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xmenji's review against another edition
1.0
Found this story to be pretty disappointing although I also found the book to be mostly beautifully written. To be fair, I'm not well-versed in Shakespeare, so I am just giving my thoughts based on whether I liked this book or not and not so much on whether this story stayed true to Shakespearean lore and what not.
Firstly, there's not much scifi implemented here. They briefly touch on the whole multiverse theory in order to explain the alternative universe this story is based in; for example, in this universe, Shakespeare was a historian whose stories were actually written about real events, and in this world, they had steam locomotives and other types of machinery in the 1400's.
Other than that, the multiverse element of the story isn't mentioned until the epilogue. Personally, I found this to be disappointing especially because I didn't find the main story to be all that enthralling.
Next, I absolutely hate the way the female characters are written in this book. Sure, this book could just be a product of its time, and yeah, this book is set during a Shakespearean era but this is an alternate universe! There is a chance that women could not be written in such a docile way. Rupert was betrothed to Jennifer, but while he's off on his heroic journey, he ends up sleeping with some duke's wife. Obviously, the duke's wife is solely to blame for, the book states, because she placed a spell on him. Because OBVIOUSLY Rupert can do no wrong. I don't fall for the "remorse" he showed Jennifer later on after admitted that he didn't stay true to her because in the end after they end the war, they all go on a parade where Rupert and smiling and waving to the audience "especially to all the pretty girls" while Jennifer is literally sitting right next to him. But you know, Jennifer being completely docile and all, is completely okay with Rupert cheating on her and continuing his flirtatious antics with other women. She says she'll make sure that he doesn't look at anyone else, but 1) you can't control anyone, including your spouse/partner 2) If Rupert cheated on her again, she'll forgive him anyways.
I despise Will Fairweather. He comes across as a massive pervert to me. He consistently comes on to nearly every female character that shows up in order to get with them. He is somewhat depraved and blames women for being so alluring even though he goes out of his way to come on to them. In the end, we find our that he is actually married to a women who bore him who knows how many children, and consistently leaves her to fend for themselves so that he can go off to war or whatever else he feels like doing. And even though the wife seems to sense that her husband hasn't been faithful to her, she just brushes it off in a "boys will be boys" manner like his behavior is endearing or something and pretty much forgives him.
Next, I hate the way the dialogue is written for characters with foreign accents. Don't even get me started on Wil Fairweather's dialogue. When we meet the duke's wife, we find out she is Spanish and of course, the author had to exaggerate the dialogue because of her accent. I don't care if it's to make the story more "realistic" or whatever. It looks stupid and is unnecessary. Just to illustrate what this looks like, I'll give a couple examples:
"I weell stay deescreet w'ataiver'appens."
or
"Alas, 'tees vairy, vairy costly, too. I only 'ave a leetle of eet left and am not sure I aiver can find more."
Personally, I hate this and believe that this trend, if it's still alive and well, NEEDS TO STOP.
Okay, so generally I did not like this book and there's more I'd complain about, but one thing I did enjoy about the book was the way it was written during the times where it wasn't trying so hard to write foreign accents. There is a lot of lyricism and phrases that I enjoyed that were beautifully descriptive:
"The day lay totally quiet. The island was emerald upon glass and silver, set against lapis lazuli."
"The robe and white beard of the caretaker who dozed on a stool in a corner seemed nearly as overlaid by time's grime."
"The Wains are homeward bound the same as us; to ringing of the Lyre, the Swan takes wing across a river clangorous with light; near Pegasus, the Princess waits her hero; and from the sunrise quadrant comes Orion, who will bestride the heavens--art thou he?"
There are many more examples and it shows that the author can definitely write well and has a way with words. Other than that, I hated the story and don't care much for it.
Firstly, there's not much scifi implemented here. They briefly touch on the whole multiverse theory in order to explain the alternative universe this story is based in; for example, in this universe, Shakespeare was a historian whose stories were actually written about real events, and in this world, they had steam locomotives and other types of machinery in the 1400's.
Other than that, the multiverse element of the story isn't mentioned until the epilogue. Personally, I found this to be disappointing especially because I didn't find the main story to be all that enthralling.
Next, I absolutely hate the way the female characters are written in this book. Sure, this book could just be a product of its time, and yeah, this book is set during a Shakespearean era but this is an alternate universe! There is a chance that women could not be written in such a docile way. Rupert was betrothed to Jennifer, but while he's off on his heroic journey, he ends up sleeping with some duke's wife. Obviously, the duke's wife is solely to blame for, the book states, because she placed a spell on him. Because OBVIOUSLY Rupert can do no wrong. I don't fall for the "remorse" he showed Jennifer later on after admitted that he didn't stay true to her because in the end after they end the war, they all go on a parade where Rupert and smiling and waving to the audience "especially to all the pretty girls" while Jennifer is literally sitting right next to him. But you know, Jennifer being completely docile and all, is completely okay with Rupert cheating on her and continuing his flirtatious antics with other women. She says she'll make sure that he doesn't look at anyone else, but 1) you can't control anyone, including your spouse/partner 2) If Rupert cheated on her again, she'll forgive him anyways.
I despise Will Fairweather. He comes across as a massive pervert to me. He consistently comes on to nearly every female character that shows up in order to get with them. He is somewhat depraved and blames women for being so alluring even though he goes out of his way to come on to them. In the end, we find our that he is actually married to a women who bore him who knows how many children, and consistently leaves her to fend for themselves so that he can go off to war or whatever else he feels like doing. And even though the wife seems to sense that her husband hasn't been faithful to her, she just brushes it off in a "boys will be boys" manner like his behavior is endearing or something and pretty much forgives him.
Next, I hate the way the dialogue is written for characters with foreign accents. Don't even get me started on Wil Fairweather's dialogue. When we meet the duke's wife, we find out she is Spanish and of course, the author had to exaggerate the dialogue because of her accent. I don't care if it's to make the story more "realistic" or whatever. It looks stupid and is unnecessary. Just to illustrate what this looks like, I'll give a couple examples:
"I weell stay deescreet w'ataiver'appens."
or
"Alas, 'tees vairy, vairy costly, too. I only 'ave a leetle of eet left and am not sure I aiver can find more."
Personally, I hate this and believe that this trend, if it's still alive and well, NEEDS TO STOP.
Okay, so generally I did not like this book and there's more I'd complain about, but one thing I did enjoy about the book was the way it was written during the times where it wasn't trying so hard to write foreign accents. There is a lot of lyricism and phrases that I enjoyed that were beautifully descriptive:
"The day lay totally quiet. The island was emerald upon glass and silver, set against lapis lazuli."
"The robe and white beard of the caretaker who dozed on a stool in a corner seemed nearly as overlaid by time's grime."
"The Wains are homeward bound the same as us; to ringing of the Lyre, the Swan takes wing across a river clangorous with light; near Pegasus, the Princess waits her hero; and from the sunrise quadrant comes Orion, who will bestride the heavens--art thou he?"
There are many more examples and it shows that the author can definitely write well and has a way with words. Other than that, I hated the story and don't care much for it.
el_entrenador_loco's review
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
katmarhan's review against another edition
3.0
I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had more than a passing acquaintance with both Shakespeare and the English Civil War between Cromwell and the Parliamentarians and King Charles I and the Royalist Cavaliers. Anderson feels free to mess with history and literature both in rafting this tale, but overall, it’s an enjoyable yarn. And although it is sometimes listed as book 2 in the Holger Carlson or a book in the Operation Otherworld series, it has only tenuous links to both.
oleksandr's review
2.0
This is a strange mix of alt-history mid-XVII century England, fantasy and fan-fic based on [a:William Shakespeare|947|William Shakespeare|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1586700347p2/947.jpg] 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 [b:The Forever War|21611|The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)|Joe Haldeman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386852511l/21611._SY75_.jpg|423] by [a:Joe Haldeman|12476|Joe Haldeman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1630694226p2/12476.jpg].
the novel starts with a battle scene from the England civil war, were our protagonist, prince Rupert (a real historical figure, a nephew of King Charles I, fights a losing battle against Cromwell’s Roundheads. He is taken prisoner and sent o a mansion of Sir Malachi Shelgrave. Here a reader first sees that that Earth is more advanced – it has early steam locomotives and finds out that Shakespeare here is not a playwright but the Historian and all his plays are real historical chronicles! Rupert meets his captor’s niece Jennifer Alayne, they fell instantly in love and she, together with his loyal dragoon Will Fairweather, helps him escape. Here a reader finally meets Shakespeare characters - Oberon and Titania from [b:A Midsummer Night's Dream|1622|A Midsummer Night's Dream|William Shakespeare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327874534l/1622._SY75_.jpg|894834] and the heroes start their journey.
This is quite a hard book to read – a lot o characters speak a low speech, written as e.g. “Zo now you can heat tha shot at pleasure, my loard—theirs, I mean, for thoase ball-pates ’ull glow red from tha breath o’ Hot Rupert, tha Dragon Prince, as I hear their scribblers ha’ named ye in their landlubbers’ broadzides.” There are some pieces written as a white verse and most situations have a clear theatrical scene feel in them. However, I doubt that a lot of readers, who are not Shakespeare aficionados but just want a solid escapist story will like it. At least in the group mentioned above (come join by the way!) several readers started it but dropped later. I see it as an interesting experiment but not the author’s best.
the novel starts with a battle scene from the England civil war, were our protagonist, prince Rupert (a real historical figure, a nephew of King Charles I, fights a losing battle against Cromwell’s Roundheads. He is taken prisoner and sent o a mansion of Sir Malachi Shelgrave. Here a reader first sees that that Earth is more advanced – it has early steam locomotives and finds out that Shakespeare here is not a playwright but the Historian and all his plays are real historical chronicles! Rupert meets his captor’s niece Jennifer Alayne, they fell instantly in love and she, together with his loyal dragoon Will Fairweather, helps him escape. Here a reader finally meets Shakespeare characters - Oberon and Titania from [b:A Midsummer Night's Dream|1622|A Midsummer Night's Dream|William Shakespeare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327874534l/1622._SY75_.jpg|894834] and the heroes start their journey.
This is quite a hard book to read – a lot o characters speak a low speech, written as e.g. “Zo now you can heat tha shot at pleasure, my loard—theirs, I mean, for thoase ball-pates ’ull glow red from tha breath o’ Hot Rupert, tha Dragon Prince, as I hear their scribblers ha’ named ye in their landlubbers’ broadzides.” There are some pieces written as a white verse and most situations have a clear theatrical scene feel in them. However, I doubt that a lot of readers, who are not Shakespeare aficionados but just want a solid escapist story will like it. At least in the group mentioned above (come join by the way!) several readers started it but dropped later. I see it as an interesting experiment but not the author’s best.
bill_desmedt's review
5.0
An alternate universe in which every word written by [b:William Shakespeare|18135|Romeo and Juliet|William Shakespeare|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XTDJ3P4XL._SL75_.jpg|3349450] was the literal, historical truth: clocks that chimed the hour in Julius Caesar's Rome, cannons in tenth century Denmark -- naturally they're more advanced than us technologically!
Poul Anderson picks up this premise and runs with it. Watch for the rhyming couplets, and wait for the climax -- it's one you won't soon forget!
Poul Anderson picks up this premise and runs with it. Watch for the rhyming couplets, and wait for the climax -- it's one you won't soon forget!
scaifea's review
2.0
Fantasy/alternate history, in which Shakespeare's plays really happened, plus parallel universes and, randomly (sort of), trains.
Sounds, sadly, way more amazing that it actually is. The idea is very cool, but the execution is poor enough that the story barely holds together and is mostly just confusing. Shame, really.
Sounds, sadly, way more amazing that it actually is. The idea is very cool, but the execution is poor enough that the story barely holds together and is mostly just confusing. Shame, really.
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