On his first sea voyage away from the magical city of Cassaforte, seventeen-year-old Nic Dattore awakens to find the vessel overrun by marauding pirates—and everyone else on board kidnapped or killed. After slaying the pirate who attacked him, Nic tosses a torch into a cache of gunpowder and blows up the ship. Washed up on a deserted island, Nic and a motley crew of castaways decide to commandeer the pirate ship to get home. They battle pirates, assassins, and a cursed ship with a powerful secret while racing against time to save Cassaforte from a diabolical coup.

About the Author

Though he has written primarily under his various aliases before now, Vance Briceland is the award-winning author of several adult and young adult novels, including You Are SO Cursed, a 2005 American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers title. 

Originally from Richmond, Virginia and a graduate of the College of William and Mary, Briceland moved to Royal Oak, Michigan, where he now lives, to study British literature at Wayne State University. 

He has since worn many hats, each more fantastic than the last, as soda jerk, a paper flower maker in an amusement park, a pianist for a senior citizens’ show tunes choir, an English teacher, a glass artist, and a novelist.

While he does not blow glass, Briceland is a stained glass window and panel lamp artist and also works with kiln-formed glass, where the heat only gets up to about 1,500 degrees.  He says, “The much higher temperatures involved in blowing glass scare me!”