The Prodigal Troll

Cover art by Brian W. Dow.

Enter a world of trolls and demons and dagger-toothed lions, where a human child lost in the wilderness has to give up his destiny to find himself.

When Gruethrist Castle is laid under siege, a trusted knight and nursemaid escape with Claye, the infant heir. Their desperate flight across a war-torn landscape populated by fantastic creatures ends when they lose the baby to a mother troll grieving for her own lost child.

Christened Maggot by his foster father – "it's small and white and wouldn't make more than a mouthful to eat" – the human boy grows up among creatures hostile to his very existence. As a young man, he decides to return to his home to find out what it means to be human.

Retracing the journey he made as an infant, he discovers love and friendship – only to be swept up in a new war that will make him choose between the two. But first he will have to decide if he is more like the trolls who raised him or more like the humans he wishes to join.

Charles Coleman Finlay's first novel opens up a world that is rich and new, with vivid characters whose adventures are both poignant and exciting – this is a fantasy adventure you won't soon forget.