Scourge

by Duncan Pile

Talia is a young archer, growing up in the mountain settlement of Owl's Nook - a town plagued by waves of sick, orange light, sheeting across the sky from the North and killing anyone caught outside, unprotected by the wards carved into every door and window frame.

Talia is almost caught by a wave of the Scourge, but is saved by a golem creature of earth, vines and roots, straight out of legend. When dark forces seize control of the town, Talia is forced to flee, seeking sanctuary in the golem undercity, where her fate and the fate of the golems become intertwined. What is the Scourge, and how can they stop it?

394 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2022

About the author

Duncan Pile was born in 1975 in Cheltenham, and spent most of his childhood in Manchester, where he attended the Manchester Grammar School for boys. His early creative interests were in classical music, a passion he pursued at degree level at the University of Nottingham (1993-1996). After graduating, Duncan moved to Hong Kong and spent the next two years travelling around SE Asia, Australia, The Arabian Gulf and Africa, engaged in humanitarian work.

Duncan returned from his travels with his health depleted by malaria and the onset of Crohn's disease; a condition he suffered with in his mid-twenties until he underwent a major operation, which greatly improved his situation. Since then he has studied in the U.S.A for a year and trained as a Life Coach, something he practices to this day with private clients.

Duncan has always had a love of writing, and in recent years this has taken over from music as the main focus of his creative gifts. He writes in the Orange Tree pub in Nottingham most weekends, and during what remains of his spare time. Since childhood Duncan has had a passion for fantasy fiction, and so it's only right that his first series is in that genre. Nature Mage was awarded Debut of the Month by Lovereading4kids in February 2012, and since that time, Duncan has been visiting schools, talking with young people about his books and about creative writing in general. The very successful Nature's Servant was released in January 2013, Nature's Peril was completed in 2014 and Nature's Master in 2016.

He welcomes all readers to get in touch through the Nature Mage Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Nature-Mage-...