Adventure on a Frontier Planet

Skut Harkkson is as desperately unhappy as only an 11-year-old can be. So unhappy that he fled his new home at Highpoint Station after a humiliating bullying incident at school. He wants to get back to his real home, 300 miles away. At the family farm at Faraway Station on Vann’s World he was happy. At Highpoint Station he and his family are poor refugees, displaced by the Ghat-Confederated World War.

Storm-Dragon, a science fiction novel by Dave Freer, opens with Skut experiencing what he considers the worst day of his life. He instinctively fled to the familiar outdoors of Vann’s World.

The settlement’s stuffy rules forbid this. They are designed for tourists, ignorant of Vann’s World’s dangers. A resort town of 1,000, no resident is allowed outside and no native wildlife is permitted inside. But Skut knows his world. When attacked by a flock of flying Hamerkop, seeking easy prey, he shoots two, driving off the rest.

He also picks up a friend, a miserable scrap of fur and tail, eight inches long, and electric blue. He can hear the creature’s thoughts. It warned Skut about the Hamerkop. It lets Skut know it is cold and hungry, so Skut feeds it. The creature also delivers electric shocks, which saves both of them when they are attacked by a Loor-beast. Skut recognizes the dragon-like creature is a baby. It will die if Skut abandons it. Against the rules, he takes it with him back to Highpoint Station, deciding to keep it secret.

The next day he makes a new friend, Podge Greene. The new kid in school, Podge is another displaced person. His dad is Highpoint Station’s new settlement engineer. The two boys, outsiders with similar interests, become fast friends. Skut shares the secret of Snarky, the storm-dragon. The three set out on adventures typical of boys.

What follows is a fast-paced adventure in a faraway world. The boys’ desire to protect Snarky becomes entangled with adult affairs, both municipal and interplanetary. They and their fathers face challenges together, some affecting the outcome of the war.

A book reminiscent of Heinlein’s juveniles or Andre Norton’s fiction, this is written for boys. Freer produces a complex world as a setting, in a story that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. If you know a teen who finds books boring, give them a copy of Storm-Dragon. It will enchant anyone seeking an entertaining story.

“Storm-Dragon,” by Dave Freer, Raconteur Press, April 2025, 200 pages, $14.99 (paperback), $4.99 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.