This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
It has been over four centuries since William Shakespeare died, but his works still pervade everything in pop culture. New adaptations of his plays are filmed and staged all the time. Words he created are a part of the everyday English lexicon, like “inaudible,” “swagger,” and “advertising.” (According to Mental Floss, he was also the first to use “eyeball” to mean the entire orb.)
And, oh, the retellings! Shakespeare is credited with writing at least 35 plays, but the number of times his work has been refashioned into a new play or show or book must be in the thousands by now. To name a few, there’s Ten Things I Hate About You, The Lion King, She’s the Man, Brave New World, A Thousand Acres, West Side Story, and my personal favorites, Scotland, PA and The Plague Dogs.
So it stands to reason that since Shakespeare is so widely represented in our world, his influence would also bleed out (like Mercutio) into the science fiction and fantasy genres. Here are three great examples of Shakespeare retellings in SFF books!
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
Hamlet is one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays to be retold. This is Ann Leckie’s first fantasy novel, about the kingdom of Iraden, which is overseen by the Raven god, and the true heir to the throne, Eolo. When he returns to the city, he discovers secret of the Raven’s Tower and must fight to remove the usurper from the throne.
Other Hamlet retellings: The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu, The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Swords and Spaceships
Sign up to Swords and Spaceships to receive news and recommendations from the world of science fiction and fantasy.
The Stars Undying by Emery Robin
And this Shakesqueer retelling of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra is an exciting space opera! After Princess Altagracia’s twin sister claims the crown of their planet, Szayet, she turns to the enemy, the Empire of Ceiao, and its commander, Matheus Ceirran, to help her regain what she lost. As she attempts to learn what it takes to be a ruler, she starts to fall for Anita, a captain of the empire.
Other related books: Take Her Down by Lauren Emily Whalen, Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi, Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough, Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
Okay, star bits, now take the knowledge you have learned here today and use it for good, not evil. If you want to know more about books, I talk about books pretty much nonstop (when I’m not reading them), and you can hear me say lots of adjectives about them on the BR podcast All the Books! and on Instagram.
If an SFF fan forwarded this newsletter to you or you read it on bookriot.com and you’d like to get it right in your inbox, you can sign up here.