Weird Tales from Shakespeare

by Katharine Kerr (editor), Martin H. Greenberg

          Twenty-three original and imaginative stories by popular science fiction and fantasy authors explore the life and works of Shakespeare.
          From Barbara Denz's behind-the-scenes look at the real story behind the "second best bed" ("The Will") to Kate Daniel's revised version of a famous tragedy ("The Tragedy of Gertrude, Queen of Denmark"), the 23 stories in this standout collection pay tribute to the life and work of William Shakespeare.

Introduction by Katherine Kerr

Part One
Playbill by Bill Daniel
An Augmentation of Dust by Diana L Paxson
Aweary of the Sun by Gregory Feeley
The Will by Barbara Denz

Part Two
The Tragedy of KL by Jack Oakley
Ancient Magics, Ancient Hope by Josepha Sherman
Queen Lyr by Mark Kreighbaum
It Comes From Nothing by Barry Malzberg
The Tragedy of Gertrude, Queen of Denmark by Kate Daniels

Part Three
Alas, Me Bleedin.... by Dennis L. McKiernan
The Muse Afire by Laura Resnick
Titus! by Esther M. Friesner
Swear Not By The Moon by Lawrence Schmiel
The Summer of my Discontent by Mike Resnick

Part Four
Else The Isle with Calibans by Brian Aldiss
Face Value by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
No Sooner Sighed by Katherine Lawrence
The Mercury of the Wise by Kevin A. Murphy
A Tempest In Her Eyes by Charles de lint
Titania or the Celestial Bed by Teresa Edgerton

Part Five
Not Of An Age by Gregory Benford
The Elements So Mixed by Adrienne Martine-Barnes
My Voice Is In My Sword by Kate Elloitt

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Shakespeare, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1994

About the author

Born in Ohio, 1944. Moved to San Francisco Bay Area in 1962 and has lived there ever since. Katharine Kerr has read extensively in the fields of classical archeology, and medieval and dark ages history and literature, and these influences are clear in her work. Her epic Deverry series has won widespread praise and millions of fans around the world.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Presents an interesting look at Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird Tales from Shakespeare, as with many anthologies of this type, is a bit of a hit-or-miss affair. Some of the “tales” I found delightful, some elicited a response of “Meh,” and for a few, my reaction was, “Huh?” But the delightful stories made it a worthwhile read. I have one complaint, regarding the "Huh?" stories, but I’m not sure if the fault lies in the writing or in my reading. That is, as all the stories take some fantasy riff on Shakespeare and his works, pretty much all of the stories depend on the reader’s familiarization with Shakespeare’s plays, and while I am familiar with many of them, I am by no means familiar with all 37+ plays (the exact number is open to debate), and a few of the stories went over my head because I wasn’t getting the allusions (a bit like trying to read Finnigan’s Wake, with puns in Hungarian, etc.).

[Elizabeth Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a very long time sitting on Mt TBR, I have finally got around to reading this book. What a delight it was. I enjoyed all the different kinds of stories. There were stories about Shakespeare himself (meeting gods, witches and travellers from the future), about his plays (mostly being performed for alien races) and different versions of his plays (a vampiric Romeo, King Lear as a computer).

I was a little disappointed to notice a bit of a bias in the stories. There were a few too many versions of King Lear and As You Like It (though I didn't mind As You Like It so much, since it is a favourite of mine). All in all, the structure of the book was excellent. There was just one story I didn't really enjoy and that was The Tragedy of KL--the story about KL as a computer. I was a little rusty on my Lear and all the abbreviations of the names made things difficult. I put down the book a number of times while reading that story. Once past it, however, I hardly put the book down and it was rather made up for by the lovely version of Lear entitled Queen Lyr.

If you like Shakespeare without being a purist and if you like speculative fiction, you should definitely enjoy this book.

[MkB · Rating 3 out of 5]

My only real complaint with this compilation is the organization.

If your book is entiteled Weird Tales From Shakespeare, put the weird ones front and center (especially given the alien on the cover art). Instead, it opens with Mundane Historical Fiction of Shakespeare, which should have either been mixed in throughout, or towards the end.

If this hadn't been loaned to me from a trusted source, I would have said "moderately interesting, but so what?" and given up well before the weird ones.

[Suzanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any anthology, this has things in it that are better than others. Kate Daniel's retelling of Hamlet from Gertrude's point of view was, for me, the highlight. I was sadly disappointed by Charles de Lint's tale, which makes a rather silly narrative leap to bring about resolution, because I like him, and would have thought he'd contribute something better. All in all, worth reading, but do give yourself permission to skip stories that fail to interest you.

[Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cool anthology of Shakespearian-influenced scifi stories. Dig them.