Welcome to my blog tour for The Boy with the Porcelain Blade, my debut novel, released by Gollancz on 20th March. I hope you’ll join me along the way as I guide you behind the scenes of Landfall, an island shrouded in mystery and intrigue. I’ll be writing about different aspects of the book as I drop in at various sites.
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The Boy with the Porcelain Blade takes place on the island of Landfall. There are no neighbouring states, no foreign powers, no threat from the outside. Landfall’s only companion is the sea. This is an insular, inward looking world, and as such it breeds a rather insular, inward looking protagonist in the shape of Lucien (more on him tomorrow, where I discuss characters). The southern tip of Landfall is more akin to Tuscany of our own world, while I imagine the north having more in common with the Dorset countryside where I grew up.
There’s a hint of Renaissance Italy about Landfall, particularly its feuds, vendettas and intrigue. This is never more apparent than within the vast, sprawling structure of Demesne. This is no castle in the strictest sense, instead it is a monument to the reclusive king’s narcissism. Attended by swathes of ivy and flocks of ravens, Demesne is a brooding gothic invention, where tales of terrors stalking the night are all too believable to both reader and the folk who live there. Demesne is a city state of walls and corridors, where four great annexes extend from the circular central keep. Seen from above, Demesne resembles a Maltese cross, each arm of the cross is home to one of the Great Houses.
House Prospero holds the finest of Landfall’s artisans and merchants, led by the partially-deaf Duke Stefano Prospero, and his wily (and much younger) wife, Salvaza.
House Fontein is the most influential of the houses, home to barracks and the guards that sleep in them. House Fontein is also home to Maestri di Spada, the masters of swords, who train the nobles. A rumour persists that an oubliette exists beneath House Fontein, but few know its location and none have escaped to tell.
House Contadino is the lowest of the Great Houses, responsible for farmers and the crops and livestock they attend in turn. The Contadinos have contracts with almost all of the minor Houses.
House Erudito is not a house in the normal fashion, lacking hereditary rulers, rather it is a vast college where students of the nobles learn their letters. Books are the currency here, many written in languages unknown to the folk of Demesne. Science and reason are a higher calling, but one that is frequently drowned out by the desire for internecine conflicts between the houses.
Into this mix come the Orfano, lonely foundlings protected under edict by the King and his shadowy Majordomo, his looming representative. The Orfano are marked with deformity, yet destined for an unspoken greatness. Feared by the superstitious populace, they are pawns caught up in a game they cannot begin to imagine.
Landfall is also a place of ceremonies, with yearly tests for adherents of the blade, ritual adoptions by the Great Houses, and La Festa del Ringraziamento – a lavish celebration held each September to give thanks to the king and for the many good things the farmers produce.
Perhaps most exciting for me is that I embroider the world with more detail each time I return to it. Each book will reveal more secrets, display more of its colourful culture, and offer more insights to this lonely isle.
Den Patrick will be signing copies of his debut novel on 22nd March at Forbidden Planet Southampton, UK at 13:00.
The Boy with the Porcelain Blade is part of Gollancz’s debut price promotion on the Kindle. Get your ebook for £1.99 during the first week of publication.
