"Keep your blade sharp, but your wit sharper." - Proverb of the Freeblades GuildThe Blighted City is a dark epic fantasy novel with a sprinkling of character humour and a splash of horror mixed with adventure and drama, set in a richly-detailed secondary world. It is an entrant in SPFBO 4 (2018), and has been endorsed by Tom Lloyd, Gollancz author of the Twilight Reign series. The book is aimed at adults and is also suitable for mature teens who are looking for a more adult-oriented read. The Blighted City is a standalone story and is also the first full-length entry in the Fractured Tapestry series.Synopsis:"To challenge the gods is to invite their wrath." So it is written of Lachyla, the Blighted City, in the Codex of the Ages. But who reads codices? And who really believes the tall stories of the Taleweavers?Dagra does. If it's a story about the gods - even a dead god - he believes every word. When his sellsword team is offered a contract to cross the Deadlands and find a burial jewel in the crypts of the Blighted City, Dagra wants no part of it. His companions are undaunted by the legend; to them, the blurred divide between the living and the dead is superstitious nonsense. Completing the contract would earn their guild's failing reputation a much-needed boost and secure them the bounty of a lifetime. They're going, with or without him. Torn between the convictions of his beliefs and the importance of his friendships, Dagra reluctantly journeys into the godless region in search of the fabled city. But the Deadlands are only the first challenge.The sellswords uncover an age-old deception when they learn that Lachyla's foul seed is much darker than its legend, that its truth must forever remain untold or risk plunging humanity into an eternal nightmare. Snagged on the barbs of the blight, Dagra faces the toughest choice of his life ... and of his death.