![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Dave-Freer-with-awards-plaque.jpeg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Thus, it seemed a bit strange to learn that Dave Freer was relieved that he didn\u2019t win the Best Novel category this year.<\/p>\n
Freer won his first Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 2023 for Cloud-Castles.<\/i> So why wouldn\u2019t he want to win a second for Storm-Dragon<\/i>, his 2026 Best Novel finalist?<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually a little worried that STORM-DRAGON would win the Prometheus,\u201d Freer told his publisher Raconteur Press in a special awards-news update<\/a> on their Substack column.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n And while Storm-Dragon <\/i><\/a>didn\u2019t win for Best Novel, Freer\u2019s novel won the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, by recognizing STORM-DRAGON in this way, it means they think it follows in the footsteps of Heinlein Juvies \u2014 exactly what I was in my usual inept fashion trying to do,\u201d Freer said.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Raconteur Press, in its post<\/a> about Storm-Dragon<\/em> winning the Special award, added its own comment:<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s 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\u2019s currently being published for them isn\u2019t helping. Storm-Dragon<\/i><\/a> was our answer: give boys a genuinely good adventure and get out of the way.\u201d RACONTEUR PRESS\u2019S REACTION The fledgling three-year-old publisher won its first literary award this year for J. Franklin Pierce\u2019s A Kiss for Damocles<\/i>, the 2026 Prometheus Best Novel winner. And the second one, the Special Award for Storm-Dragon, came as a big surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cRita and I are thrilled and honored to have not one, but two of our novels recognized by the Prometheus Awards this year,\u201d said publisher Ian McMurtrie<\/a>. (Rita Beeman is the co-founder and Editorial Lead of Raconteur Press.)<\/p>\n Raconteur Press described the double win as \u201camazing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut here\u2019s the part that bowled us over: this isn\u2019t just a huge win for Dave, or our second win as a Press this year\u2026 \u201cThe LFS board created a young adult Special Award category years ago, and has apparently been waiting for the right book to give it to.<\/p>\n “Dave wrote that book, and trusted us to publish it.<\/p>\n “For context on how rare this is: Special Awards aren\u2019t annual, they\u2019re occasional. There have only been ten of them since the category started in 1998, and the LFS hasn\u2019t handed one out since 2017 \u2014 almost a decade. So the honor here isn\u2019t just ‘we liked this book a lot.’ It\u2019s ‘we\u2019ve been sitting on this category for years, and this is the one.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs Inigo once said: \u2018Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.\u2019 \u201cTwo-for-two on our first real swing in both categories is not something we\u2019re going to pretend to be chill about. Even more mind-boggling\u2026 Storm-Dragon was our first-ever Boys\u2019 Adventure novel. Dave\u2019s book isn\u2019t just a winner, it\u2019s the cornerstone of a line of outstanding fiction from a bunch of amazing authors that are following in his footsteps.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still picking ourselves up off the floor. Seriously. I\u2019m pretty sure Ian lost the ability to speak coherently for a few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopefully, the publisher has since regained his ability to speak.<\/p>\n 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.)<\/p>\n Following Pierce\u2019s Best Novel acceptance speech for A Kiss for Damocles<\/i> and Freer\u2019s Special Award acceptance speech for Storm-Dragon, <\/i>McMurtrie will speak near the end of the roughly hourlong ceremony.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n WATCH THE 46TH PROMETHEUS AWARDS!<\/p>\n Here is the Zoom link to watch the awards live:<\/p>\n https:\/\/us06web.zoom.us\/j\/87824388418?pwd=CsoznF4wtlLNTYvEotlIpVJkCoGb9I.1<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS<\/b><\/p>\n *\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n * Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced \u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on 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\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n *\u00a0Watch 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\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n * Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n * Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to the latest Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael Grossberg One would reasonably expect any writer who becomes an awards finalist to feel disappointed if they don\u2019t 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\u2019t win the Best Novel category this year. Freer won … Continue reading Why a Prometheus-winning writer is relieved he didn\u2019t win a second Best Novel award this year (and why his publisher is thrilled)\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[687,249,31,1125,996],"tags":[1841,46,2775,2590],"class_list":["post-11217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-acceptance-speech","category-awards-history","category-awards-news","category-updates","category-young-adult-fiction","tag-dave-freer","tag-prometheus-awards","tag-raconteur-press","tag-storm-dragon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2UV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11217"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11251,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11217\/revisions\/11251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/a>\u201cThat was not what it was written for. (Storm-Dragon<\/em>) was written to get boys reading for pleasure, as a gateway. It wasn\u2019t written for adults at all. Now, if you\u2019re not good enough to write for adult audiences, you definitely aren\u2019t up to the demands of writing for younger audiences, so if I was only pleasing older audiences, I would have failed,\u201d Freer explained.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>
\nRaconteur Press seemed positively bowled over by unexpectedly winning not one but two Prometheus awards.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cDave Freer\u2019s Storm-Dragon<\/i><\/a> receiving the inaugural Special Award for Young Adult Fiction, alongside J. Kenton Pierce<\/a> winning Best Novel with A<\/i> Kiss for Damocles<\/i><\/a>, demonstrates that engaging and entertaining stories that celebrate freedom, self-reliance, and adventure still have a place on bookshelves. We\u2019re incredibly proud of our little press publishing fiction that speaks to young readers and adults alike\u2014great storytelling is always in vogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s the first time this specific award has ever been given. To anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nOne small press.
\nOne year.
\nTwo Authors.
\nTwo Prometheus Awards.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/b>Stay tuned to the Prometheus Blog for more posts about the variety of impressive speakers at this year\u2019s Prometheus Awards ceremony – including 2026 Best Novel winner J. Kenton Pierce (A Kiss for Damocles); <\/i>two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran, who will present the first Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction to Dave Freer for Storm-Dragon; <\/i>and keynote speaker Ilya Somin, who will discuss \u201cLibertarianism and Science Fiction\u201d and present the Hall of Fame category, with a Pulitzer-winning author and Aldous Huxley’s two grandchildren accepting for Brave New World.<\/em>
\n<\/b>
\nNow 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.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n