The Book Plank

Guest Blog: Creating and Recreating Renaissance Italy by Craig Cormick Big question 1: Can you write about somewhere effectively if you have never been there? Big question 2: If you’re creating a fantasy world, is there anywhere that you can visit that will actually be like it? So I was asked to blog about my Italian influences and world building, in relation to my two books the Shadow Master and the Floating City . They are both set in a version of Renaissance Italy, where science works like magic.  Where that idea came from is easy to tell. I was in Florence for a work conference – thankfully out of season – and after spending a few days sitting in conference rooms with ornate paintings and frescos, I went to visit the Galileo Museum. It’s a pretty awesome place – if you ever get the chance to visit. So I’m walking around and looking at all these telescopes and pulley-machines and all these marvellous things that he invented, and I’m thinking that these ...

The Floating City by Craig Cormick, Shadow Master #2 The Floating City is in turmoil. The magical seers who protect it are being killed by fearsome Djinn that rise out of the canals at night. Members of the city’s Council of Ten are being assassinated by masked fanatics. Refugee ships are arriving, bringing plague. Othmen spies are infiltrating everywhere. New power blocks are battling for control of the city. And the three Montecchi daughters, Giuliette, Disdemona and Isabella, are struggling with love and loss – and trying to write their own destinies. And moving amongst them all is the mysterious and deadly Shadow Master, who seems to be directing everyone like players in a game. But some things in this game may be beyond even his control. Last year Craig Cormick published his first venture into the fantasy genre, The Shadow Master , which was an exciting Alternate History story with a lot of different influences taking place in the time of Galileo and Leonardo. It ha...