A Midsummer Tempest

Operation Otherworld #3

by Poul Anderson

Rupert, prince of the Rhine, escapes from his captives, the Roundheads, in a science fiction work that casts Shakespeare as an historian

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Historical, Shakespeare

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley.

Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards.

Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3]

Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously.


Series:
* Time Patrol
* Psychotechnic League
* Trygve Yamamura
* Harvest of Stars
* King of Ys
* Last Viking
* Hoka
* Future history of the Polesotechnic League
* Flandry

Reviews

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 brief reference to a Heinlein character if one is quick enough to catch it. Shakespearean characters also populate the narrative and provide the unusual setting. Reading this also makes me think about Heinlein’s The Number of the Beast.

I have stated before and must again muse, why Poul Anderson is not more read by this generation? His imagination and story-telling ability is unmatched by all but the very best of contemporary authors. Maybe a good film based on his works would spark an interest.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prologue

A paperback novel. The early 70s.

FIRST GENTLEMAN

Pray tell me sir, about this little book?
The author's name methinks I recognize
It must be fantasy or SF tale?

SECOND GENTLEMAN

Nay coz! It is a fine Shakespearian romp
A world where every play he wrote was true!
And all prate on in just such wise as I
Do now, in imitation of the Bard...

FIRST GENTLEMAN

Foresooth! But gets it not a little stale?
I fear the joke could well go on too long?

SECOND GENTLEMAN

Ifaith! Th'art harsh! I know not what to say!
Though thou mayst not, I liked it anyway.
If Shakespeare parody should be thy thing
Then Poul's a prince, though true, he is no king

[continued for 200 pages]

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 enjoyable romp with engaging characters and lovely writing - I liked it very much.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 2 out of 5]

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, 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 A Midsummer Night's Dream 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.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 is caught sneaking back, and her uncle and his forces chase after Rupert and Will, and Jennifer is forced to reveal all by sleep deprivation. Her uncle sends men to chase him, making use of the magic of the ring.

Meanwhile Rupert stumbles on the Old Phoenix, where he meets someone from another world who tells him how the English Civil War went. With that inspiration, he decides to follow Oberon's advice and find those magical books that Prospero drowned. . . .

The chase is on, and through magic and adventure, Rupert and Jennifer wind through Europe and back again to England.

People who like steampunk may find it especially intriguing, since it has anachronistic steam technology, albeit in the early stages.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 it, in a story peopled with a latter-day knight errant, a damsel who refuses to passively give in to distress, and a Shakespearean fool nearly the equal of Falstaff himself.

Watch for the rhyming couplets, and wait for the climax — it's one you won't soon forget!

[Elaine Bidstrup · Rating 4 out of 5]

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, and love Shakespeare as I do, you'll enjoy this.
My only criticism is that one of the characters speaks an almost impenetrable dialect, which caused me to at times lose a bit of the story as I had to mentally translate his comments.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 serves under Rupert and later becomes close to him.

The idea is fascinating, and the implementation did keep me turning pages, but two things annoyed me. One was that I was for the most part more interested in the part kept on the fringes of the tale -- Shakespeare's characters -- and the other that Poul Anderson continues his obsession with rendering dialect, to the point where it's nigh on unreadable, and certainly isn't pleasant to read.

I liked the little pop-in part played by Holger, because I loved Three Hearts and Three Lions, but it seemed a little gratuitous.

Overall, it did turn out to be interesting -- and inspired me to want to know more about the setting and the real Prince Rupert -- but not as much of a pageturner as the others I've already read.

[Deedee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if Shakespeare's plays were History not entertainment? Anderson combines the whimsical elements of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest" with the romantic real-life commander Prince Rupert of the Rhine (leader of the Cavaliers during the English Civil War in the 1640's). It is hard to combine reality and whimsical fantasy; many fantasy writers have tried and failed. Anderson tried and succeeded. I can understand why it won the awards it did.

[Thannasset · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine romp through alternate history, some favorite Shakespeare, and alternate history across several fictons/continua, whatever. Read and enjoy, ye English speakers and lovers of Shakespeare!

















Go for it! You're in for a treat! Fine work by a writer who spanned a lot of years in his career.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a world where Shakespeare was not a playwright but "the great historian" and every word he wrote was true, complete with clocks in ancient Rome and so on. So, the technologies are slightly more advanced, railroads are beginning to crisscross England aiding the Parliamentarian cause and Prince Rupert finds the possibility of aid from unlikely allies. An interesting read making good use of Anderson's knowledge of history and Shakespeare.

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very poetic book about an alternate universe in which Shakespeare was the Great Historian and all his plays were true. The action takes place in an alternate 1644 during the English Civil War, except that Prince Rupert escapes his captives via steam train and gets help from the fairies Oberon and Titania who send him to Prospero's Island to get magic that can enable the Royals to beat the forces of Cromwell. A true fantasy classic from the 1970s.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Premise: what if Shakespeare's play--all of them--were history, not drama?

Great fun.

[Diana Wilder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book found its way into my house when I was in high school. I had read other books by Poul Amderson (or tried) but found that his version of fantasy didn't suit my likings.

Actually, I hadn't noticed that the book was written by Poul Anderson. I just happened to notice on the back of the book, the blurb mentioned Prince Ruper (a/k/a Rupert of the Rhine), who is an historical character I have always admired.

So I cracked the book and started reading. And I noticed that the dialogue was written in iambic pentameter (a form I enjoy using; it flows very well):

"Mesim twar wise we haul our skins from here," panted the dragoon, "while still they may hold wine..."

"And while I yet may hope to hold together men enough that they can cover their retreat...and mine," Rupert said.

Fluff, certainly, but clever and enjoyable fluff.

[Bryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the idea of this, and I loved some of the writing, but the characters had almost no interiority -- Anderson is just not interested in the inside of his character's heads except in the moments when it is necessary to the plot. As a result I had no sense of Rupert or Will as actual, real people -- I couldn't feel why they were making the choices they were making, or what their priorities were beyond what they were able to articulate. It was a very standard way of writing speculative fiction at the time, I think, but I find it deeply unsatisfying. The climax of the book relies on the idea that Will, as a true Englishman, can embody the will of the land -- unlike Rupert (because he's a foreigner?) or Jennifer (because... because she's female?) -- so the comic rustic sidekick becomes key to salvation. This could have been a hugely powerful moment on so many levels, but for me it didn't work because I didn't understand why Rupert is inherently foreign or Jennifer inherently whatever, because I didn't know anything about the male characters that they weren't telling me themselves. So frustrating!

Also, the interlude in the middle where Rupert and Will go into the world-spanning tavern and meet people from other timelines... I liked it for what it was, but for me it imploded any chance of the book being numinous or magical in all of the Shakespearean/fairy stuff.

Finally, I had forgotten about how dialect used to be A Thing in fantasy and how my own childhood attempts at writing fantasy were full of people who talked in oddly spelled words because all the books of the time had lots of that to show who the peasants and foreigners were. I am glad that fell away from fantasy novels; I had forgotten how very annoying it is to read and how much I used to skip because of it.

I suspect if I was still used to reading books like this, I would have just blithely skipped most of Will's dialogue and I wouldn't have even noticed that there was no interiority; I would have filled it all in myself, the same way I would make up internal monologues for characters in 80s computer rpgs. But now I look for different things in my reading, so this did not work for me.

[Jan-Niklas Bersenkowitsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of his best books. Great ideas, barely holded together by a thin plot. More pages would've done wonders.

[Louisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel about an alternative 1600s that is in the middle of industrialisation, and the English Civil War sees the use of steam trains, etc. Still, there is magic along the edges as Our Brave Prince flees defeat and meets A Delectable Beauty.

The title is a blend of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "The Tempest", and Shakespeare is a historian rather than a dramatist in this alternative world. There is a long chapter in the middle that (to me) seemed very out of place and pointless, where Anderson dragged in characters from his own "Three Hearts and Three Lions" and "Operation Chaos" books. Turns out that was Anderson's tribute to Fritz Leiber's Change War series, but I would never have guessed that if I hadn't seen it stated outright in another book.

The book is also dragged down by Our Brave Hero having a sidekick who continuously rants on in Anderson's take on Cornish dialect or something, which makes parts tedious to read.

The dragoon chuckled. “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.

The soldier shrugged. “Tha guns talk moare an’ louder, my loard. How they do argue, an’ what a harsh logic they chop! I dwould I could zay, instead, they’re ballin’ each other; but no, that’d bring forth pieces on earth ’gainst men like good Will, an’ mesim we been a-pistoled enough.” He un-slung a leather bottle from his belt and reached it over. “If you do want dwarmth, your Highness, heare, stoke yourzelf from a Puritan househoald where lately zome of us made requisition. Fear not, ’tis indeed a hellfiere preachment, but zafely decanted; for we’d hard ridin’ ahead of us, an’ thought that whilst tha spirits war for swillin’, tha flasks war weak.”

And so it goes, all through the book.

[Morgan Alreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anderson likes to make new worlds and then go ambling through them, poking at things. In this case he's poking two things at once. Once, what if everything the Bard had written was true? Two, what effect would that have had on the English civil war?

This is a 'frame' story, which begins in the standard magic tavern at the nexus of universes. We are introduced to Valeria, the daughter of Steve and Virginia Matuchek who starred in Operation Chaos and Operation Luna. In this book Valeria is merely window dressing though, more's the pity. The story is told, in the tavern, about this strange world...

We get dumped into Merry Olde England, complete with Puck, and muck, and flintlocks. It's supposed to be a grand adventure about a sweeping change in the course of history. But the peasants steal the show as far as I'm concerned. Of course, since my family are all peasants I'm prejudiced. The Groom ends up being critical to the success of the 'Grand Plan' and saves the day (yay).

Anyway, I had a lot of fun with this one. If you take it as an amusing way to play around with what-if games, and if you are the kind of person who has a sense of humor, you can't help but enjoy it. If you are the kind of person who reveres Shakespeare as a god, and thinks laughing at the heroes of history is sacrilege, I recommend Jane Eyre instead.

[Baron Greystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original review: Fun, but a little slow in parts. I would've liked even more of a Shakespearean vibe, although Poul made the attempt. It just lost that in several long passages. Also the ending of the story was a little weak. But while there is certainly a link to The Tempest, I see no link to A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Other than a few lovers, which most Shakespeare, and most fiction for that matter, includes.)

Updated review, eight years later: What was I thinking? I must've been having a bad day, maybe a toothache. I read it once many years ago, and still had my copy, so I must've been impressed the first time. Don't know who I was for the second reading. This time around I almost couldn't put it down. Granted I've spent these last years at innumerable "Shakespeare in the park" performances, so that might be a factor. I've also had another dip in the Arthurian pool (or Lady/Lake as it were), and that's another. In any case, Anderson throws a ton of rhyming couplets as well as some tweaked quotes that had me chortling with glee. The mood he sets is indeed Shakespearean. The plot is fine, the Phoenix Inn and links to other works were quite welcome... in fact I can't think of any way this yarn could be improved. Definitely should've won all the awards. Glad I came back to it!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early take on the alternative history genre, with a very specific conceit.

The starting premise is that Shakespeare was a great historian rather than a playwright and that the content of all the plays he wrote really happened. Some of the impacts of this a readily apparent. There really are faeries in the forests of England. Some less so. Loyalist armies travel by train to battle Cromwell?

Unfortunately our main characters are thrust into this world and follow fairly standard variant of the heroes journey, searching for the macguffin that will solve all their woes. Shakespeare tropes appear from time to time; cross dressing as disguise, wrongful accusation, love at first sight. But high Shakespeare it is not.

Nevertheless are serviceable read.

As the saying goes, all's well that ends well.

[D.J. Sylvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing story -- set in an alternate universe where all of Shakespeare's plays were word-for-word history, not fiction -- but dammit, when you start with that assumption I want to see more of the characters he created than a brief glimpse of Oberon, Titania & Puck at the beginning, then a scene or two on Prospero's island at the end.

The alternate history was well thought-out, and at times the plot held some thrills, but at the same time it was utterly predictable 90% of the time, and there were a few hints of sexism that were unnecessary even in a historical context.

I don't know if I'd recommend it, but I probably won't get rid of it, either -- it might be worth another read in the future.

[Tony Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some websites list this book as the second book in the Holger Danske (main character in Three Hearts and Three Lions) series, however, as he appears only in one short chapter in the middle of the book, it is perhaps a bit of a stretch.

This book is similar in that it deals with an Earth history in which the Faerie Realm is real. In this case the story is set during the English Civil War and premises that Shakespeare's plays were recounting of actual happenings. The main character is the historical figure Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

I enjoyed this story, although not as much as Three Hearts and Three Lions, but Anderson's decision to put the majority of the speech in 17th-century English does make it a little more challenging to read.

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if someone wrote a book in which all Shakespeare wrote was historical fact...and then concentrated on Shakespeare's characters? Not that A Midsummer Tempest was entirely bad, mind, but it's more an alternate history, in which fairies are real, than a study of what the world might be like if Shakespeare's plays were truth.

[Josh Karaczewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great premise (imagine an England where Shakespeare was a Historian, chronicling true people and events) and sumptuous language are mostly wasted in a poorly paced, dull plot; and much like most of Shakespeare, the supporting characters, especially the splendid Will Fairweather, outshine the predictable and repetitive main characters.

[William Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't look for anything too deep, here. This is just Poul Anderson playing with ideas and spinning a delightful yarn.

It's one I come back to and read again from time to time, and I read it with a smile on my face.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story about a prince-Rupert- and his adventures. While I appreciate the medieval elements that Andersen pulled, I couldn't get behind them. This is definitely not my top Poul Andersen novel. The dialogue was rough and the story line somewhat slow. Overall, an okay read.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

so much potential that just didn't quite do it for me. I think my problem was mostly with the language. It's fine to have a character speak in dialect, but the third person narration could be more contemporary.

I also did expect more Shakespeare, whether in characters or references.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise (Shakespeare was an historian, not a playwright, so everything he wrote actually happened) that falls a little flat in the execution. I wish he’d expanded the side plots (Oberon & Titania, dimension-jumping) and spent less time on the (alternative) English Civil War.

[Allen Garvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old-fashioned fantasy/SF Shakespeare pastiche. The true nature of the story doesn't become apparent to about halfway through, and doesn't actually add much to the story. Still, a satisfying story..