Dave Freer – Prometheus Blog

Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

Prometheus-winning sf/fantasy author Dave Freer understands how liberty and literacy are intimately intertwined – a frequent theme explored here on the Prometheus Blog.

As Freer explains on the Mad Genius Club blog, his commitment to encouraging literacy and younger readers was a key motivation for him to write Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel that’s one of 10 2025 novels nominated so far for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

“We need young people reading,” Freer writes.

“It’s the one way you can future-proof your kids, because it is the one thing that will make them flexible enough to cope with whatever the future throws. It will give them advantages in learning – far more than schooling will,” he said.

Continue reading Liberty, literacy and younger generations: Why Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer wrote Storm-Dragon, a Young Adult science fiction novel and current nominee

Last call for Prometheus Best Novel nominations: With the mid-February nominating deadline approaching, 13 2025 novels have been nominated so far 

By Michael Grossberg

With the annual nominations deadline for the next Prometheus Award for Best Novel now less than a month away, Libertarian Futurist Society members are encouraged to bring to our attention any eligible candidates they’ve come across.

This is a reminder and last call for nominations for the oldest category of the awards, now 47 years old.

So far, 13 2025 novels have been nominated by LFS members, somewhat less than average for Best Novel, with Feb. 15 the deadline for LFS members to nominate eligible and worthy works.

The current and interim list includes works by three authors who have previously won Prometheus Awards: Dave Freer (Cloud-Castles), Sarah Hoyt (Darkship Thieves) and Harry Turtledove (The Gladiator.)

This year’s interim slate of nominees also includes the latest novel in Karl K. Gallagher’s Fall of the Censor series, which includes quite a few novels recognized as Best Novel finalists.

But it’s also nice to see nominated works by authors who’ve never previously been recognized in our awards. So far this year, more than half of the novels were written by first-time nominees: Max Harms, Andrew Knighton, John C. A. Manley, Ewan Morrison, Laura Montgomery, Ray Nayler and J. Kenton Pierce.

So what are the novels by these authors that have been nominated so far?

Continue reading Last call for Prometheus Best Novel nominations: With the mid-February nominating deadline approaching, 13 2025 novels have been nominated so far 

The Special Prometheus Award for YA fiction isn’t well-known yet, but that could change with the nomination of Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon 

By Michael Grossberg

Many publishers and authors may not be aware of the newest category of Special Prometheus Awards, set up to recognize Young Adult (YA) fiction. Even some Libertarian Futurist Society members may be unaware of the award, only added as a possibility a few years ago.

Yet, that could be about to change, with the recent nomination of Dave Freer’s YA novel Storm-Dragon for a Special Award.

Continue reading The Special Prometheus Award for YA fiction isn’t well-known yet, but that could change with the nomination of Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon 

Storm-Dragon: Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer publishes new action-adventure-SF novel in Heinlein-juvenile tradition

By Michael Grossberg

An illustration in Dave Freer’s novel Storm-Dragon (Image provided by author

Prometheus winner Dave Freer has a new novel coming out soon.

Storm-Dragon, to be published April 11, 2025, by Raconteur Press, is a relatively short novel (with illustrations) geared toward a young-adult audience – and especially targeted at boys and teenagers.

“It is my attempt at writing a Heinlein “Juvie” – a book aimed specifically at teen boys (not their scene) to get them interested in sf,” Freer said in an email from his home base Down Under in the Australian state of Tasmania.

Continue reading Storm-Dragon: Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer publishes new action-adventure-SF novel in Heinlein-juvenile tradition

Best of the blog 2024, part two: Reviews of Mackey Chandler, Devon Eriksen, Dave Freer, Gordon Hanka and Howard Andrew Jones

By Michael Grossberg

By the end of 2024, just a few days from now, the Prometheus Blog will have posted a record number of articles, essays, reviews, updates and news.

For the first time since the blog began seven years ago, Libertarian Futurist Society members and Prometheus judges wrote, edited and published 100 posts, or an average of roughly one article every three and a half days.

That’s a notable increase over the previous year, which also reached a new high of 77 articles, up from 67 in 2022 and 59 in 2021.

Of this past year’s 100 articles, more than one-fourth (28) were full-length or capsule reviews, often but not always of Prometheus Award nominees and finalists.

Looking back at a year rich with interesting, illuminating and just-plain entertaining reviews, here are excerpts from (and convenient links to) five of the best.

Continue reading Best of the blog 2024, part two: Reviews of Mackey Chandler, Devon Eriksen, Dave Freer, Gordon Hanka and Howard Andrew Jones

Comedy, coming of age and forging freedom high above a gas-giant: An Appreciation of Dave Freer’s Cloud-Castles, the 2023 Prometheus Best Novel winner

By Michael Grossberg

Few Prometheus Award winners are as much fun to read as Cloud-Castles.

The 2023 Prometheus Awards plaque and gold coin

Zestful and often funny but also imaginative and insightful in its visions of freedom, Dave Freer’s often satirical coming-of-age novel deservedly won the 2023 Best Novel award for its entertaining blend of adventure, comedy, sci-fi, likable characters and nifty world-building.

The novel’s settings, distinctive and ingenious, offer ripe possibilities for varied, cross-cultural exploration of different human and alien environments. And Freer delivers.

Continue reading Comedy, coming of age and forging freedom high above a gas-giant: An Appreciation of Dave Freer’s Cloud-Castles, the 2023 Prometheus Best Novel winner

A banner year for Prometheus blog interviews: 2023 winner Dave Freer, frequent finalist Karl Gallagher, author/judge John Christmas and the late great James Hogan

By Michael Grossberg

This was an excellent year for interesting and informative interviews with a variety of authors, all worth reading (or rereading.)

Dave Freer with his 2023 Prometheus Awards Best Novel plaque for Cloud-Castles (Photo courtesy of Freer)

James P. Hogan (Creative Commons license)

The Prometheus Blog boasted more posted interviews in 2023 than ever before – most notably, with Australian sf writer Dave Freer, the first individual from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Prometheus award; and with the late great James Hogan, a two-time Prometheus winner for Best Novel.

Continue reading A banner year for Prometheus blog interviews: 2023 winner Dave Freer, frequent finalist Karl Gallagher, author/judge John Christmas and the late great James Hogan

Leading sci-fi publications and other media highlight news of Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

By Michael Grossberg

Every year, when the Libertarian Futurist Society announces its Prometheus finalists in press releases, the two leading science-fiction/fantasy trade publications and other influential media cover it well – and promptly.

Happily, such positive coverage has occurred again this year, all within 24 hours of the LFS press release going out to the media.

The attractive new image used by one major blog to accompany its Prometheus awards news update

Continue reading Leading sci-fi publications and other media highlight news of Prometheus Hall of Fame finalists

Anderson, Heinlein, Tolkien, Hoyt, Pratchett and other favorite authors: The Prometheus interview (part 4) with Dave Freer

The Prometheus Award for Best Novel has been won over the decades by writers from the United States, England, Scotland and Finland – with Best Novel finalists from China, Japan, Canada and many other countries.

But Dave Freer is the first writer from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Prometheus Award for Best Novel.

Here is the fourth and final part of the Prometheus Interview with the Australian/Tasmanian author, the 2023 winner of the Prometheus for Best Novel for Cloud-Castles.

Q: Do you have any favorites among Prometheus Award winners?

A: It’s a good reading list, isn’t it? I think I have just about everything in the Hall of Fame.

Continue reading Anderson, Heinlein, Tolkien, Hoyt, Pratchett and other favorite authors: The Prometheus interview (part 4) with Dave Freer

Problem-solving, blending satire with adventure, and skewering bureaucracy: Dave Freer’s Prometheus interview, part 3

Here is the third part of the Prometheus Interview with Australian author Dave Freer, 2023 winner of the Prometheus for Best Novel for Cloud-Castles.

Q: Are there common subjects or themes that you find yourself exploring and returning to in your different novels and stories?

A: Problem-solving. Endlessly. That’s what humans do best. It’s our species selective advantage.

Many animals are faster or stronger. We think our way out of the shit – that, often as not, we got ourselves into in the first place. We’re not sheep. We don’t need to follow, we can think, independently. I want to foment that.

Continue reading Problem-solving, blending satire with adventure, and skewering bureaucracy: Dave Freer’s Prometheus interview, part 3