{"id":7287,"date":"2024-04-24T00:03:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T05:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=7287"},"modified":"2025-03-22T19:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T00:52:47","slug":"comedy-coming-of-age-and-forging-freedom-high-above-a-gas-giant-an-appreciation-of-dave-freers-cloud-castles-the-2023-prometheus-best-novel-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/comedy-coming-of-age-and-forging-freedom-high-above-a-gas-giant-an-appreciation-of-dave-freers-cloud-castles-the-2023-prometheus-best-novel-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy, coming of age and forging freedom high above a gas-giant: An Appreciation of Dave Freer\u2019s Cloud-Castles, the 2023 Prometheus Best Novel winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

Few Prometheus Award winners are as much fun to read as Cloud-Castles.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The 2023 Prometheus Awards plaque and gold coin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\n<\/em>Zestful and often funny but also imaginative and insightful in its visions of freedom, Dave Freer\u2019s often satirical coming-of-age novel deservedly won the 2023 Best Novel award for its entertaining blend of adventure, comedy, sci-fi, \u00a0likable characters and nifty world-building.<\/p>\n

The novel\u2019s settings, distinctive and ingenious, offer ripe possibilities for varied, cross-cultural exploration of different human and alien environments. And Freer delivers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A NOVEL SETTING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of the feisty and down-home charm of Cloud-Castles <\/em>is\u00a0the ways Freer was inspired by the “outback” frontier culture of Australia and Tasmania \u2013 which reflect his own home and heritage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dave Freer with his 2023 Prometheus Awards Best Novel plaque for Cloud-Castles (Photo courtesy of Freer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Tasmanian resident and the first author from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Prometheus Award, Freer has conceived a fascinating and credible scenario for both his central character\u2019s against-the-odds journey and the depiction of plausible and positive stateless communities.<\/p>\n

Cloud-Castles\u00a0<\/em>takes its well-chosen name from the diverse habitats floating among the clouds of a gas-dwarf planet with no habitable land \u2013 a planet much like Jupiter but distant from our own solar system.<\/p>\n

The first of several vivid, richly detailed locales introduced in the peripatetic narrative is the \u201cBig Syd,\u201d a cramped urban hellscape situated on a tiny alien-relic antigravity plate named after Australia\u2019s largest city (Sydney) by the descendants of a crashed convict transport.<\/p>\n

A crowded foothold of rich and poor humanity in a vast upper-atmosphere landscape ruled by the remnants of two rival alien empires, the Big Syd isn\u2019t a city that\u2019s safe for newcomers \u2013 or even \u201cwelcoming\u201d (unless they\u2019re foolish enough and wealthy enough to be easily fleeced.)<\/p>\n

A FOOL OF A HERO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Within this target-rich environment, Freer charts the unlikely progress and coming of age of idealistic Augustus Thistlewood – which can be enjoyed in the rollickingly satirical but affectionate spirit of Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad.<\/em><\/p>\n

A young do-gooder mis-educated among the elite of his wealthy engineering family and home planet, Augustus arrives on Sybill III with high hopes of aiding the poor and deprived.<\/p>\n

Well-meaning but utterly clueless about social behavior, darker human motivations and how best to interact with strangers, the awkward young man undergoes a rough and risk-filled dramatic (and comic!) arc from na\u00efve innocence to rueful experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Only in this unlikely hero\u2019s picaresque comedy of errors, somewhat loosely inspired by the title character in Voltaire\u2019s novella Candide,\u00a0<\/em>Augustus unconsciously assumes the mantle of a Holy Fool, seemingly protected by the gods (or at least by a new sidekick, who often saves him from himself.)<\/p>\n

While Gus seems comically inept and mostly oblivious to the dangers around him \u2013 including both theft and attempted murder \u2013 the story ultimately reveals a persuasive rationale for his myopic behavior.<\/p>\n

THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT \u2013 AND LIBERTY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brilliant but na\u00efve and perhaps even a bit autistic, Augustus finds himself thrust inadvertently into a succession of unusual and risky human and alien encounters that threaten his life and liberty.<\/p>\n

With help from his street-smart sidekick Briz, who has unrevealed motives for tagging along beyond short-term profit, Augustus manages somehow to escape violent assaults, criminal encounters, imprisonment and even alien slavery.<\/p>\n

In the peripatetic process, bumbling Augustus and ragamuffin Briz create innovative, profitable businesses that improve the already functional communities that have evolved among decentralized, stateless people scattered through the planet\u2019s clouds \u2013 far from the reach of most corrupt or bureaucratic authorities.<\/p>\n

Like a well-seasoned and spicy stew, the story is enriched with an Australian-outback-inspired slang that reveals the culture and different perspectives of these high-floating farmers. (If Freer has a bias, it may be the obvious side he prefers to take in his decent-country versus corrupt-city dynamic.)<\/p>\n

Among the most interesting \u2013 and most libertarian \u2013 communities that the pair discover, join and help are highly decentralized groups of agrarian outbacker humans who have learned to live, grow food and develop other resources within the airborne thickets of vegetation and floating beasts that drift repeatedly through the gas giant\u2019s upper atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Through such free-market cooperation and entrepreneurship, Cloud-Castles \u00a0<\/em>reveals how markets work, why profits are moral and necessary in a free society and how societies flourish through reinvestment and market innovation.<\/p>\n

IDEALS VERSUS REALITIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

In both amusing and illuminating ways, Freer deftly contrasts false ideals and harsh realities in Cloud-Castles<\/em>. Whether the many different societies he depicts are dystopian or more positive (albeit never utopian), they offer real-life lessons for both Augustus and Freer\u2019s readers.<\/p>\n

For instance, the somewhat dystopian Big Syd lacks government, leaving order to be maintained by the various street gangs that run different neighborhoods, often with an unfortunate use of force.<\/p>\n

During Augustus\u2019 many narrow escapes with bad actors and other misfortunes, it slowly starts to dawn on him how different people are from his preconceptions built up over years of mis-education back home, where his academic studies virtually indoctrinated him with the worst illusions of sociology and progressive-left dogma.<\/p>\n

One subplot of libertarian interest involves the enslavement of Augustus and Briz and their efforts to free themselves from the aggressive Thrymi, one of the two alien races whose warring remnants continue to exploit the world\u2019s resources and don\u2019t mind exploiting stray humans to do so.<\/p>\n

Not only will the fight for freedom and independence never end, Freer suggests, but even the most functional stateless societies will be far from perfect. Why? Cloud-Castles<\/em> implicitly answers that question by continually rubbing his characters\u2019 noses in the messy facts of human fallibility and ignorance in an imperfect world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>AN INSPIRING COMEDY<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a fast-paced 352 pages, this sf adventure (a comedy according to Aristotle’s definition) doesn\u2019t wear out the reader\u2019s patience. A good part of the reason: the smiles and laughs that Freer sparks with his rip-roaring and ultimately inspiring tale.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s truly something to savor \u2013 since Cloud-Castles\u00a0<\/em>joins only a handful of Prometheus winners that have achieved a significant part of their impact through comedy.<\/p>\n

Among the most amusing Best Novel winners: Terry Pratchett\u2019s Night Watch <\/em><\/a>and John Varley\u2019s The Golden Globe.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Among the most amusing Hall of Fame winners: Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s \u201cHarrison Bergeron,<\/a>\u201d F. Paul Wilson\u2019s story \u201cLipidleggin\u2019,\u201d<\/a> Eric Frank Russell’s The Great Explosion,<\/em><\/a> Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus!<\/em> trilogy<\/a> and Hans Christian Anderson\u2019s classic fable \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

When his novel was nominated for the Prometheus award, Freer himself confirmed to the LFS that one of his goals in writing Cloud-Castles, <\/em>dedicated to the Australian men and women of the Eureka Stockade rebellion, was to offer a satire about politics and varied political systems \u201cwithin an SF-glove.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumor makes it a lot more entertaining to read and is something of a Fifth Dimension to authoritarians, meaning it saunters past their censorship and prohibitions. Besides, I take delight in doing it,\u201d Freer said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Australian writer Dave Freer (Photo courtesy of author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RELATED READING<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Check out Freer’s 2023 Prometheus Awards acceptance speech: Part 1<\/a> and Part 2.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>Making \u2018em laugh for the sake of liberty:<\/a> Which Best Novel winners best incorporate comedy?”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>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\u2019 distinctive dual focus.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\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

*\u00a0Watch <\/strong>videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 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\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a><\/strong> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us! <\/em><\/strong>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 association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Few Prometheus Award winners are as much fun to read as Cloud-Castles. Zestful and often funny but also imaginative and insightful in its visions of freedom, Dave Freer\u2019s often satirical coming-of-age novel deservedly won the 2023 Best Novel award for its entertaining blend of adventure, comedy, sci-fi, \u00a0likable characters and nifty world-building. … Continue reading Comedy, coming of age and forging freedom high above a gas-giant: An Appreciation of Dave Freer\u2019s Cloud-Castles, the 2023 Prometheus Best Novel winner<\/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":[43,159,2353,1924,8,35],"tags":[1983,2070,1839,1918,1841,104,2314,828,112,2313,2315,879,103,2071],"class_list":["post-7287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-book-reviews","category-comic-works","category-review","category-selected-book-reviews","tag-australia","tag-candide","tag-cloud-castles","tag-comedy","tag-dave-freer","tag-eric-frank-russell","tag-free-market-cooperation","tag-hans-christian-anderson","tag-kurt-vonnegut","tag-out-back-culture","tag-stateless-societies","tag-the-emperors-new-clothes","tag-the-great-explosion","tag-voltaire"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1Tx","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287","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=7287"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7644,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287\/revisions\/7644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}