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Carver's World #3
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.
246 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2018
4 people want to read
About the author
Dean Whitlock
34 books12 followersVermont 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 two YA fantasy novels were published by Clarion Books, but now he publishes independently under the Boatman Press imprint. An Air Force brat, 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.
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October 8, 2018
A fun, adventurous story set in a fantasy world similar enough to our own that the themes and characters feel naturally authentic. The plot itself is varied and far from predictable; this is not a straightforward story with simply good and bad actors. At several points it is easy to identify with a variety of characters on either side of main conflict, adding to the overall authenticity. This is the third book in the series, and I have not read the second (I read the first, Sky Carver, when it came out and enjoyed it). Although it was obvious the characters (and the world) had additional histories, that did not get in the way of enjoying this book.
A particularly interesting feature of the story is Fireboy's boat, the Golden Minnow. One of the only steam-powered boats in this world, the detail that the author uses when describing it's working mechanisms (along with Fireboy's pride and care of it) transforms the Minnow into a separate character unto itself. It also represents a key source of conflict in the story, the encroachment of technology into the natural world. While it can be easy to simply decry modern technology, in Fireboy we are presented with a honest innovator who must personally come to grips with how his invention is hurting the land and native people he eventually comes to understand and respect.
Another very entertaining aspect of this book is the character of Lucide. She is a half-water sprite, and has the ability to "thin" herself to flow through the water or "thicken" herself into a physical form. The author's description of this process is wonderful and evocative, and any parts of the text that dealt with her dual nature were enjoyable. She experiences the world in a different way then everyone else, and her perspective is a key feature of the nature/technology conflict.
So although the main focus of the book is the adventure story - and it's a good story, well-paced, richly imagined - my favorite part was the relationship between the passionate technologist and the magical world. Besides being able to speak to our modern understanding of technology and nature, it presents a balanced perspective of good and bad motivations on both sides, and has a resolution that acknowledges the rights and values of both.
A particularly interesting feature of the story is Fireboy's boat, the Golden Minnow. One of the only steam-powered boats in this world, the detail that the author uses when describing it's working mechanisms (along with Fireboy's pride and care of it) transforms the Minnow into a separate character unto itself. It also represents a key source of conflict in the story, the encroachment of technology into the natural world. While it can be easy to simply decry modern technology, in Fireboy we are presented with a honest innovator who must personally come to grips with how his invention is hurting the land and native people he eventually comes to understand and respect.
Another very entertaining aspect of this book is the character of Lucide. She is a half-water sprite, and has the ability to "thin" herself to flow through the water or "thicken" herself into a physical form. The author's description of this process is wonderful and evocative, and any parts of the text that dealt with her dual nature were enjoyable. She experiences the world in a different way then everyone else, and her perspective is a key feature of the nature/technology conflict.
So although the main focus of the book is the adventure story - and it's a good story, well-paced, richly imagined - my favorite part was the relationship between the passionate technologist and the magical world. Besides being able to speak to our modern understanding of technology and nature, it presents a balanced perspective of good and bad motivations on both sides, and has a resolution that acknowledges the rights and values of both.
Displaying 1 of 1 review