Ken MacLeod's comments.
The title comes from two quotes:
“If these are the early days of a better nation, there must be hope, and a hope of peace is as good as any, and far better than a hollow hoarding greed or the dry lies of an aweless god.”—Graydon Saunders
Contact: kenneth dot m dot macleod at gmail dot com Blog-related emails may be quoted unless you ask otherwise.
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The Restoration Game is a Prometheus Award finalist
I'm delighted and honoured to learn that The Restoration Game is among the six finalists for the Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society.
I'm also, I have to admit, surprised. The Prometheus Award is for SF/F novels that 'stress the importance of liberty as the foundation for civilization, peace, prosperity, progress and justice.' While I whole-heartedly agree with that premise, it was far from uppermost in my mind when I wrote the book. But I quite see how it could be read that way, and I'm glad that it has been.
The Restoration Game contains more incidents based on real events than any other of my books. The Ural Caucasian Mineral Company's annual report was based on one from the real-life Ural Caspian Oil Corporation that I found in a dusty brown envelope. This and other incidents are described here.
Labels: libertarian, self-promotion, skiffy, writing
8 Comments:
Thanks. I think so, given that I've won it three times and was nominated at least one more time, for Newton's Wake.
In my admittedly biased opinion (I'm a member of the LFS) the list of finalists is quite strong this year, so you are in good company. Some of the novels that were nominated but didn't make the final cut are quite good.
I think we've done a good job of recognizing good books in the last few years. I'm very pleased we've helped draw attention to your work.
By 
Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson), at
Thursday, April 05, 2012 1:53:00 am
Well I'm nominally a libertarian, and I enjoyed the heck out of The Restoration Game, though I'm scratching my head a bit too based on the description of the award. As for your broader body of work, as someone who was first discovered you as a teenager through an interview you did with Reason, I'd say your books have shaken my libertarian beliefs (at least the economic ones) more then they have confirmed them. But I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing.
(BTW I highly recommend that any one who enjoyed The Cassini Division google said Reason interview for a very interesting take on the nature of the conflict in the book)
Just finished reading "The Restoration Game" with much delight. Always checking the shelf of lesser Macs & Mcs in San Diego's best genre bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, but had missed seeing you there for a while, and they were no longer carrying any of your back titles, all of which I had already quickly bought & read anyway. Very pleased to see you reappear the with a new American publisher, Prometheus, who have put out a nice readable trade edition with the original spelling. How did I love "Restoration Game"? Let me count the ways. I loved your narrator Lucy nearly as much as Jane Eyre, and she has the same endearing manner of addressing the reader as such. Foreshadowing was all done tantalisingly. The eventual mysterious destination ever looming ominously closer, like Mordor or King Solomon's Mines. The sense of presque vu wonderfully maintained. Surely some great revelation was at hand! And the payoff was very satisfying. Also, having read Conquest and Solzhenytsin, much appreciate your take on recent Russian history. Am hugely enjoying the circle of lefty and independence-minded science fiction writers that are flourishing around Edinburgh (which I have visited several times), and particularly relish your apparent cross-fertilisation of ideas with Charles Stross, whom I also much esteem. I may mention that I can trace my own Maxwell ancestry back to Max, son of Unwin, who settled near the Tweed about 1160. Bravo bravissimo! Eagerly awaiting more.
Yr. humble,
George Weinberg-Harter
(San Diego, California, 1944)
Well, actually, I can say better than that. Thank you for these very kind words, and I'm really glad you enjoyed it.
Good for you. This is, what, the fifth Prometheus Award you've been nominated for?
By
Mouldy Squid, at
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 7:25:00 pm