{"id":8844,"date":"2025-04-08T00:02:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T05:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8844"},"modified":"2025-04-06T00:30:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T05:30:54","slug":"storm-dragon-prometheus-best-novel-winner-dave-freer-publishes-new-action-adventure-sf-novel-in-heinlein-juvenile-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/storm-dragon-prometheus-best-novel-winner-dave-freer-publishes-new-action-adventure-sf-novel-in-heinlein-juvenile-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm-Dragon: Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer publishes new action-adventure-SF novel in Heinlein-juvenile tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>
An illustration in Dave Freer’s novel Storm-Dragon (Image provided by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prometheus winner Dave Freer has a new novel coming out soon.<\/p>\n

Storm-Dragon<\/i>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my attempt at writing a Heinlein \u201cJuvie\u201d – a book aimed specifically at teen boys (not their scene) to get them interested in sf,\u201d Freer said in an email from his home base Down Under in the Australian state of Tasmania.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

Given that much of what SF\/fantasy publishers have \u201con offer\u201d these days is \u201cromantasy,\u201d appealing much more to young women than men, Freer considers boys and young men a grievously overlooked audience of potential readers.<\/p>\n

Besides wanting to write an entertaining and interesting SF action-adventure, Freer\u2019s overall aim is to do what he can to try to attract and build the next generation of boys and men who enjoy and regularly read science fiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a much-neglected reader section,\u201d Freer said.<\/p>\n

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

Freer, the first writer to win a Prometheus Award from our planet\u2019s southern hemisphere, won Best Novel in 2021 for Cloud-Castles<\/i>, an inspiring and humorous coming-of-age SF story.<\/p>\n

(Read the Prometheus Blog Appreciation essay-review of Cloud-Castles<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Freer considers himself a huge fan of Robert Heinlein, the most recognized author in the 46-year history of the Prometheus Awards.<\/p>\n

Among Heinlein’s inductees into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,<\/a> Stranger in a Strange Land<\/a>, Time Enough for Love,<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 Methuselah’s Children<\/em><\/a> and the classic SF juvenile novels Citizen of the Galaxy <\/em><\/a>and Red Planet.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In particular, Freer said he partially was inspired to write Storm-Dragon<\/i> in the spirit of Heinlein\u2019s Farmer in the Sky.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMy novel is (written) to appeal to anyone who would enjoy, for example, Farmer<\/i>\u2026 because it focuses on action and adventure and problem-solving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s intended as an easy read for its target audience, but I think you\u2019ll find it leans to the libertarian. We have to catch them young.\u201d<\/p>\n

The title of the novel refers to a storm-dragon, a six-limbed alien creative that is highly electrosensitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018model\u2019 for the creature is the so-called ‘electric eel,\u2019 which can to some extent do all of the things the storm-dragon does. Basically, the hero rescues the baby animal that he’s not allowed to keep, because bureaucracy. The creature would have died without his intervention, and is still too young to really survive alone – and the story follows from there,\u201d Freer said.<\/p>\n

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

Incorporating interior black-and-white illustrations, the 248-page paperback (listed as just 202 pages in the Kindle format) is available for pre-order on Amazon.<\/p>\n

Storm-Dragon<\/i> will go on sale April 11, and will be available to buy in paperback or as a Kindle ebook.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit the Raconteur Press website at https:\/\/www.raconteurpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

ABOUT THE LFS AND 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 association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>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>\u00a0on 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 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 Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg 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. \u201cIt is my attempt at writing a Heinlein \u201cJuvie\u201d – a … Continue reading Storm-Dragon: Prometheus Best Novel winner Dave Freer publishes new action-adventure-SF novel in Heinlein-juvenile tradition<\/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":[32,10,996],"tags":[1839,1841,1726,2588,21,2590,2589],"class_list":["post-8844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-updates","category-news","category-young-adult-fiction","tag-cloud-castles","tag-dave-freer","tag-farmer-in-the-sky","tag-juvenile-sf","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-storm-dragon","tag-teenage-boys"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2iE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8844","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=8844"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8857,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8844\/revisions\/8857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}