Review: Cloud Castles by Dave Freer

Cloud-Castles by Dave Freer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review which is a reasonable estimate of my experience.

Cloud Castles was written by Dave Freer and it won the Prometheus Best Novel Award for 2023 that is presented by the Libertarian Futurist Society. The award is named for the mythic hero, Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to mortals. Prometheus represents human effort and in particular the quest for scientific knowledge even while risking overreach and unintended consequences. The Prometheus Award is presented for works that illustrate either the positive benefits of individual liberty or the negative consequences of a larger society imposing restrictions on the individual.

The book follows our protagonist, Augustus Thistlewood, as he embarks on a personal mission to help the less fortunate citizens of the planet Sybill III. Augustus, later just "Gus", is a scion of the Thistlewood family. While focusing on an engineering degree, Gus wandered into a sociology class and decided to add to his courseload by taking sociology courses. From there, he was inspired to "help" the less fortunate by "uplifting" them. Gus hails from the Azure civilization of humanity.

Sybill III is a gas giant with a dense solid core surrounded by a gaseous environment. There is an elevation range with the right gas mixture to support humanoid life. There are clouds that are thicker than Earth clouds. There are plants that have evolved to live on/in those clouds and end up creating a sort of spongy surface where people can walk. Other lifeforms have also evolved to live on the spongy plant/cloud structures. There are some interesting features to this biome.

The only "city" is called Big Syd. It exists on a massive antigrav plate. The descendants of a crashed prison ship now live on a few square miles of the plate. The only effective "government" are the many street gangs that run their various territories.

The population is dominated by the warring remnants of two alien races; the Thrymi and the Zell. The Thrymi are quite aggressive and will take humans as slaves to work on their cloud castles (roll credits!). The Zell generally leave the humans alone unless they encounter them out on the plant/cloud platforms. The Zell then capture the humans, sterilize them, and drop them back on Big Syd regardless of where the Zell first encountered those humans.

The one stabilizing force is that an Azure admiral arrived with his fleet in the wake of the deaths of Azure citizens visiting Sybill III. He threatened everyone with death if another Azure citizen ended up dead. This limits the ability of the Bid Syd denizens to respond to Gus' arrival.

Gus received field training from a charitable organization known as the "Blue Men". He is ideologically motivated to help out those whom he believes are beneath his status. Gus is also a bit clueless. Upon landing on Big Syd, he promptly has his bag and watch stolen by Briz. Gus thinks that Briz is leading him to the one good hotel on Big Syd and follows along.

A few narrow alleys later and Briz ends up saving Gus from a predator (human variety). Gus has no idea that he had been a victim of theft (courtesy of Briz) and narrowly avoided being murdered (also courtesy of Briz).

This sets the tone for much of the book. Gus wanders around trying to "uplift" the locals. He is delightfully unaware that each of his endeavors almost uniformly ends up crushing a criminal enterprise without meaningfully "uplifting" anyone. The sole exception is when he teaches mathematics to a bunch of trafficked underage girls. Gus thought he was visiting a normal school for girls and wanted to "uplift" them. He taught them the skills needed to know that the brothel owner had been shorting their pay and responded accordingly.

None of the locals in Big Syd are interested in being "uplifted".

Knowing about the admiral's threats, the street gangs (and others) are hard-pressed for an easy solution to Gus' interference with their various rackets. Eventually, they find a way to give him to the Thrymi. This ends poorly for the Thrymi. Gus and Briz eventually free themselves and discover that there are people living on the cloud/plant platforms.

This new population has fewer resources but has much better societal relationships. They farm what they call "the outback".

Gus discovers a different way of dealing with these farmers. They value hard work and Gus is willing to work hard. Eventually, he applies his engineering knowledge to build things that improve the lives of the farmers. In return, they improve his life as well. The free-will commercial exchange of goods fosters positive growth in the local culture.

The story ends well for almost everyone. The Thrymi, the Zell, and the various gangs are set for a bit of a rude awakening. Gus, his old family, and his new friends find they have many mutually beneficial opportunities.

And Briz...gets a piece of the action, but not the piece one would expect based on the beginning of the book.

There are several elements that work well. Gus is generally clueless which leads to some amusing circumstances. Gus learns that the best "uplifting" is when it is done with people instead of "for them" or "to them". Briz has several moments of self-discovery. The biology of the flora and fauna living on the clouds is logical as is the impact of coming from a home world with slightly higher gravity. There weren't any logical breaks in the worldbuilding to undermine the suspension of disbelief.

One element that is less effective is the general observation about sociologists and other "do-gooders" who seem to have no practical knowledge about how the world actually works. The plot elements of that assertion are a little too "on the nose". For example, I took the "Blue Men" to be an aspect of our modern United Nations.

Another questionable element is the binary contrast between the city and the country. All of the Big Syd denizens are morally compromised. All those living in the outback are hearty, honest, and hard-working. The manufacturing giant Thistlewood family is also presented as being almost uniformly good. A bit more nuance in this book and it would be a solid 5-star effort.

Cloud Castles is a solid choice that illuminates the objectives of the Prometheus Award and the Libertarian Futurist Society. It illustrates the benefits of people participating voluntarily in mutually satisfying relationships. To a lesser extent, it illustrates the harm of letting small powerful groups control society.

There is a strong Australian flavor to the language and perspectives used in this book. Language aside, there are references to old Australian outlaws. Also, the city's name "Big Syd" is an obvious reference to Sydney, Australia.

This is a fun if not terribly difficult book.

Dave Freer's acceptance speech for the Prometheus Awards is presented in Part 1 and Part 2.

View all my reviews