The Empire of Glass (novel)

Publisher's summary
There is a old Venetian saying,' the Doctor murmured. 'The council of ten send you to the torture chamber; the council of three send you to the grave.

A strange invitation brings the Doctor, Steven and Vicki to Venice in the year of our Lord 1609: a place of politics and poison, science and superstition, telescopes and terror. Galileo Galilei is there demonstrating his new invention to the Doge, and William Shakespeare is working as a spy for King James I. And there are other visitors too: inhuman ones that lurk in the shadows, watching - and killing.

Vicki is abducted to a flying island. Steven is accused of murder and challenged to a duel. The Doctor, meanwhile, finds himself at the centre of what looks like an attempted invasion. But who are the invaders? And why can’t they proceed without his help?

Characters

 * The First Doctor
 * Vicki
 * Steven
 * Galileo Galilei
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * William Shakespeare
 * Christopher Marlowe
 * Cardinal Robert Bellarmine

Continuity

 * The Armageddon Convention was first mentioned in DW: Revenge of the Cybermen. Braxiatel, or rather his Collection, was first mentioned by Romana in DW: City of Death.
 * Irving Braxiatel first appeared in NA: Theatre of War.
 * Shakespeare first met the Doctor in BFA: The Time of the Daleks (in the Doctor's future), DW: The Shakespeare Code, and has a drink with him in BFA: The Kingmaker.His play (which Braxiatel obtains a copy of) was lost in DW: The Shakespeare Code.
 * Shakespeare refers to the Fourth Doctor's assistance with finishing Hamlet, as revealed in DW: City of Death.
 * It is further confirmed that the Doctor and Irving Braxiatel are related in BNA: Tears of the Oracle.
 * The holographic image generators used by the Jamarians to disguise themselves as humans are very similar to the perception filters used by the Saturnyns in DW: The Vampires of Venice (in which The Doctor visits Venice again).
 * Vicki does not seem to recognise King James I, despite having met him recently in MA: The Plotters.
 * The Doctor's future companion Polly Wright would later unwittingly help James I's son King Charles I to escape from Roundhead captivity in December 1648 (PDA: The Roundheads) whereas the Second Doctor would later meet his grandson King James II in November 1688 (CC: The Glorious Revolution).
 * The Sixth Doctor would later meet Christopher Marlowe once again in BFA: Point of Entry, the events of which took place nineteen years prior to The Empire of Glass in Marlowe's personal timeline.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DW: The Three Doctors
 * This story takes place before ST: Corridors of Power