AustLit logo
Dave Freer Dave Freer i(A154102 works by)
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: 2010
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 y separately published work icon Changeling's Island Dave Freer , Wake Forest : Baen Books , 2016 10169083 2016 single work novel young adult fantasy

Tim Ryan can't shake the feeling that he is different from other teens, and not in a good way. For one thing, he seems to have his own personal poltergeist that causes fires and sets him up to be arrested for shoplifting.

As a result Tim has been sent to live on a rundown farm on a remote island off the coast of Australia with his crazy grandmother, a woman who seems to talk to the local spirits, and who refuses to cushion Tim from facing his difficulties. To make matters worse, Tim is expected to milk cows, chase sheep, and hunt fish with a spear.

But he's been exiled to an island alive with ancient magic—land magic that Tim can feel in his bones, and sea magic that runs in his blood. If Tim can face down the danger from drug-runners, sea storms, and the deadly threat of a seal woman who wishes to steal him away for a lingering death in the land of Faery, he may be able to claim the mysterious changeling heritage that is his birthright, and take hold of a legacy of power beyond any he has ever imagined.

Source: Publisher's Blurb

1 y separately published work icon Stardogs Dave Freer , Tasmania : Magic Isle Press , 2014 9151578 2014 single work novel science fiction

'The Interstellar Empire of Man was built on the enslavement of the gentle Stardogs, companions and Theta-space transporters of the vanished Denaari Dominion. But the Stardogs that humans found can't go home to breed, and are slowly dying out. As the ruthless Empire collapses from its rotten core outward, an Imperial barge is trapped on top of a dying Stardog when an attempted hijacking and assassination go horribly wrong. Trying to save its human cargo, the Stardog flees to the last place anyone expected - the long-lost Denaari motherworld. Crawling from the crash are the Leaguesmen who control the Stardogs' pilots by fear and force, and plan to assassinate Princess Shari, the criminal Yak gang, who want to kill everyone and take control of a rare Stardog for their own, and an entourage riddled with plots, poisons, and treason. But Shari and her assassin-bodyguard have plans of their own... Stranded on the Denaari Motherworld, the castaway survivors will have to cooperate to survive. Some will have to die. And some, if they make it to the Stardogs breeding ground, will have to learn what it means to love.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Never More Dave Freer , 2014 single work short story
— Appears in: Use Only as Directed 2014;
1 1 y separately published work icon The Steam Mole Dave Freer , United States of America (USA) : Pyr , 2012 10459439 2012 single work novel science fiction young adult

'Tim Barnabas is a submariner from the Cuttlefish, a coal fired submarine. Clara Calland is the daughter of a scientist who carries a secret formula that threatens British Imperial power. After a daring chase across the globe, they have brought the secret to Westralia. Here, much of Australia is simply too hot to be habitable by day. People are nocturnal, living underground and working outside at night. To cross the deserts they use burrowing machines known as "steam moles." With the Cuttlefish out of action, her crew takes jobs on these submarine-like craft.

Duke Malcolm, of the Imperial Security Service, transports Clara's rebel-father to a prison in Eastern Australia, hoping to bait her into attempting a rescue. Clara looks to Tim for help, only to find he has fled a racist incident into the desert. She takes a steam mole in search of him. The two head to Eastern Australia, where they discover an invading force with plans to take Westralia. Forced to survive in the desert, they encounter the intolerance meted out to the aboriginal people. Can they save Westralia from falling under British rule? And should they?'

Source: Publisher's Blurb

1 y separately published work icon Cuttlefish Dave Freer , United States of America (USA) : Pyr , 2012 10459216 2012 single work novel young adult science fiction

'The year is 1953, and the British Empire still spans the globe. Coal drives the world, and the smog of it hangs thick over the canals of London.

Clara Calland is on the run. Hunted, along with her scientist mother, by Menshevik spies and Imperial soldiers, they flee Ireland for London. They must escape airships, treachery and capture. Under flooded London’s canals they join the rebels who live in the dank tunnels there.

Tim Barnabas is one of the underpeople, born to the secret town of drowned London, place of anti-imperialist republicans and Irish rebels, part of the Liberty - the people who would see a return to older values and free elections. Seeing no further than his next meal, Tim has hired on as a submariner on the Cuttlefish, a coal fired submarine that runs smuggled cargoes beneath the steamship patrols, to the fortress America and beyond.

When the Imperial soldiery comes ravening, Clara and her mother are forced to flee aboard the Cuttlefish. Hunted like beasts, the submarine and her crew must undertake a desperate voyage across the world, from the Faeroes to the Caribbean and finally across the Pacific to find safety. But only Clara and Tim Barnabas can steer them past treachery and disaster, to freedom in Westralia. Carried with them—a lost scientific secret that threatens the very heart of Imperial power.'

Source: Publisher's Blurb

1 y separately published work icon Cuttlefish Dave Freer , 2012- 10458855 2012 series - author novel science fiction

Series of steampunk novels set in an alternate history 1970s.

1 Neither Sleet, Nor Snow, Nor Alien Monsters Dave Freer , 2011 single work short story science fiction
— Appears in: Citizens 2011;
1 If Music be the Food of Love Dave Freer , 2010 single work short story horror
— Appears in: Fangs for the Mammaries 2010;
1 Pinked Djinn Dave Freer , 2009 single work short story science fiction
— Appears in: Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine , no. 42 2009;
X