Fireboy

After a hard year working on the stinking canals of Dunsgow, Fireboy's skill with steamboats has earned him barely half the money he needs to pay off his mother's bond. Only then can he reunite his family on the clean water of the River Slow. A chance meeting with a seer inspires him to trade in his boat for a new steam launch expressly designed for rivers, and to take on cargo for Baron Miner - the man who holds his mother's bond. If Fireboy has figured it right, the commission plus the money he's saved will free his mother in one trip.

What Fireboy can't figure in are the snags caused by Jake, a wily young juggler on the run from Baron Miner's men. By Lucide, half water sprite, trying to break free of her own bonds of duty. And by the binding lies of Karl Tinker, the Baron's mastermind in a campaign to destroy the source of magic on all the Five Rivers. Fireboy's journey takes him from the waters he knows to the tangled, bemagicked rapids of the highest reach of the land - to lose his new friends, his new boat, even even his own free will - unless he can discover which bonds really matter.

Vermont author Dean Whitlock writes fantasy and science fiction for young and not-so-young adults. His stories have appeared in Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Aboriginal SF, as well as in anthologies in the US and abroad. His first YA fantasy novels were published by Clarion Books, but now he publishes independently under the Boatman Press imprint. He began releasing his novels and story collections for e-readers in 2015, and in paperback in 2018. Dean has lived in a dozen states and three foreign countries, a life of travel that gave him plenty of time to read in the car and now enriches his writing. You can find out more about Dean and his upcoming reprints and new titles at www.deanwhitlock.com.

Cover artist and designer Maurizio Manzieri is a science fiction and fantasy illustrator dreaming his Universes in a small oasis in the heart of Turin, Italy. He has provided cover and interior illustrations for dozens of books and stories published in Europe and the U.S., many of which have been showcased in exhibits all around the world. He has won both the Chesley Award, presented by the Association of Fantasy and Science Fiction Artists, and the Best of Show Award at the World Science Fiction Convention. He has been a featured artist at numerous conventions and teaches digital art in workshops and classes there and in his home in Italy. A collection of his work, The Art of Maurizio Manzieri, was released in 2009 by publisher Vittorio Pavesio. You can find Maurizio's online portfolio at www.manzieri.com.