One Snarky Dragon, Two Brave Boys
and Three Tidal Moons
Blazing Reader,
I'm back with part two of my three-part review of Storm-Dragon by Dave Freer — the young adult science-fiction novel about one snarky dragon, two brave boys and three tidal moons — which has been nominated for the Prometheus Award for best pro-freedom sci-fi-fantasy novel of 2025.
Another of Dave Freer's novels, Cloud-Castles won the 2022 Prometheus Award. Here he is with his plaque — which includes a one-ounce gold coin that I bet he'll never ever spend....
Personally, I hope my novel, All the Humans Are Sleeping, wins the 2025 Award, but I'll nonetheless do my best to be unbiased in this review of Storm-Dragon. I'll start by complimenting its gorgeous cover...
Unquestionably, Dave Freer's story is rich in many pro-liberty themes — true to the author's surname — including home-schooling, free-market economics, civil disobedience and the right to self-defence. Rather than preaching, these ideas are portrayed through incidents that both young and old readers will enjoy — including a cunning battle with the corrupt town council over the right to grow vegetables on one's own property.
Another requirement for the Prometheus Awards is that the story takes place in a fantastical setting. Storm-Dragon certainly does. Here's how Freer describes the sci-fi world he's created (possibly influenced by his living on a 1,367 square-kilometre island off the coast of Tasmania):
"Vann's World is younger, geologically, than Earth, with more water. It's a wild, terrifying, exciting world of volcanoes and huge storms that make hurricanes look pleasant — especially around the equator. It has three moons, so enormous tides, and it is just bursting with life — where everything tries to eat everything else, in its fertile seas and across hundreds of chains of volcanic islands, forming and eroding away."
The story centres around two youngsters living on one of those islands: Skut, a farm boy who can handle himself out in the wild; and Podge, a whiz-kid with a knack for hacking computers. Oh, and then there's their pet storm-dragon named Snarky. Small, telepathic and able to shock anything that threatens him, the creature takes care of them as much as they care for him.
Storm-Dragon is a real coming-of-independence story, as the brave boys (and their sassy sisters) realize they can help make their community a freer, safer, and more productive place to live and thrive (and raise a dragon). The novel culminates in an (non-alien) invasion, with Skut, Podge, and their storm-dragon playing pivotal roles in the resistance movement.
I do have three or four quibbles with the novel, which, as an honest reviewer, I must regrettably report, despite how much I enjoyed the read. I'll save those for my next post. Until then, you can purchase a copy of Storm-Dragon through my Blazing Bookshop.
John C.A. Manley
PS To see if Storm-Dragon becomes one of the finalists for the Prometheus Award, subscribe to the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus blog.
PPS If you missed part one of this review, you can read it here: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (but with big spaceships and a small dragon)
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.
