Most economists, legal experts, academics and libertarian theorists focus on the real world, not fantasy or science fiction.
Yet, David Friedman, the free-market economist, retired professor, physicist and legal scholar who’s written a variety of wide-ranging nonfiction books and textbooks, is also a lifelong science fiction fan and acclaimed fantasy author.
Friedman, who recently agreed to speak as a presenter in August at the 45th annual Prometheus Awards ceremony, probably should be better known – and more widely read – as a fantasy novelist within the broad and overlapping circles of SF/fantasy fans and Libertarian Futurist Society members.
Aside from Ayn Rand, whose novels Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged helped inspire and launch the modern libertarian movement, most libertarian philosophers, historians, economists and policy experts have not ventured into writing fiction.
Other leading libertarian and classical-liberal thinkers – including Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman (David’s father), Robert Nozick, John Hospers, Thomas Szasz, Karl Popper, David Boaz and Matt Ridley – have written only non-fiction – much of it quite illuminating in exploring, developing and upholding the preconditions and principles that best promote human flourishing through voluntarism, cooperation, non-aggression and consistent respect for everyone’s individual rights.
Yet, as Rand proved with her bestselling novels (two of which incorporated enough SF elements to be inducted early on into the Prometheus Hall of Fame) and as today’s arguably leading libertarian novelist Lionel Shriver is demonstrating with her provocative and internationally bestselling fiction (The Mandibles, Should We Stay or Should We Go, Mania, etc.), a propulsive story with compelling characters has the potential to viscerally communicate positive visions of liberty and/or tragic depictions of tyranny far better than most dry and academic texts.
So David Friedman is an interesting and noteworthy exception to the rule.
Just as his influential libertarian bestseller The Machinery of Freedom explores how the decentralized and non coercive “spontaneous order” of private markets often can provide optimal solutions to various socioeconomic problems better than the coercive and often abusive powers of the State, so do David Friedman’s novels dramatize the harmful consequences of empire, invasion and other violent aspects of politics while highlighting the voluntary cooperation and justified self-defense that can maintain a peaceful and civic order.
HARALD, FRIEDMAN’S PROMETHEUS-NOMINATED FIRST NOVEL
His first novel, Harald, published by Baen Books in 2006, was nominated for a Prometheus Award for Best Novel.
Harald, a fantasy adventure set within a medieval-era culture loosely inspired from late Roman and early Byzantine times, focuses on a powerful experienced and older general who must leave his peaceful family life to assist a young and immature king in defending their land and people from an aggressive Empire. Only a return to an alliance of self-defense, among the Kingdom, the Vales and Ladies of the Order has a chance to stop the marauders, according to a publisher’s description.
Friedman’s first novel received encouraging reviews.
For example, the Booklist review by Frieda Murray praised the characters as “good, solid archetypes” and described the invented medieval setting as “not unlike that of Harry Turtledove’s early Videssos novels.”
“The plot is fairly straightforward: a young king finds himself at odds with enough of the kingdom’s forces to put his land in danger of invasion. Sure enough, the enemy invades, and the protagonist, an old soldier who fought the enemy in a previous campaign, must pound some sense into the king’s head and develop unexpected tactics for defeating the invasion,” Murray wrote.
FRIEDMAN’S FANTASY NOVELS ABOUT MAGIC AND POWER
Friedman’s other fantasy novels include Salamander (2011) and its 2020 sequel Brothers.
Set in a fictional universe in which magic is real and four decades after imagery has been converted from a craft into a science, Salamander revolves around the dangers of abuse of power.
From the publisher’s description:
“Magister Coelus, the College’s young and brilliant theorist, has finally found a student capable of learning theoretical magery at the level at which he can teach it. He invites her to help him with his current research project, which promises to funnel through the hands of one mage more power than any mage has ever had.
“Ellen, who knows more about both the theory and practice of magic than a first year student should know, refuses, arguing that the Cascade will do more harm than good. When news of the project reaches Prince Kieron, brother and heir of the king and Royal Master of Mages, he insists that it be completed in secret and employed, if at all, only under royal authority.
“Word has also reached Lord Iolen, Kieron’s competent, cold-blooded, and ambitious nephew, with his own ideas of how the Cascade should be used, by whom and for what purpose. Ellen and Coelus must together face the conflicting threats and demands of two arrogant and powerful men, the peril posed by the very existence of the Cascade, and their feelings for each other.”
Brothers, the 2020 sequel to Salamander, revolves around two boys, each rival heirs to the throne of Esland. The novel blends magic, romance, intrigue and murderous politics.
Here’s high praise for Brothers, and Salamander, from one of the Amazon reviews:
“Friedman constructs one of the most original and coherent systems of magic that I have ever read about. I’m impressed by the attention and thought he put into creating something that is like an alternate form of physics in a magical universe with different laws of nature.”
THE SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM
Perhaps Friedman’s longtime involvement in the Society for Creative Anachronism, where he is know as Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, helped shape his fiction and helped provide the foundation of practical realism in his medieval-era world-building.
The SCA has more than 30,000 members active in more than 20 “kingdoms” around the world. According to the SCA website, SCA participants participants learn about the arts, skills, and culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance “in an atmosphere of fun, through tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, classes, hands-on workshops, and more.”
According to David Friedman’s bio, he is known throughout the historical-recreation society for his articles on the philosophy of recreationism and practical historical recreations, especially those relating to the medieval Middle East. Friedman is also sometimes credited with founding the largest and longest-running SCA event, the Pennsic War, where as king of the Middle Kingdom, he challenged the East Kingdom, and later as king of the East accepted the challenge and lost (to himself.)
For more about Friedman’s views and writings, visit his Substack column.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:
* Prometheus winners: For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt), Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters. We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
