By Michael Grossberg
One would reasonably expect any writer who becomes an awards finalist to feel disappointed if they don’t win – even in a year with especially strong competition.
Thus, it seemed a bit strange to learn that Dave Freer was relieved that he didn’t win the Best Novel category this year.
Freer won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 2023 for Cloud-Castles. So why wouldn’t he want to win a second for Storm-Dragon, his 2026 Best Novel finalist?
“I was actually a little worried that STORM-DRAGON would win the Prometheus,” Freer told his publisher Raconteur Press in a special awards-news update on their Substack column.
“That was not what it was written for. (Storm-Dragon) was written to get boys reading for pleasure, as a gateway. It wasn’t written for adults at all. Now, if you’re not good enough to write for adult audiences, you definitely aren’t up to the demands of writing for younger audiences, so if I was only pleasing older audiences, I would have failed,” Freer explained.
The usual annual Prometheus Awards for Best Novel and the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction were announced first, in early July, with the occasional Special Award category announced a few days later.
And while Storm-Dragon didn’t win for Best Novel, Freer’s novel won the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction.
“But, by recognizing STORM-DRAGON in this way, it means they think it follows in the footsteps of Heinlein Juvies — exactly what I was in my usual inept fashion trying to do,” Freer said.
“I am delighted, and hope they make it a regular Prometheus feature, because firstly, it is fun to read, and secondly humans need our boys reading.”
Raconteur Press, in its post about Storm-Dragon winning the Special award, added its own comment:
“That’s not incidental to why this award means something to us. We started this line because we think boys are being pushed out of reading, and a lot of what’s currently being published for them isn’t helping. Storm-Dragon was our answer: give boys a genuinely good adventure and get out of the way.”
RACONTEUR PRESS’S REACTION
Raconteur Press seemed positively bowled over by unexpectedly winning not one but two Prometheus awards.
The fledgling three-year-old publisher won its first literary award this year for J. Franklin Pierce’s A Kiss for Damocles, the 2026 Prometheus Best Novel winner. And the second one, the Special Award for Storm-Dragon, came as a big surprise.
“Rita and I are thrilled and honored to have not one, but two of our novels recognized by the Prometheus Awards this year,” said publisher Ian McMurtrie. (Rita Beeman is the co-founder and Editorial Lead of Raconteur Press.)
“Dave Freer’s Storm-Dragon receiving the inaugural Special Award for Young Adult Fiction, alongside J. Kenton Pierce winning Best Novel with A Kiss for Damocles, demonstrates that engaging and entertaining stories that celebrate freedom, self-reliance, and adventure still have a place on bookshelves. We’re incredibly proud of our little press publishing fiction that speaks to young readers and adults alike—great storytelling is always in vogue.”
Raconteur Press described the double win as “amazing.”
“But here’s the part that bowled us over: this isn’t just a huge win for Dave, or our second win as a Press this year…
It’s the first time this specific award has ever been given. To anyone.”
“The LFS board created a young adult Special Award category years ago, and has apparently been waiting for the right book to give it to.
“Dave wrote that book, and trusted us to publish it.
“For context on how rare this is: Special Awards aren’t annual, they’re occasional. There have only been ten of them since the category started in 1998, and the LFS hasn’t handed one out since 2017 — almost a decade. So the honor here isn’t just ‘we liked this book a lot.’ It’s ‘we’ve been sitting on this category for years, and this is the one.’”
“As Inigo once said: ‘Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.’
One small press.
One year.
Two Authors.
Two Prometheus Awards.
“Two-for-two on our first real swing in both categories is not something we’re going to pretend to be chill about. Even more mind-boggling… Storm-Dragon was our first-ever Boys’ Adventure novel. Dave’s book isn’t just a winner, it’s the cornerstone of a line of outstanding fiction from a bunch of amazing authors that are following in his footsteps.
“We’re still picking ourselves up off the floor. Seriously. I’m pretty sure Ian lost the ability to speak coherently for a few minutes.”
Hopefully, the publisher has since regained his ability to speak.
Because Ian McMurtrie has been invited to participate in the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony. Scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Sunday (Eastern time) Aug. 16, the awards show will be open to the public to watch via Zoom. (Check back here on the Prometheus Blog to get the direct Zoom link.)
Following Pierce’s Best Novel acceptance speech for A Kiss for Damocles and Freer’s Special Award acceptance speech for Storm-Dragon, McMurtrie will speak near the end of the roughly hourlong ceremony.
He is expected to discuss the meaning and impact on Raconteur Press of receiving its first literary awards, and of winning two Prometheus Awards in one year – a feat that is certainly rare for any publisher. In fact, to my knowledge, this appears to be a first in the history of the Prometheus Awards.
WATCH THE 46TH PROMETHEUS AWARDS!
Stay tuned to the Prometheus Blog for more posts about the variety of impressive speakers at this year’s Prometheus Awards ceremony – including 2026 Best Novel winner J. Kenton Pierce (A Kiss for Damocles); two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran, who will present the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction to Dave Freer for Storm-Dragon; and keynote speaker Ilya Somin, who will discuss “Libertarianism and Science Fiction” and present the Hall of Fame category, with a Pulitzer-winning author and Aldous Huxley’s two grandchildren accepting for Brave New World.
Now scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (Pacific time) Sunday Aug. 16 (1 p.m. Eastern Time, the roughly hourlong Zoom event will be emceed by LFS President William H. Stoddard and will be open to the public.
Here is the Zoom link to watch the awards live:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87824388418?pwd=CsoznF4wtlLNTYvEotlIpVJkCoGb9I.1
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* 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 international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and 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.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in 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. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of the 106 works that have won a Prometheus since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* 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.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.
