A Midsummer Tempest
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Welcome to an alternate civil-war-torn seventeenth-century England—a world where Hamlet once brooded and Othello jealously raged. Here faeries and sprites gambol in English woods, railroads race across the landscape while manned balloons float above the countryside, and the most respected historian of all is one William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The year is 1644, and the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. When Rupert, nephew of King Charles I, is taken captive by Cromwell’s troops and imprisoned in a Puritan home, he is immediately smitten with the beautiful Jennifer Alayne, his captor’s niece. Escaping with the help of his newfound beloved and the loyal trooper Will Fairweather, Rupert leads Jennifer deep into the forest, where the faerie folk who dwell there have a vested interest in the outcome of the great and bloody conflict. Though the lovers must soon part—with the prince undertaking a dangerous mission for his magical benefactors that could turn the tide of war—Rupert and his lady love will be forever joined by the rings presented to them by King Oberon and Queen Titania. And despite the strange, twisting pathways and turbulent seas they are destined to encounter, they will always be able to find each other again . . . as long as their love remains true.
Nominated for the World Fantasy Award and winner of the Mythopoeic Award, Poul Anderson’s A Midsummer Tempest is a titanic achievement—a delightful alternate-history fantasy that brings the fictional worlds of Shakespeare’s plays to breathtaking life with style, wit, and unparalleled imagination.
Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) grew up bilingual in a Danish American family. After discovering science fiction fandom and earning a physics degree at the University of Minnesota, he found writing science fiction more satisfactory. Admired for his “hard” science fiction, mysteries, historical novels, and “fantasy with rivets,” he also excelled in humor. He was the guest of honor at the 1959 World Science Fiction Convention and at many similar events, including the 1998 Contact Japan 3 and the 1999 Strannik Conference in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Besides winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards, he has received the Gandalf, Seiun, and Strannik, or “Wanderer,” Awards. A founder of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, he became a Grand Master, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. In 1952 he met Karen Kruse; they married in Berkeley, California, where their daughter, Astrid, was born, and they later lived in Orinda, California. Astrid and her husband, science fiction author Greg Bear, now live with their family outside Seattle.
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Reviews for A Midsummer Tempest
68 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An enjoyable fantasy from Anderson. Basically, it's the adventure of Prince Rupert vs the Roundheads in a world where Shakespeare's plays were literal truth. There are several negatives. There is a completely unnecessary and unconvincing chapter that tries to couch this as an alternate universe. (This ties it to Three Hearts and Three Lions) There's a romance that would have been dated even in Shakespeare's time. And there's way too many cases of characters speech rendered in dialect Nevertheless, Anderson's story resolves well, and the language wordplay is a lot of fun.Recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really like the characters; I really like the concept, a universe where everything Shakespeare wrote is true; and the author skillfully interweaves two Shakespeare plays with a slightly altered version of history. And all the characters speak in iambic pentameter! And each chapter ends with a rhymed couplet!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Somehow I expected to like this book lot more than I actually did. Anderson was a fine sf and fantasy writer and the concept of a world based on Shakespeare's plays is clever. However, the idea that the Weberian Puritan/capitalist ethic made Cromwell a villain is not comfortable to me, even though at the climax King Charles does have to admit it is England not his own divine monarchy that is at stake,
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fantasy/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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A civil war rages in England between the forces loyal to the King and those loyal to the Parliament. But the conflict goes much deeper than that - it's also a war between the forces of magic, faith and religion against the forces of technology, progress and Cold Iron. Onto this battlefield steps Prince Rupert - a hero of the loyalists and a thorn in the side of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Technologists. Rupert is captured and the loyalist forces quickly fall into disarray and are routed from the countryside without their leader. With the help of his captor's niece and one of his loyal soldiers, Rupert escapes and is approached by Oberon and Tatania who tell him that this war is not just between the King and the Parliament, but also between the old ways and the new ways. Without his help, the old ways, including magic, faeries, religion and the link between the earth and man will be severed.This was a very interesting book. The concept - that all the works of Shakespeare were actually true - is interesting in and of itself. But there's more than just that. Into a special portal between the instances of the multiverse sits the Old Phoenix Inn - a place where people from different realities and different times can come and interact with one another. Into the Old Phoenix, Rupert eventually comes and finds one of our old friends - Holger Carlsson from Three Hearts and Three Lions. Given the shared vocabulary (multiverse), I wonder if Anderson was taking Moorcock's multiverse concept and applying his own spin? Interesting all by itself... but then I also wonder if Anderson did more of this cross-reality-pollination with any other characters from his books? In the epilogue there is some talk of many different characters none of whom I realized but it's possible that they all come from his prior works. Very interesting.The language Anderson uses in this novel befits the Shakespearean theme - very flowery and full of imagery. That, by itself, was somewhat difficult to wade through - but the dialogue was a true quagmire. Will Fairweather's speech would have been cumbersome to read simply by his choice of vocabulary. But Anderson also changes the spelling of words to fit Will's speech making it even more difficult to parse and process. It wasn't just Will either - but also people of French, Italian and Dutch descent - each with their own accents and speech patterns.