DAVE FREER'S STORM-DRAGON WINS SPECIAL PROMETHEUS AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT FICTION
First book ever to win a Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction
Okay, we need a second to catch our breath, because this is chaos — but it’s the good kind of chaos, so strap in!
In April, we told you both Storm-Dragon and A Kiss for Damocles had been named as finalists for the Prometheus Award. Which is an honor in its own right, and more than we could have expected in only our third year as a press — and first year publishing novels.
Just last week we told you J. Kenton Pierce won Best Novel for A Kiss for Damocles. Our first-ever Prometheus win as a press! We were fully prepared to spend the rest of the year coasting on that.
Turns out the Libertarian Futurist Society had other plans.
We are pleased to announce that Storm-Dragon has won the first-ever Special Prometheus Award for Young Adult Fiction.
Which is 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.
About Storm-Dragon
Storm-Dragon follows Skut, a refugee kid on a rough ocean colony world, who rescues a small alien creature — an electrosensitive, six-limbed “dragon” that turns out to be a lot smarter and a lot more dangerous than anyone expected. His friend Podge, new in town, gets dragged into it, right as the whole settlement starts facing a threat nobody can explain. Bullies, bad teachers, a town government that’s gotten comfortable pushing people around, and eventually a raid that forces the whole colony to figure out what it actually stands for.
It’s the kind of science fiction adventure in the tradition of Heinlein juveniles, Andre Norton, and others — books that it that used to be normal for boys to grow up on, and that we built our Boys’ Adventure line specifically to bring back.
“I was actually a little worried that STORM-DRAGON would win the Prometheus,” said Freer. “That was not what it was written for. It 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. 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. 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.
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.
“Rita and I are thrilled and honored to have not one, but two of our novels recognized by the Prometheus Awards this year,” said Ian McMurtrie. “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.”
The Ceremony
The Prometheus Awards will be presented at the Libertarian Futurist Society’s 46th annual ceremony — Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, 2 p.m. Eastern, via Zoom, open to the public. Dave’s already confirmed he’ll be there to accept (calling in from Tasmania at what is, charitably, a deeply inconvenient hour for him). We’ll share the link once LFS posts it, because if you want to watch a marine-biologist-turned-novelist accept an award for a book about a boy and his alien dragon at what is probably 4 a.m. his time, you deserve that.
Storm-Dragon is available in paperback and ebook at Amazon and in paperback at IngramSpark. Parents, educators, and librarians — this one’s for you as much as it’s for your kids.
We built this press three years ago on the bet that an entertainment-first, honestly-run publishing house could work. Two national awards in one cycle are telling us we’re weren’t wrong… and that there’s likely more adventures to come!
That’s great.
The new AA: Achieve & Accomplish.
I’m a fan, good work!