Any Man So Daring

Shakespearean Fantasies #3

by Sarah A. Hoyt

William Shakespeare has become the preeminent playwright of Elizabethan England, but his success comes with a price--his son Hamnet has disappeared in the realm of the Elven King, and Will must face the powers of darkness to rescue him.

Genres: Fantasy, Shakespeare, Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Sarah A. Hoyt was born (and raised) in Portugal and now lives in Colorado with her husband, two sons, and a variable number of cats, depending on how many show up to beg on the door step.

In between lays the sort of resume that used to be de-rigueur for writers. She has never actually wrestled alligators, but she did at one point very briefly tie bows on bags of potpourri for a living. She has also washed dishes and ironed clothes for a living. Worst of all she was, for a long time, a multilingual scientific translator.

At some point, though, she got tired of making an honest living and started writing. She has over 30 published novels, in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical mystery, historical fantasy and historical biography. Her short stories have been published in Analog, Asimov's, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, and a number of anthologies from DAW and Baen. Her space-opera novel Darkship Thieves was the 2011 Prometheus Award Winner, and the third novel in the series, A Few Good Men, was a finalist for the honor. She also won the Dragon Award for Uncharted (with Kevin J. Anderson.)

a.k.a. Sarah D'Almeida
a.k.a. Elise Hyatt
a.k.a. Sarah Marqués

Reviews

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible conclusion to Hoyt’s Shakespeare trilogy, utterly fantastic. From the location—an island of pure magic, the crux of Elfland—to the characterization of the two major characters, a middle-aged writer worried about the tradeoffs between artistic freedom, providing for his family, and being with his family; and a teenager raised in isolation and learning the hard way how to interact with and interpret other people’s actions and words.

Each of the characters proceeds directly from what we’ve learned of them in the previous books, and this book puts a fine capstone on each character’s arc as well as on the world as a whole. While at the same time interacting subtly and blatantly with Shakespeare’s writings, especially The Tempest.

This is a great book for fans of Shakespeare, fantasy, and historical reweavings.

As usual, I apologize for taking liberties with William Shakespeare’s words and biography, but I feel he would have wanted it so. Always a crafty borrower of others’ plumes, a re-weaver of lusterless tales into his own sparkling concoctions, he might well forgive my borrowing of his diamonds to ornament my rags. And perhaps my lie, humble and contrived though it is, will hold some semblance of deeper truth within its pretend construction.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet, becomes a faerie changeling; accompanied by Kit Marlowe’s ghost, Will rushes to the rescue.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, the third in Hoyt's series, is a fine conclusion, wrapping up loose ends nicely with a light touch much appreciated after the darkness of All Night Awake. At the same time, some of the things that I found so charming in the first book are beginning to wear on me a bit by the third. The Shakespearean quotes are still clever, but when they become lengthy and, even worse, rhyme, they start to feel a bit forced. And the allusions to the plays felt more heavy-handed than in previous installments. Shakespeare really comes to life as a complex and caring human being, and the exploration of Quicksilver's dual nature and his ruminations on kingship are quite intriguing. There are new characters here, including one I wanted to shake on practically every other page (if you read the book, you'll know who it is). There were some head scratching moments in this book (if Quicksilver, at 50, was just barely out of adolescence, how is the elven Miranda, at 14, the same age as a human girl?) and I had a hard time buying into the notion of the Crux, an unpredictable section of Fairyland in which most of the book takes place. Still, as a whole I was satisfied with how things ended, and most of my dissatisfaction stems either from personal preference, or possibly reading too many of these books in a short time.

[Joelendil · Rating 2 out of 5]

After I started this book I discovered that it is actually the third book in a trilogy. I went ahead and read it anyway and am pretty sure I didn't miss anything of importance since the first two books are recapped ad nauseum.

The main premise of the story is certainly intriguing: William Shakespeare unwillingly involved in the intrigues of fairyland. Shakespeare quotes and allusions abound, with the implication that these adventures are one source of his genius. Despite the great potential, I found the book, as a whole, tedious.

Its main problem is best summed up by a quote directed at one of the three main characters: "I grow tired of your obsessive guilt." Add in rebukes for incessant nattering of unbelievable naiveté and sullen bitterness and you've summed up 3/4 of the book. Any little bit of action is followed by lengthy passages of soul-searching, mostly involving an identity crisis, a crisis of faith, or regrets about the past. It might have worked quite well in a shorter book (after all, Shakespeare's plays are pretty "talky"), but it becomes extremely repetitive and grating over 325 pages!

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Earlier installments of Hoyt's Shakespearean Fantasies series mix Shakespeare's reluctant involvement with the elves' grand battles of good vs. evil. In comparison, Any Man So Daring is well, a pity party. This A Midsummer Night's Dream retelling takes place on an island in a sea of magic, "the crux" that is the center of Fairyland's magic, but we don't get to see any of the supposedly dire consequences for using magic in the crux. Instead we see all the familiar characters' petulance, dithering, self-pity and self-justification, and not much else. For a Midsummer Night's Dream retelling I'd recommend The Dream of Perpetual Motion instead.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this tale William Shakespeare finds himself entangled in the affairs of the land of elves when his son is kidnapped by a young elf of that realm. The storyline itself was okay, but the characters spent too much time second guessing their motives and feelings, which made the story drag a bit.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine ending to the Shakespeare trilogy. I could see where the plot was leading pretty early on, but these books are more about the characters and the weight that their choices carry. Again Hoyt has proven herself to understand what makes people tick better than most other authors do.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a long time reading this one, Maybe should not have skipped book two, The ending is the best part. What else can I say?