Coronavirus Mild Compared to Author's Pathogenic Fungus
Author Ian Duncan's recently released trilogy of bio-thrillers envisions America under quarantine as a super-pathogen turns humans into its zombie-like hosts.
ROANOKE, Va., March 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Before it jumped species, Cordyceps militaris was only a freak of nature, a fungus that controlled the minds of its insect hosts by turning them into actual—if miniature—zombies. Long before COVID-19, author Ian Duncan imagined a scenario that reads as though ripped from today's headlines: the government holding press conferences to discourage widespread panic, baffled health officials scrambling to find a cure as the number of infected multiply exponentially, even military-enforced quarantines teetering on the verge of collapse.
"I think we learn the most about ourselves in extremis," says Duncan, "when everything boils down to run here or run there? Pick up this weapon or pick up that weapon? That's the strength of the Cordyceps Trilogy; it gives readers the opportunity to test themselves against the apocalypse."
This is certainly true of Duncan's unlikely protagonist, Cole McGinnis, formerly a law-abiding math teacher and soccer coach who becomes a vigilante and killer in his attempt to lead his friends through the quarantine zone to safety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ian Duncan was originally inspired by a BBC documentary about the real-life Cordyceps fungus, and began writing Cordyceps after a coworker asked the simple but life-changing question, "What if this spread to humans?" The sequel, Cordyceps Resurgentis was released a year before Sony Entertainment's The Last of Us, also based on the Cordyceps fungus, became one of the best-selling video games of all time. The final installment of The Cordyceps Trilogy, Cordyceps Victoriosis was released this January. A lifelong fan of bio-thriller authors Richard Preston and Michael Crichton, Duncan is currently earning an MFA in creative writing at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho.
The Cordyceps Trilogy is currently available in paperback and ebook on amazon.com from Hammerdown Press and will be released to independent bookstores this spring. A full press kit, including cover images and sample interviews, is available at IanDuncanBooks.com. Find the author on Facebook @CordycepsTrilogy, and on Twitter @cordzombies. To request review copies please email [email protected] or call or text 540.819.4590.
Contact: Ian Duncan
Phone: 540.819.4590
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Hammerdown Press
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