This was hands down one of the weirdest books I have ever read. It might actually be THE most strange book I’ve read in my entire life. An alternate history where the cavaliers might successfully put down the English Revolution with the help of Oberon and Titania? And in this iteration of the multiverse, Shakespeare was a great historian, and everyone speaks in iambic pentameter??While this was sometimes delightful, it was also frequently insufferable. And I’m not talking about the iambic pentam...

Entertaining relationship listening

This kindle e-book is from my Kindle Unlimited account book 2 of 2

DNF

Not for me give it a try. 2024

This is a strange mix of alt-history mid-XVII century England, fantasy and fan-fic based on William Shakespeare plays. I read it as a part of monthly reading for September 2021 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The book was nominated for 1975 Nebula Awards for the Best Novel, together with surprising number of other nominees 18 in total (from usual 6!) and lost to The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.the novel starts with a battle scene from the England civil war, were our protagonist, ...

Poul Anderson is known for his "hard" science fiction, so this book was certainly a surprise! While there are some science fiction elements in the book, notably parallel timelines, it takes place during the 1600's in England. In this time line, Shakespeare is an historian, trains were already invented, but the Puritans were still firmly in charge of the England. While the protagonist is male, there are three strong female characters as well as romance. If you are a bit of an Anglophile, as I am,...

A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson is a fantasy / sci fi novel that has a structure not unlike a play, with scenes introduced before each. This is Heinlein’s Glory Road multiverse ideal coupled with Anderson’s own ideas of future / alternate history and structured and shaped as an homage to Shakespeare. There are some fun cameos by characters from his novels Three Hearts and Three Lions and Operation Chaos and also the themes set out in his Guardians of Time / Time Patrol books; and also a bri...

A clock chimes in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which is impossible, since clocks that chimed were a medieval invention, but Poul Anderson took it and ran with it. This book takes place during the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. Both.Prince Rupert is captured. One soldier in his force, Will Fairweather, keeps after him, and his captor's niece, Jennifer, helps him escape -- to meet Oberon and Titania, who offer him and Jennifer magical rings powered by their love. Alas, Jennifer i...

The idea of A Midsummer Tempest is intriguing: a world in which Shakespeare was not a storyteller, the Bard, but wrote about reality: the Historian. Oberon and Tatiana really existed, Prospero really broke a staff and hid a book in the deeps... The story is set in the time of Cromwell, though, and Oberon and Tatiana are minor though essential characters. The main characters are Prince Rupert and a young Puritan woman, Jennifer, who come together when Rupert is captured, along with Will, who serv...

Here's a fantastical Shakespearean romp, in a universe where what the Bard wrote was literally true. In the early 17th century, Prince Rupert fights for King Charles against the Puritans; when he's captured, he is unexpectedly aided by his captor's niece and, more unexpectedly, by the fairy monarchs Oberon and Titania, who direct him to Prospero's island. Anderson's language is wonderful, and if you read closely, there are poetic surprises in the narrative and in the dialogue. This is a very enj...

PrologueA paperback novel. The early 70s.FIRST GENTLEMANPray tell me sir, about this little book?The author's name methinks I recognizeIt must be fantasy or SF tale?SECOND GENTLEMANNay coz! It is a fine Shakespearian rompA world where every play he wrote was true!And all prate on in just such wise as IDo now, in imitation of the Bard...FIRST GENTLEMANForesooth! But gets it not a little stale?I fear the joke could well go on too long?SECOND GENTLEMANIfaith! Th'art harsh! I know not what to say!Th...

Imagine an alternate universe in which every word William Shakespeare wrote was based on the literal, historical truth. Since that, in turn, would imply the existence of clocks capable of chiming the hour in Julius Caesar's Rome and cannons in Hamlet's tenth-century Denmark, it'd be no wonder if this world's seventeenth century were more technologically advanced than ours! And, shades of A Midsummer Night's Dream, of course there'd be magic too!Poul Anderson picks up this premise and runs with i...