DNF: 60%, up to Chapter 12Sometimes I read a book and it takes way too long to get into it, but I am so determined to finish it that I don't realize that every time I pick up my Kindle I do it as if it is a chore, a task that I need to complete in order to move to something more enjoyable. In the meantime, my "to-read" list keeps getting bigger and bigger and I start to wonder whether I'll live long enough to read everything in there.That was pretty much my experience with "Ill Met by Moonlight".Summary: William Shakespeare: Will is a financially struggling schoolteacher, who goes back home one evening to find out his wife, Nan, and child missing. He wonders around, confused and hurt, until he stumbles upon a faerie castle, half visible in the forest. Inside the lavish building, he is somehow able to see an almost unrecognizable Nan dressed in luxurious gown dancing with the King of the Elves and surrounded by his beautiful courtiers. While gazing at the impossible sight, a stunning elven maiden (who is actually a gender-shifting elf, named Quicksilver) appears in front of him and offers her help to retrieve Will's wife in return for a dangerous favor. Quicksilver: Quicksilver is cunning, intelligent and the rightful king of the faerie people who has been cheated out of the position by his older brother, Sylvanus. Unlike the majority of his kind, Quicksilver possesses the rare gift of being able to shift between a male and a female, which is rather unusual among his society and regarded with mistrust. Nevertheless, he remains in the court, plotting his revenge and fending of his brother's verbal attacks and humiliation with his quick tongue and sharp mind. His goal of retrieving the throne doesn't seem to be going anywhere until Sylvanus makes the mistake of kidnapping a mortal woman from her still-living husband - William Shakespeare.To be honest, this book is not bad. I was prepared for cheesiness and clichés, but Sarah A. Hoyt managed to keep it fairly original and unpredictable. The two main characters were alright, although William Shakespeare's narrative felt excruciatingly detailed and boring, his thoughts kept jumping around, from one topic to another, over-analyzing, remembering past events and being generally confused with every thing around him. Quicksilver on the other hand was far more compelling and interesting as a character. I loved the gender-shifting aspect of him and I absolutely adored his selfishness and willingness to use other people's love and attraction to him in order to achieve his goals. But, as the game gets more intense, he begins to realize how risky it is to play with people's lives and how afraid he is to loose the few who consider themselves his friends.If you are into books about (Victorian) England, politics, intrigues, fairie courts, William Shakespeare etc. there is a mighty big chance you might enjoy "Ill Met by Moonlight".The reason why I couldn't finish it was my impatience - sometimes the characters "thought" too much. Oh yes, one of the advantages of books over movies is that you can get inside another person's mind and many people would probably enjoy this. But for me, there was waaay to much thinking and not enough doing. The progress was very slow and at one point, I just couldn't care less about William's feelings for Nan and the elven maiden, the constant flashbacks and self-doubt. I was just bored, plain and simple. But I also blame my busy life at the moment.
Have you ever read a book for a second time and gotten so much more out of it than you had the first time you read it? That's how Ill Met by Moonlight was for me. I think I read it first in 2003, and enjoyed it, but I'm not sure I sensed just how clever the book actually was. Quicksilver is the youngest son of Titania and Oberon, by rights the heir to their kingdom after their mysterious deaths. However, his older brother Sylvanus holds the throne, and has taken a mortal woman, Nan, as nursemaid for his daughter and possibly more. Suspecting foul play, Quicksilver, who switches genders at will (no pun intended), seeks out the help of a mortal to avenge his parents' death, a mortal who happens to be Nan's husband, a young petty schoolmaster named William Shakespeare. Hoyt has a lot of fun with Shakespeare in this novel, playing around with the facts of his life and the identity of his mysterious "dark lady," but also peppering her novel with references to his works, both their plots and their language. I think initially I found Quicksilver unsympathetic, but actually his behavior seems quite consistent with the portrayal of elves in Elizabethan ballads.. Nan and Will come across as likable, if flawed, human beings, and it is easy to see their appeal for their elven suitors. The dialogue is Elizabethan (and some of it will be very familiar), but not overly stilted or difficult to understand. An enjoyable read for most fantasy lovers, I think, and doubly so if they like Shakespeare as well.
What do You think about Ill Met By Moonlight (2002)?
I got about a third of the way into this book before I had to set it aside. The concept was irresistible--Shakespeare versus the fairies. I think there's a story in here, but it suffers from first novel syndrome. The writing is... something like 'florid' and close to 'purple', but the result is that everything described seems like a set piece on stage--from one angle, it looks magnificent, but step a little to one side and you see the front and the lumber propping it up. The author tries much to hard to show how clever the story is--oh look, here's Henry IV, oh there's Hamlet, and here's Romeo and Juliet, Big Ben, Parliament... I would have been delighted by this in high school, but now I find it awkward and a bit painful. We're moving from scene to scene in a precious Shakespearean clip episode.I know the author is a Shakespearean scholar, so I trust the dialogue is accurate, but it feels very Renne Faire.I kept on reading this book long after good judgement said to move on, because I really wanted to like it. But I couldn't manage it.(Oh. I forgot the annoying bit where all the women know about fairies and have to talk about it in hushed tones away from the menfolk and it seems like that's *all* they talk about.)
—Cyrano
Sarah A. Hoyt may have the chops, knowledge, and research backgroup to write a very historically reasonable (aside from the faeries) protrayal of Shakespeare's early life, but, this book did not deliver. Shakespeare enthusiasts may enjoy sifting through the plot and various dialogue sequences to find and place the Shakespearean works. But, for me, this was distracting. The references I noticed, seemed heavy handed and took away from the flow of the language (infusing too much flowery to Hoyt's more modern prose). While the premise was very interesting, I do not plan on reading more in this series.
—Lana.
William Shakespeare, aged 19 or 20, a small-town schoolteacher, comes home one day to find his wife Nan and his infant daughter gone. A small log lies in baby Susannah's crib, giving him the only clue to their whereabouts: they've been snatched by the Fair Folk.Quicksilver, heir of Oberon and Titania, comes home to find his his parents murdered and his throne usurped by his brother, Sylvanus. He enlists young Will in a scheme of revenge, with Nan as both bait and reward.Alternating between happenings in the world of Faerie and events in Stratford-upon-Avon, we follow Will's desperate search for Nan, Quicksilver's desperate quest for vengeance, and Nan's indoctrination into the ways of the Fey.It's possible I might have liked this book better had I read it in one sitting. It's a short thing, less than 300 pages, but even at that it felt too long. None of the chief characters, save Nan, engendered much sympathy. Quicksilver especially annoyed me -- arrogant, duplicitous, selfish, and self-righteous, he had no qualms about using and deceiving a "mere mortal" to his own ends, and I never quite bought the idea that he fell in love with Will. Will, even given some leeway for his youth, seemed much too wishy-washy and easily led. Only Nan seemed to have any strength of character.Still, on the whole, it's not a bad story, a decent way to spend a few hours if you don't have anything better to read.
—Angela
