Samuel Black – författare

Seduction, betrayal and murder: the true art of the renaissance.Cesare Borgia, Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci - three of the most famous, or notorious, names in European history. In the autumn of 1502, their lives intersect in a castle in Italy's Romagna. In this hugely intelligent and entertaining novel, Samuel Black tells the true story of these men who, with different tools - ruthless ambition, unstoppable genius and subtle political manipulation - each follow an obsession to attain greatness and leave a lasting mark on the world. And at the centre of this court of intrigue and deception is Dorotea Caracciolo, a young noblewoman abducted by Borgia who has become his lover - and his secret agent.Their story begins in hope and fear and ends in bloodshed, deceit and triumph. Along the way, there are battles and romances, lavish parties and furtive stranglings. And out of this maelstrom will emerge the Mona Lisa and The Prince.

You are walking down a perfectly ordinary hotel hallway in a video game. There are no monsters, no sudden loud noises, no blood on the walls. Yet, every step you take fills you with a creeping, suffocating sense of panic. This is the power of the "e;liminal space"e;-the art of designing environments that feel deeply familiar, yet inherently wrong. Why do empty parking garages, endless stairwells, or slightly distorted domestic rooms terrify us more than a grotesque creature jumping out of a closet? The answer lies in the architectural psychology of transition. Liminal spaces lack purpose and presence; they trigger the uncanny valley response in our spatial awareness. When developers remove the expected visual anchors, our brains flood with anxiety, desperately trying to process an environment that feels simultaneously safe and abandoned. This fascinating exploration into level design deconstructs how modern horror games utilize spatial manipulation to torture the player's subconscious. It breaks down the math of unsettling perspectives, the precise timing of lighting shifts, and the stripping away of background noise to induce extreme isolation. For developers and gaming enthusiasts, this book reveals the invisible blueprint of fear. Master the mechanics of psychological level design and learn how to evoke sheer terror using nothing but an empty room and a locked door.