detail is staggering, the passion financing more weapons. Lamarr leaves for liberty unflinching, and the power Hollywood and rejoins von Braun, and of story enthralling. This clearly is a the course of events take a different must-own book.

Page 8 Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Prometheus

Marque and Reprisal where her military education is more By Elizabeth Moon help than her mercantile abilities. Del Rey, 2004: $24.95 What Moon is doing with this series is News Reviewed by William H. Stoddard exploring the relationship between two distinct sets of ethical values, identified Sci Fi Wire (www.scifi.com/ Marque and Reprisal is the second by Jane Jacobs in her book Systems of scifiwire2005) reports that Hugo volume of Elizabeth Moon’s latest series, Survival: the guardian ethos and the and Prometheus Award-winning Vatta’s War. Like much of her fiction, trader ethos, embodied respectively in writer, , recently these books have action/adventure the soldier and the merchant. Moon is signed a multi-book deal with Tor. plots; and as is typical of Moon’s writ- ingenious in dramatizing the tension be- The contract includes three books, ing in this mode, their protagonist is a tween them—in Kylara’s background, in and several out-of-print books will woman. But unlike Moon’s previous her feelings about the actions she has to be reprinted; The Peace War and adventure heroines—Paksenarrion, perform, and in the relationship between already are Heris Serrano, and Esmay Suiza—Kylara military and commercial institutions. in bookstores. Vinge’s next book is Vatta is not in military service; she’s the The book’s very title points at that con- Rainbow’s End, set for publication captain of a merchant starship. And the flict: letters of marque and reprisal are in 2006. focus of these books is much less on a way of applying mercantile methods Vinge told Sci Fi Wire, “Rain- military organizations, and much more to the very nonmercantile business of bows End takes place in California on commercial ones. warfare—and Moon’s narrative shows in the near future and is approxi- By and large, Moon offers a positive that, as Jacobs describes, the intermixture mately a prequel to ‘Fast Times at view of business organizations. Three of the two has the potential to corrupt Fairmont High.’ After Rainbow’s business firms play a major part in these both, if not handled with the utmost care. End, I expect that my next novel- books: Vatta Transport Ltd., the interstel- There are serious themes, and themes length project will be a sequel to A lar shipping firm run by Kylara Vatta’s of interest to libertarian audiences, un- Deepness in the Sky. This sequel family; InterStellar Communications, derlying this story of heroic action and would follow Pham Nuwen and an immensely powerful firm that holds conflict between the stars. Anne Reynolt as they seek to over- a monopoly on instantaneous com- throw the Emergency.” munications; and Mackensee Military Assistance Corporation, a mercenary Reflex Brad Linaweaver co-authored force in whose operations Vatta repeat- an expensive coffee table book with By Steven Gould edly finds herself entangled. All three are for Collector’s Tor, 2004, $25.95 basically ethical organizations, earning Worlds of Tomorrow Reviewed by William H. Stoddard Press, . This their profits by selling their services is a history of classic sci-fi pulp art on honest terms, and concerned with that was cross promoted with the long-term advantage more than quick In his first novel, Jumper, Steven movie, Sky Captain and World of gain. On the other side of things, Moon Gould introduced Davy Rice, a young Tomorrow. Additional informa- shows Vatta’s need to deal with govern- man with the ability to teleport. In Reflex, tion at collectorspress.com, or ment failures, from simple bureaucratic his latest novel, he returns to Davy and [email protected] obstructiveness to the deliberate refusal his wife, Millie Harrison-Rice, a decade of the government of her home planet, after the end of Jumper. Reflex reexam- Lydia van Vogt has given Slotter Key, to protect Vatta Transport ines some aspects of , and Linaweaver the rights to do an from physical attack on its people and in particular one of the key assumptions audio adaptation of the original facilities. of most stories about teleportation: that story, “The Weapon Shop,” to be At the same time, Moon establishes a teleporter can’t be imprisoned. a production of the Atlanta Radio that Vatta is not, by first choice, a mer- In Reflex, Davy is the target of a Theatre Company at DragonCon in chant at all. The first book in the series, kidnapping, carried out by agents of a 2005. Some of ARTC’s other work Trading in Danger, began with her ex- conspiratorial force that wants to use his includes dramatizations of Robert pulsion from the naval academy of Slot- unique ability for its own purposes. Over A. Heinlein’s stories, such as “The ter Key, in disgrace, after she unwisely the course of the novel, they work with Man Who Traveled In Elephants,” offers help to a classmate with a personal several different methods of restraining which features as problem. Her merchant captaincy is on him, both physical and psychological. the Ringmaster. an old, small ship, carrying one last cargo Gould shows that disturbingly effective CDs of these audio adaptations on its voyage to be scrapped, as a way restraints are possible for a sufficiently are available for purchase online at for her to prove herself to her family. ruthless captor. But he also makes the http://www.artc.org. Her adventures come about when plot complications involve her in problems —Continued on page 11

Page 9 Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 V for Vendetta adapted for the screen

On March 4, 2005, Andy and Larry about herself – and emerges as his being afraid of their governments.” Wachowski, along with Joel Silver an- unlikely ally in the culmination of The official site for the movie nounced the launch of production on the his plot to bring freedom and jus- — http://vforvendetta.warnerbros. action thriller V For Vendetta, starring tice back to a society fraught with com/ — launched on March 4, 2005. Natalie Portman, James Purefoy, and cruelty and corruption. Visitors will find the entire transcript of Stephen Rhea in Berlin, Germany. The The screenplay, written by the Wa- the press conference, the official press press release stated: chowski brothers, is based on the graphic release, some photos of the main cast, Set against the futuristic land- novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. A and promises of video and news of the scape of totalitarian Britain, V For finalist for the 1992 Prometheus Award, production. Vendetta tells the story of a mild- V for Vendatta will be filmed on location This is not the first adaptation of Alan mannered young woman named in Berlin and London, with a three to four Moore’s work. The previous movies (The Evey (Natalie Portman) who is month shoot. The movie will be released League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, rescued from a life-and-death beginning November 4, 2005. From Hell) received lukewarm reviews, situation by a masked vigilante Portman spoke at the press confer- but from the producers’s statements, (James Purefoy) known only as ence, saying candidly, “I think this film maybe this effort will be different. The “V.” Incomparably charismatic is about the power of people to play an Wachowski brothers appear to play more and ferociously skilled in the art active role when the government is not of a background role with this movie. V of combat and deception, V ignites looking after the people; the people have For Vendetta Director James McTeigue a revolution when he detonates the right to revolt, to make their minds served as the First Assistant Director on two London landmarks and takes heard, and to speak their opinions. It the Wachowski brothers’ Matrix trilogy. over the government-controlled is about a very oppressive regime, it’s There is no doubt that if they stick closely airwaves, urging his fellow citizens based on the graphic novel by Alan to the original comic book version, V for to rise up against tyranny and op- Moore and very true to that spirit of the Vendetta should fuel controversy across pression. As Evey uncovers the Guy Fawkes November 5th gunpowder the globe for its radical anti-government truth about V’s mysterious back- plot. It’s all about…governments being stance. ground, she also discovers afraid of their people, not the people —Anders Monsen

—Anarquía, continued from page 5 The last chapter of this novel is not an Braun watches proudly as Apollo 11 ending. It’s a cliffhanger. The sequel is is launched…and a few days later the my life as a writer aside, and Kent went already in the works…and I’m already famous TV broadcast from the moon, as back to the source of his inspiration pumping Kent and Brad for deep back- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin leave and offered the collaboration to Brad. ground on my screenplay adaptation. their footprints in lunar soil. I offered them a contract and their col- Here’s the teaser for my screen treat- SUDDENLY WE ZOOM BACK- laboration was official. ment: WARDS IN TIME: the Apollo, Gemini, The rest is history. WE OPEN on a ten-year-old boy and Mercury missions…the launch of Yes—after I bought the movie rights pulling a little red wagon through the Sputnik by the Soviets…the liberation for my production company, Jesulu Pro- streets of Berlin in 1922. Little Wer- of Europe by the Allies…V-2 rockets ductions—I did finish reading the novel. nher von Braun has tied six Chinese bombing London and we’re back to a Actually, Brad read me the second half firecracker-rockets to the wagon and is little boy’s wagon being pulled on a on a long weekend he and Kent spent at about to conduct his first experiment Berlin street in 1922. my house in Pahrump, Nevada, where in rocketry. He lights the firecrackers WE REPEAT the rocket-propelled we signed the option contracts. It was and the wagon careens uncontrollably wagon careening wildly through the fair revenge since I’d read aloud to both through the streets, narrowly avoiding streets of Berlin, only this time the Brad and Kent the full text of my latest disaster. A policeman grabs the little wagon knocks a well-dressed matron novel, Escape from Heaven…then read boy by the scruff of his neck and takes into oncoming street traffic. We hear aloud to them my screenplay adaptation him home to his father, who takes off his SCREAMS and little Wernher von Braun as well. belt, and the incident ends with nothing watches his first experiment in rocketry And when I expressed my dismay more than a little boy’s yelps behind a end in tragedy. at the abruptness of the novel’s ending, closed door. And the rest is alternate history. Brad let me in on another secret, which WE CUT TO July, 1969—Cape I’ll now share with you. Canaveral, Florida—as Wernher von

Page 10 Volume 23, Number 3, 2005 Prometheus

—Reviews, continued from page 9 loyalty that motivates Davy’s resistance. take the time to learn how to write fiction Readers of Prometheus are likely to find before doing so, and the resulting effort point that no restraint is absolute. Davy these themes sympathetic and to enjoy is at best amateurish. spends much of his time in captivity Gould’s exploration of them, as I did. To start with, a substantial part of testing the limits of his restraints. And, this book isn’t narrative at all, but es- despite strong ethical scruples, which says on various topics. Some of these shaped his earlier career as an agent of describe the novel’s fictional future, the National Security Agency, he is able and their inclusion as part of a work of to resist his captors sufficiently to make fiction could be justified, but they’re not himself effectively useless to them, while smoothly integrated with the rest of the at the same time their investigations of text. Others present the author’s views of his abilities suggest to him some new the actual present-day world, and ought applications of his power to teleport. to have been left out entirely. In parallel, we see his wife’s reaction Beyond that, Molôn Labé! repeat- to his disappearance, which introduces edly violates the old maxim, “Show, a new complication: over many years of don’t tell!” Part of the craft of fiction is exposure to his ability, she has become to come up with imagined facts, present capable of teleportation also. As he works them, and let readers draw their own to resist his captors, she works to identify conclusions from their reactions to those them and free him from them. This aspect facts. Many passages in this book offer of the story could have been stronger; the reader not imagined facts, but the Millie defeats people with combat train- author’s interpretation of those facts, ing a little too easily, simply by relying or even the author’s value judgments of on her ability to teleport, and she also characters, events, and states of affairs, bypasses security arrangements with which the reader is apparently sup- that same ability—but having decided posed to accept on trust. In fact, several to kidnap one teleporter, any adequately Molôn Labé! passages show characters in the book paranoid security force ought to have By Boston T. Party reaching value judgments which the assumed there could be more and had Javelin Press, 2004, reader is apparently supposed to accept countermeasures waiting for them. Reviewed by William H. Stoddard on the strength of those characters being Eventually the two plots converge in a good and heroic (the characters are read- dramatic climax—but the rescue/escape One of the libertarian movement’s ily identifiable as Good Guys and Bad doesn’t solve all the problems. Gould recent proposals for a strategy for at- Guys), without actual evidence, from a spends several more chapters working taining a freer society is the “free state woman on an airplane who is classified out further problems, of which some are movement.” In brief, this recommends as an evil liberal environmentalist by her resolved and others remain unsolved, as that libertarians should choose one of “pony-tailed brunette hair . . . heavily a possible basis for a sequel. the less populous American states and streaked with gray”and her choice of Despite its flaws, Reflex is an in- move there in sufficient numbers to influ- clothing styles to a writer who is judged genious exploration of one of science ence or even take over its state and local as deserving death because he advocates fiction’s classic conceptual puzzles. It’s governments. In Molôn Labé! “Boston world government. also a sympathetic portrayal a man of T. Party” (a pseudonym for Kenneth The novel’s title refers to the reply integrity resisting captivity and brain- W. Royce) examines how this proposal washing. And it’s a story of the mutual might work out. Unfortunately, he didn’t —Continued on page 12

—Prometheus Award Finalists, continued from page 6

For Us the Living, by Robert Heinlein Everness, by John C. Wright (TOR). Rick Triplet (vice-chair, rick_2003@rea- (Scribner); Molôn Labé!, by Boston T. The LFS Classic Fiction finalist-judg- son.net), Michael Grossberg, Chris Hib- Party [Kenneth W. Royce] (Javelin Press); ing committee, chaired by Lynn Maners bert, Lynn Maners, Fred Moulton, and Hostile Takeover, by Susan Schwartz ([email protected]), considered Victoria Varga. (TOR); Coyote Rising, by Alan Steele 15 nominees, and included Tom Gillooly, Nominations are being accepted (Ace); The Confusion, by Neal Stephen- Michael Grossberg, Chris Hibbert, Jo- for next year’s awards. Please send son (Morrow); Iron Sunrise, by Charles seph P. Martino, Fred Moulton, William nominations to the appropriate awards Stross (Ace); Freehold, by Michael Z. H. Stoddard, and Victoria Varga. committee. Williamson (Baen); Crisscross, by F. Paul Members of the Special Awards com- Wilson (TOR); and The Last Guardian of mittee, chaired by Bruce Sommer, were

Page 11 Prometheus Volume 23, Number 3, 2005

—Reviews, continued from page 11 of the king of Sparta to the Persian other Americans, many innocent of any cally undesirable people. The message emperor’s offer to accept a surrender if wrongdoing; this doesn’t seem like an in which Harold Krassny announces the Spartans would lay down their arms; easy thing to defend in libertarian terms. his two killings states only the follow- freely translated, it means, “Come and ing facts about them (as opposed to take them in battle.” To “Party”’s credit, moral judgments against them made by he takes his premise as far as realizing Krassny): that the first was a Hollywood that it leads toward the prospect of suc- media figure who ran for the United cession, and toward military confronta- States Senate and developed presiden- tion with the federal government. To tial ambitions and that the second was his discredit, he fails to deliver either an advocate of world government who of the things his title promises, a heroic favored United Nations jurisdiction last stand by the forces of freedom, or a over the United States. Objectionable desperate victory of an armed populace as such people might be, the right to over the United States Army. Instead, his hold wrong ideas is a cornerstone of imagined free state of Wyoming survives libertarianism. Neither a series of secre- because the federal government is sub- tive killings nor the theft and threatened jected to nuclear blackmail with stolen use of hydrogen bomb warheads has hydrogen bombs. In terms of simple any good reason to be part of a story fictional technique, this is a failure to about the free state movement, and their carry through with his story. presence weakens the novel as fiction; There are also questions to be asked and its expressed sympathy for acts of about the author’s libertarian values. A And in parallel to the overt progress of political violence—for assassination and credible nuclear threat against the United the free state movement, Molôn Labé! terrorism—undermine its claim to be an States government entails a willing- shows us an underground movement, expression of libertarianism. ness to kill thousands, if not millions of the Krassnyites, devoted to killing politi-

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