The Verdantinium Part I

Twelve-year-old Alex Shady lives a quiet life in Nova City with his grandmother and his father - a junior scientist working tirelessly to find a cure for a mysterious water disease slowly killing people across Opland. On the eve of his birthday, a strange leaf falls from the sky and drops into Alex's glass of water. In an instant, the water vanishes. His father stares at it with the look of a man who recognizes something impossible - and whispers one word:

Verdantinium.

By morning, his father is gone.

What follows is a breathtaking journey across worlds, where science and mystery collide, where a boy born on the wrong side of a family secret must travel where no human has gone before, and where the answer to saving two civilizations might lie in something as simple - and as precious - as water.

The Verdantinium - Part I is a science fiction adventure for readers of all ages - a story about curiosity, courage, and the hidden connections between worlds. It is about a grandfather believed to be dead for fifteen years. A disease with no cure. A green planet waiting for what was promised. And a twelve-year-old boy who never expected to be the one to deliver it.

• A richly imagined world called Verdantinius - lush, mysterious, and in danger

• A family mystery spanning fifteen years and two worlds

• A disease that kills with the very thing all life needs: water

• A grandfather who was never truly dead• And a story that ends - but doesn't finish...