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Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales From Shakespeare's Fantasy World Kindle Edition
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Kate Heartfield
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LanguageEnglish
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Publication date8 Mar. 2016
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File size1054 KB
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Product description
About the Author
Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the acclaimed ten-book Shadows of the Apt series starting with Empire in Black and Gold, published by Tor UK. His other works for Tor UK include novels Guns of the Dawn, Children of Time, Children of Ruin and the Echoes of the Fall series starting with The Tiger and the Wolf.
Other major works include Dogs of War, Redemption’s Blade, Cage of Souls, the Tales of the Apt collections, and the novellas The Bloody Deluge, Even in the Cannon’s Mouth, Ironclads and Walking to Aldebaran for Rebellion.
He has won the Arthur C Clarke and Robert Holdstock awards.
Jonathan Barnes was born in 1979 and was educated in Norfolk and at Oxford University. His first novel, The Somnambulist, was published in 2007 and his second, The Domino Men, in 2008. Between them they have been translated into eight languages. He writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review. Since 2011, he has been writer-in-residence at Kingston University.
Emma Newman writes short stories, novels and novellas in multiple speculative fiction genres. She won the British Fantasy Society Best Short Story Award 2015 for “A Woman’s Place” in the 221 Baker Streets anthology. ‘Between Two Thorns’, the first book in Emma’s Split Worlds urban fantasy series, was shortlisted for the BFS Best Novel and Best Newcomer 2014 awards. Her science-fiction novel, After Atlas, was shortlisted for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke award and the third novel in the Planetfall series, Before Mars, has been shortlisted for a BSFA Best Novel award.
Emma is a professional audio book narrator and also co-wrote and hosted the Hugo and Alfie winning podcast ‘Tea and Jeopardy‘ which involves tea, cake, mild peril and singing chickens. Her hobbies include dressmaking, painting, and role playing games.
Foz Meadows is the author of two YA urban fantasy novels, Solace and Grief and The Key to Starveldt, and in 2014, they were nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. They are also a contributing writer for The Huffington Post and Black Gate, and a contributing reviewer for Strange Horizons, A Dribble of Ink and Tor.com. Foz currently lives in Australia with not enough books, their very own philosopher and a toddler. Surprisingly, this is a good thing.
Kate Heartfield’s fiction has appeared in places such as Strange Horizons, Crossed Genres, Podcastle and Daily Science Fiction. She is also a freelance journalist in Ottawa, Canada. Her favourite undergraduate assignment, nearly two decades ago, was to write an entire essay about Shakespeare’s uses of a single word; her word was “mount.” --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product details
- ASIN : B019JJGFRE
- Publisher : Abaddon Books (8 Mar. 2016)
- Language : English
- File size : 1054 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 336 pages
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Best Sellers Rank:
561,058 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2,990 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- 3,401 in Historical Literary Fiction
- 66,625 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer reviews:
Customer reviews
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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And how else to begin such an ambitious project than with Ariel and Miranda and Puck? Foz Meadows writes a strong tale of fairies, identity and courage, and it only gets better from there. Kate Heartfield draws a picture of witchcraft that ends with a truly Shakespearean denouement and proclamation of love; while Emma Newman's heroine finds herself disappointed by the blade of fate - and if you've read any of her Split Worlds series then you'll know how sharp that blade will be!
The last two stories are the most interesting of all from my point of view, playing with narrative forms as much as the characters. Adrian Tchaikovsky's Even In the Cannon's Mouth keeps a five-act structure, as do most of the others, but he also introduces stage directions and deliberately breaks the fourth wall as he blends All's Well That Ends Well and Twelfth Night with a rogue Scottish monarch. Jonathan Barnes manages to overcome my natural distrust of the second person narrative ("you open the door...") with a climactic tale that takes that fourth wall down a dark alley never to return, makes Anne Hathaway the hero, and almost turns the Bard into a version of the Eternal Champion while he's at it. It's quite different and more than worth the admission price.
By my count, that's five novellas ripe for award nominations, and a stand-out early contender for anthology of the year. Take a bow.
It is the Year of Our Lord 1601. The Tuscan War rages across the world, and every lord from Navarre to Illyria is embroiled in the fray. Cannon roar, pikemen clash, and witches stalk the night; even the fairy courts stand on the verge of chaos.
Five stories come together at the end of the war: that of bold Miranda and sly Puck; of wise Pomona and her prisoner Vertumnus; of gentle Lucia and the shade of Prospero; of noble Don Pedro and powerful Helena; and of Anne, a glovemaker’s wife. On these lovers and heroes the world itself may depend.
These are the stories Shakespeare never told. Five of the most exciting names in genre fiction today – Jonathan Barnes, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Emma Newman, Foz Meadows and Kate Heartfield – delve into the world the poet created to weave together a story of courage, transformation and magic.’
I don’t usually cut and paste the descriptions for the books I review but the above is perfect so I thought I’d sneak it in here.
Monstrous Little Voices is a book that I simply fell in love with. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book – although I will give it a go.
Firstly, in case you’re thinking ‘this is Shakespeare and I haven’t read any of his works’, well, to be honest, I’ve only ever read A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve always felt that as these were written as plays they’re something you have to watch – although plenty of people I am sure would disagree with me there. I am familiar with a number of the plays but not all of them and certainly not well enough to know all the characters. So, I probably felt a little bit wary going into this but my fears were groundless. This was so good. Forget Twelve Nights – I devoured this in two and couldn’t put it down until I was finished. I just loved it – did I mention that already. It’s one of those books that made me smile – in fact it’s one of those books that I wanted to hug.
Basically, this book contains five stories each taking characters, settings and influence from different plays created by the bard. I’m usually the first person to say I don’t enjoy short stories but just recently I’ve discovered that I do – provided they’re in the context of a bigger picture. So, whilst these stories are short they already feel familiar. I felt like I already had the setting and the characters in my head and I knew the background to the plays. On top of this the writing is uptodate and it really is all wonderful – and I do mean all five stories. And, finally, all of the stories overlap to form what is effectively one larger tale. Absolutely brilliant not to mention wonderful that five different authors could come together in this way, all with their own unique style and yet create this perfect little gem that flows so easily and is so very entertaining to read.
I don’t know that I should really go into the detail of the stories themselves because that would simply spoil it. You’ll probably already have some background – or maybe you’ll have a whole heap of background – but no matter what your level of expertise in terms of Shakespeare I think this can be easily enjoyed and in fact I’m sure people will take different things away from the read.
Word to the wise – go into this with the knowledge that all the stories connect and so whilst they probably can be read individually you will want to keep each story in mind when reading the next so that you pick up all the little nuances.
What I can tell you here is that this story is full of magical characters. The fae world comes to life on the page with Oberon and Titania playing a much stronger role in our mundane lives. Puck is one of the earlier characters that you will meet, plus sorcerers, witches and ghosts. There’s love, there’s war, there’s deceit and trickery. You really do have to hand it to Shakespeare for such early fantasy delights and then to have those characters brought back to the page in such a lovely form with a more modern voice and one overall story arc makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
I can’t recommend this book enough.
An excellent achievement. My hearty thanks go to the authors involved and thanks to the publisher for a review copy. The above is my own opinion.
