A retelling of Hamlet with Robots? Sure, I'm in.

This is an interesting ideas and I'm always down for a retelling but I prefer them if they do a tad more to set themselves apart from the original. While the setting sure is different and the addition of robots is a big change, the rest of the story sticks to the plot of the original pretty well. So if you're wanting a bit more originality beyond a sci-fi twist, I'd look elsewhere.

This wasn't bad by any means. But I kept expecting more to happen. I would read more from this author as this book shows a lot of very good ideas are floating around in their head.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars.

This was interesting to read! I really like Hamlet (the play) and I’m up for most of Shakespeare retellings. There’s a lot of talk and discussion to be had around the play in terms of madness and what that all entails. Hamlet being an android here made for an interesting change because madness is (mostly) a human emotion. But an android could be mad if their code were faulty. We’ve seen a lot of movies where androids perform human emotions due to their coding – it’s one of my favourite things in science-fiction. So I really liked how the author approached it here.

I liked the characters in here. Hamlet and Horatio were fantastic. I think in like any retelling (of this I might read) and the original play – I feel for Ophelia. I’ve always felt for her. She’s probably my favourite, I think. I like how in here she’s given more of a voice and treated like a well-rounded character.

The prose was outstanding. I highlighted a lot of it and I reread most of them to let it sink in. I want to see if their other books also has this level of writing/prose – if so, I definitely want to read it. Plus, there was a Lion King reference? Which is doubly funny if you know that The Lion King is loosely influenced by Hamlet. So then to have it – or at least a loose reference to the Disney movie in here – it was just really funny to me.

I am a big fan of all kinds of classic retellings, and a scifi Hamlet seemed right up my alley!

And I was delighted to find a diverse and interesting retelling of Hamlet that really grabbed my interest, with one of the most clever twists to Hamlet I've ever seen. And I'm not talking about the androids.

I loved the diversity of the cast, and the reimagining of royalty into the upper echelons of corporate power. I also want to make a quick note of appreciation that the book had asexual representation beyond just Hamlet. Having both Hamlet and Ophelia be ace lent a really interesting take on their relationship together, but also avoided the trope of having the asexual representation be only the "unfeeling robot."

But I was also left wanting more. I wish that the story had delved deeper into the characters and the setting. They were both fine, but felt a little shallow, as if they were merely the vehicles by which the author wanted to twist motivations in the story. It was fun, but it didn't go nearly as deep into the world building or character development that I wanted.

Thank you to NetGalley and in potentia press for this ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishing house for an ARC of this book.

With ‘Hamlet, Prince of Robots’, M. Darusha Wehm transports the Shakespeare’s classing into a future where androids and AI are the new norm.

Adapting the play to this new modern/futuristic setting has not taken anything out from it, if anything some of the creative liberties have added more complexity to the already convoluted story that Shakespeare told bak in the 16th century.

Although not everyone may agree, from a teacher’s stand point this book may be a way to help some people get into reading more classics or, at the very least, not feel like their reading experience is useless.

An interesting re-telling of Hamlet with an AI twist to it. It's a pretty good story, but I guess I just kept expecting more. I can't put my finger on it, but I just wasn't satisfied when I finished reading. There's nothing wrong with it exactly, maybe it just didn't land for me.

What an absolutely lovely and fun retelling of Hamlet. I've had a particularly soft spot for Hamlet ever since reading it for the first time in high school. One of my favorite soliloquies to perform was Hamlet's first soliloquy from Act 1, Scene 2. This was such a faithful adaptation of the original work while still having the twist of throwing in robotics and AI. Highly recommend for any other nerds out there who love Shakespeare and Sci-Fi.

Thank you to NG and the publisher for an ARC! This novella was a fun little retelling of Hamlet. Blending artificial intelligence and Shakespeare novelization is a curious and ambitions undertaking that could produce interesting results. I was excited to read this when I first heard of it.
This book is alright on its own (neither more nor less, IMO), but it shines through much more if you've already read Hamlet or are at least familiar with the play. I think Prince of Robots is one of those retellings where the reader will not get much out of it if they're unfamiliar with the source material. (That's not necessarily a bad thing)

An exciting and original take on Shakespeare's classic play. Imbued with humour and a real love for the source material, Hamlet, Prince of Robots cuts much deeper than it's short reading time would suggest, asking that fundamental question - what does it mean to be human?

like this one wouldn't amount to more than an amusing curiosity, a mere exercise in transformative writing. But that judgment would miss the intent of what Wehm is really trying to do here. Many meanings have been read into the Hamlet tale: it can be about the tragedy of human choice, or about incompatible responsibilities, or waves of self-perpetuating violence, or the depths of betrayal, or the Scandinavian transition from Pagan to Christian notions of morality, or Oedipal neurosis, or cosmic justice, or cosmic indifference. Transplanting the story "as is," without changing any detail, into the subjectivity of an artificial person and letting the exact same events play out as we know they do, without dialing down the strength of the dramatic situation, is a more powerful literary statement than Wehm could have achieved if they had taken the simpler route of introducing variations in the plot. Rather than the literary retellings that show an unsuspected angle on a well-known story, Hamlet, Prince of Robots functions like the theatrical retellings of Shakespeare that still narrate the original story, but in a recontextualized presentation. Directors have set Macbeth in Haiti, Julius Caesar in wartime Germany, Coriolanus in revolutionary France. To set Hamlet in the age of post-industrial capitalism not only creates parallels worth discussing between royal power and corporate power, but also follows in the footsteps of a venerable theatrical tradition that keeps exploring the extent of Shakespeare's timeless versatility.



Nerd Coefficient: 7/10.

This novella is a fantastic sci-fi take on the Shakespeare play, reimagining the setting as a rivalry between Elsinore Robotics and Norwegian Technologies for supremacy in the AI market. Elsinore's flagship AI, Hamlet, was irreparably damaged from malware yet his warnings of foul play live on in the company's network for his successor, Hamlet v.2 to find. The book is a beat for beat reimaging of the play, so the plot progresses exactly as readers would expect, but there are minor story differences, such as Ophelia's role, that make it interesting. Many of the characters are AI, so the issue of AI and sentience versus AI as company property comes up often throughout. There were minor changes in character relationships as well, Horatio (a human) is dating Hamlet v.2, Claudia and Polonius seem closer, and Ophelia's role is less romantic. While a short read, that didn't detract from the plot, since Hamlet is a short play, and I thought that the sci-fi setting was really interesting.

A novelization of the play with the very thin veneer of many characters being AIs. Nothing interesting, thought-provoking, or new here.

While science fiction is not my typical genre, I was drawn to Hamlet Prince of Robots due to it being a retelling.

As a retelling, it remains true to the original story while bringing it up to current/future times. I loved Hamlet as a deeply complex character (a robot which is given a human complex, especially of emotions).

Could science and technology ever progress to the point where robots feel emotion more than humans?

It's an interesting concept and I loved the author's attempts at arguing for this theme.

A compelling read with an intriguing theme.

Thank you to NetGalley, M. darusha Wehm and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hamlet is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, so the moment I saw the concept of Hamlet mixed with robots and AI, I was all in. This is everything I could have wanted in a Shakespearian retelling. This Hamlet is equal parts charming and cutting. I highlighted multiple times where I stopped because I was in awe of how much this author understood Hamlet as a character and made him feel like a real person, despite being an android, and where his snarkiness and pettiness really felt like they hit at the core of who Hamlet was originally described as.

Making a large portion of the cast into college students, turning some of the traditionally male characters into female counterparts, the added dimensions to the questions of humanity and morality when a large portion of the cast are androids, and the update to Hamlet's romantic arc all make this into a fresh and modern retelling that I found refreshing. It was a struggle to put this book down before I made it to the inevitable ending. I found the translation of the fifth act into this modernized and somewhat futuristic world to be the weakest aspect of this retelling, but it still did a good job of carrying the necessary weight and emotion of concluding a tragedy.

The seed of this story is excellent, there should definitely be more cyber-inspired Shakespearen retellings. It’s like gearing a well-oiled machine with new inventive features. The drama takes place among the c-suite of an android company, there is an open embrace of queerness, and the relationships are varied and non-conventional with robots thrown nto the mix.

It is worth reading for the interesting take alone. However, there were a few things in the execution that did not gel with me personally -- one to do with how the story was told. A lot more would have packed a punch if done by showing before telling, but it safely went with the other order. For example, Ophelia is declared to have deep platonic feelings for Hamlet before they even interact on page, and it is confirmed later on in their interaction. It would have kept me more engaged to see them play off of each other first and make that assumption, rather than be guided through character emotions by narration. It dispersed a lot of the character mystery.

Second note to make is on the same playing field, which would be dialogue. It is not heavy on delivery, yet, there are times when they exhibit language that comes across more poetic or old-timey than the context allows. It refers to the lines of the initial play, but the transition is not exactly seamless. Granted, there were genuinely sweet moments between characters, and sometimes the heightened language worked into their tandem. Coming from a different end of the spectrum, I found the Lion King scene to be, while a cool nod, quite comical; so that too resisted giving it all a consistent tone.

Having said that, I am quite curious to look into more of the author’s works, the ideas and the world are rather fascinating. The power-play withing a futuristic company is quite a premise, and their discussion on the differences between robotic and organic perception on life and relationships is something I would like to read more of!

I have received ARC in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher. Thank you.

Hamlet.

Yes, that Hamlet. (Mister 'To Be, Or Not To Be' Man). The guy you were forced to read about in school and you either A) grumbled your way through the entire thing, yet begrudgingly finished or B) pretended to read and just looked up the SparkNotes summary.

So yes, it's Hamlet. BUT. With Cybernetics and high powered greedy scientific corporations. So really, it makes it 1000 times better, and would likely make Shakespeare himself roll over in the grave (serves him right, the wordy psycho). All in all, a fantastic novel and version of the classical Shakespearian tale (even for one such as I, who disdains most of the man's works).

Hamlet, Prince of Robots is set to be published on January 31, 2023. Thank you to In Potentia Press, NetGalley and the author for the digital Advanced Readers Copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Nicely done. This is like when theatres produce versions of Shakespeare set in the modern day. It's quite good. I may have to re-read it.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

This is a delightful retelling of Hamlet. It hits all the right notes, reframes the characters we know so well in a delightful way. I loved that the play was rendered via a play through of the Lion King, that cracked me up. I had to go confirm that Zazu probably is Polonius, which was a fun train of thought. A quick read, enjoyable, even though we all know the ending. Very well imagined Shakespearean retelling.

This novella is a clever, thoughtful retelling of <I>Hamlet</I> set in the world of corporate cybernetics. With a mixed cast of robots and humans, the themes of the original play transfer well into the world of artificial intelligence, and I was thoroughly entertained. Thank you to NetGalley and in potentia press for a digital review copy.

Hamlet Prince of Robots is a game changer for teaching Hamlet to students. For readers who are reluctant to engage in Shakespeare's language, the sci fi version will be a great companion to the original play. The action of the novel. mirrors the. play exactly as chapters are named after each scene of the original text. Allusions to a certain lion film, a queer love story, and commentary on 21st century silicon valley battles heighten the intrigue of this classic story. Highly recommended.

I was impressed by the beat-for-beat translation of Hamlet to a robot/corporation setting! However, due to the short format and regular head-hopping, I wasn't super invested in any of the characters or relationships, including Hamlet. Gertrude was probably the most interesting character. I liked the distillation of Hamlet's 'what does it mean to be alive' internal conflict through the lens of an AI and the 'is AI alive" standpoint and thought it was an apt lens to take. I wish it has been explored more, but again, I think it did the best it could given it was a novella. I loved Ophelia as aroace!