A Midsummer Night's Steampunk

by Scott E. Tarbet

When a priceless invention is stolen half a world away, four unlikely adventurers are caught up in an international intrigue that could cost them their lives. Only Pauline Spiegel, a gifted young engineer and artificer, possesses the knowledge to maximize the weapon’s potential. With the help of the man she loves, the soldier she is supposed to marry, and her best friend, she must see its schematics to safety. Their only a gauntlet of asylum inmates long on “modifications” and short on conscience, who will stop at nothing to deliver both Pauline and the plans to Kaiser Bill. At Pauline’s side fight a ragtag group of semi-mechanical veterans, and an army of jewel-encrusted micro-mechs who have swarmed London to retrieve the device with the power to control the world.

Immerse yourself in this Steampunk retelling of a Shakespearean classic, replete with the newfound wizardry of alternative Victorian technology, mistaken identities, love triangles, and deadly peril, set against the backdrop of a world bracing itself for war, and Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

Genres: Steampunk, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Retellings, Ebooks

390 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 13, 2013

About the author

Scott Tarbet is the author of a growing library of published novels and short stories. He writes in several speculative fiction genres, including technothriller, steampunk, fantasy, and paranormal. He sings opera professionally, and was married in full Elizabethan regalia. He loves Steampunk waltzes, cosplay conventions of all flavors, and slow-smokes thousands of pounds of authentic Texas-style BBQ. An avid skier, hiker, golfer, and tandem kayaker, he makes his home in the mountains of Utah.

Follow Scott E. Tarbet online at http://scotttarbet.timp.net/ or on Twitter @SETarbet

Reviews

[Eric Mesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always tough when people redo Shakespeare. Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it's just horrible. I absolutely loved the way Scott Tarbet resets a Midsummer Night's Dream in a Steampunk Victorian England. He was able to use Steampunk to handle the existence of fairies in the original and he uses wordplay to deal with stuff like the ass. It was only the love potion that had to resort to hand-waving to work with the story. I didn't mind it too much.

I think the only thing that gets a LITTLE tiresome is the constant references to how if they didn't get everyone to cooperate we'd have world war 1 and 2. Having already learned about 15 years ago that all the heads of state were related, it was fun to see the author have a lot of fun with that.

Although it matches with my memory of the original, I do like that both the men and women take turns in the spotlight and all can hold their own. Sometimes the men rescue the women and sometimes the women rescue the men.

I think it's extra fun with all the Easter Eggs you come across if you know Shakespeare (particularly more than just Midsummer Night's Dream), but you don't have to know the original to enjoy this one - I think that's part of what makes it so successful a remake.

The post-script on the book (from the author and the publisher) make it seem as though this is perhaps his first book. I'd say I can't wait to see Mr Target tackle an original story, but he makes this book his own (as I mentioned above) in such a way as to lead me to say, I can't wait to read his next book; whether it takes place in a Steampunk work or not.

[Penny]

As editor of this book, I decline to review it in order to reflect the most accurate, unbiased rating as possible. We want to show what readers think! However, we think this Steampunk action/adventure will appeal to lovers of that and other fantasy genres, and delight those who can never get enough of the Bard.

[Janene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A midsummer night's dream is not something I would usually read but Steampunked by Scott Tarbet made it an excellent read. I was laughing out loud and saying things like oh no. I think my family may have thought I had lost it. A great book.

[Bekah Shambrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read the full review for A Midsummer Night's Steampunk, visit Adofaer & Arkhdrauth after the 26th February 2014.

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I thoroughly enjoyed A Midsummer Night's Steampunk, Tarbet references 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' wonderfully while giving this novel it's own exciting twists. If you're expecting a copy of Shakespeare's play with the odd Steampunk reference, think again. This book is an onslaught of stunning Steampunk imagery, you will meet  mechanized men who have been ostracized by society, beautiful micromech 'Friends' and colossal megamechs! You will see the wonder of magical automatons and the excitement of Victorian London in this alternative world.

Tarbet really brings the characters to life, mechanising men isn't considered normal in this Steampunk universe, these men are veterans of war who were experimented on. Society is scared of them and quite understandably so. You get all of the characters of Shakespeare's play, plus some shocking extras, with truly marvelous twists.

I'm not a very... political person. Although this book is full of political references and characters I'm afraid I can't really comment on those because, quite honestly, they aren't the aspects of the book that I tend to focus on. Despite this, there are some significant political differences in this universe and they did strike me as interesting.

I loved this book, however, I do wish the chapters were shorter. Each chapter was about a twenty minute read and I do prefer shorter chapters.

A Midsummer Night's Steampunk is a marvelous mixture of Shakespeare's play and the Steampunk theme, Tarbet brought this world to life, breathing life into his mechs. The subplots are fascinating and, in all, this book was a delight to read.

[D.w. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Steampunk genre is not set inane particular order. No set rule where all must be English, of Victorian heritage, though in this case we have that as guides with Victoria's Diamond Jubilee as a backdrop for us to add color.

Further we find that the tale of Shakespeare, with our players within the play putting on Pyramus and Thisbe as we found in the Shakespeare title that this story derives from quickly encompassing us. This is a clever device and we meet several of our heroes immediately and quickly integrate the Steampunk flavor of our Victorian world.

I don't want to give away the plot, though it parallels that of the original play, as well as its unique and creative spin of its own. So much so that those of the Steampunk Genre will I believe like it very much. That Tarbet has used a device that I first thought of the old Six Million Dollar Man, carried to extremes, bit not in the way that there was only one Steve Austen, but several and not superheroes. And then further had a very difficult time visualizing how these meldings of man and machine truly worked, I put behind me to enjoy the story. When one of Histories greatest Personalities came and became integral to the adventure it fit right in and enhanced the story. So that all became very enjoyable.

The only improvement I would ever see to suggest is that the ending of the novel came long after the ending of the story. Victoria makes her appearance which i equate to an old ball I used to attend to recreate the same period of Victoria's reign. A person dressed as Victoria came, long after all the fun had been had. We see the famous play of Pyramus and Thisbe in the end, but we have seen our heroes rewarded already and all has been resolved. In some genres we might expect this, and less so complete in Steampunk. But in the world of Tarbet, there are still adventures that can brew, and mysteries that will need to be solved. All, a very satisfactory tale with enough detail to entrance.

[Catnip2u · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespearean play so it was fun to compare characters and plot in this book to the play and to look forward with anticipation to how he would incorporate all the different elements. I loved how everything wove together but wasn't too predictable.
Mr. Tarbet has a wonderful way of developing and describing characters and scenes that really got my imagination flying.
I look forward to reading more from Mr Tarbet.
This is a great stand alone book. You don't have to know or understand Shakespeare or Steampunk to enjoy this fanciful tale.
This is the type of book that I hated to see end.

[Rie Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream with a Steampunk flair. One of my favorite plays, I had to read the book. And it did not disappoint. If you are familiar with the play, the main plot is all there, the characters are there, but they are given Victorian twists that turn them into fresh entities. I don't want to spoil the pleasure and wonder of reading it for the first time, so I won't go into details. But I HIGHLY recommend it. :)

[Victoria Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Since I am also a huge fan of fairies and all things magical, I was a little skeptical about the change I heard was made . . . then I read the book. IT IS AWESOME! I loved the weaving of steampunk into the story. I don't want to give it away for those who haven't read, but you will be amazed at how beautiful and whimsical this tale is while adding some extremely cool elements of the steampunk variety.

[InD'tale Magazine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5.0

A fast paced adventure that plays out in a mere twenty-four hours!

Read full review in the 2014 May issue of InD’tale Magazine.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun, exciting and witty book! If you love Steampunk, you'll love this!

[Gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over the summer and enjoyed it very much. I was not familiar with this genre, but it is now a favorite.

[Emilou · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play, so when I found a Steampunk retelling of the tale, I couldn't say no to buying the book.

However, I was deeply disappointed in what I found. A Midsummer Night's Dream is whimsical, magical and funny, and Tarbet removed all of that in this book except for the lines and scenes which he took almost word for word from the play.

Don't get me wrong; Tarbet is an excellent writer. I found the story to be intelligent, inventive and amazing at times. All the aspects of it involving steampunk inventions, the mechs, what he did with Lakshmi, all of that was good. His characters were engaging, and I loved that he set it at a certain time in history, especially having Churchill in it.

But I felt that not only did this story cheapen Shakespeare, but it also cheapened Tarbet's own writing. This story would have been a whole much better if he had ditched Shakespeare and written an original story. Okay, maybe have a little influence from Shakespeare, but there were so many word for word quotes that didn't match up to the situation and characters, that I almost wanted to abandon this book to read the original. I mainly felt that the roles of Pauline and Clemmie didn't match that of Hermia and Helena. The scene where Alex and Churchill are fighting over Clemmie and Pauline gets really mad, that especially made me cringe. I felt that Pauline and Clemmie were intelligent, rational women who wouldn't act so childishly, which is different than the Shakespeare play that involved teenage girls.

My biggest issue was Tarbet's rendition of Puck - a classic trickster - was reduced to a flat, cliche mech servant. Puck is the highlight of the play, the true star. "What fools these mortals be." The excitement that I got watching this play on the stage didn't appear for this book.

To conclude, I feel that Tarbet fell drastically short on my expectations on this book.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is charming! I would easily recommend it to any Shakespearean lover. I have never read a steampunk novel before, so I found the flavor of steam mechanics and Victorian society incredibly enjoyable. I love that Mr. Tarbet used real historical characters to fill the roles of Shakespeare’s main players. Now that I feel like I know Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Jack the Ripper, I have a hunger to research them even more. (Learning ambiguously is one of my favorite things about reading fiction.) I also appreciate the clean content of this book. I will definitely be reading more from Mr. Tarbet in the future and am glad to have found his book.

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this is a fun retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream set in a steampunk world full of airships, mechanical men, and other marvels. Historical figures Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill and Jack the Ripper are characters. I liked the poetry that appears throughout. I read the second edition, which according to the afterword, is quite a bit different from the first edition. The redemption of one of the villains at the end felt too sudden and out-of-character to me, also the death of another one of the villains was a bit too gruesome, but overall, this is a delightful book.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Shakespeare, retellings, and steampunk, so I expected to love this book. But the slow start and the characters that didn't catch my attention made me give up.

[Jemima Pett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream revisioned as a steampunk tale? You must be kidding.

Scott E. Tarbet has woven a superb, pacy and atmospheric Midsummer Night’s Dream with the mechanicals as half-machines, thanks to the care and refitting, initially of injured soldiers, with limbs and tools appropriate to their trade. We are in Victorian London, celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The steam age is in full swing, airships and dirigibles fill the skies (and moor at the London Air Terminus at Victoria, of course); there are steam barges and mighty ships that cross the North Sea carrying royal family from the continent, especially the Queen’s grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm, who has abandoned the wise advice of his mother and turned to more Teutonic ideas of glory, aiming to dominate the world. His hidden mission is to make use of the mechanicals or ‘mechs’ that the evil Doctor Oberon has been experimenting on, making them killing machines rather than tradesmen. His estranged wife, equally talented, turns her skills to micromechs and megamechs for the ease of society and the aim of furthering democracy. And in the middle of it all are talented Artificers, who might help Robin Starveling, the weaver-mech, who keeps slipping stitches, and who hold the secret of an amazing automaton that could be the saviour of mankind – in the right hands. In Dr Oberon’s, it could cause disaster.

It’s a wonderful romp that brings in army lieutenant Winston Churchill, who can’t decide whether to do his duty and wed the young Artificer to whom he has been promised since birth, or to go with his first love, Clementine Hozier. A few other famous names turn up in this amazing romp, weaving Shakespearian plot through a steampunk world. And all’s well that ends well, with the Mechanicals performing Pyramus and Thisbe for the Queen after all the threads have been untangled and the world set at peace.

It’s been forty years since I read, saw or performed Midsummer Night’s Dream (I was a singing fairy in the Viking Youth Theatre Group’s production) and the twists in the plot were at once familiar and new, so I can’t tell where Mr Shakespeare stops and Mr Tarbet takes over. But I got to the end with the finale between Pyramus and Thisbe and found words I’ve known for so long I didn’t know I remembered them.

It’s a delightful book, highly recommended to steampunk and Shakespeare story fans (but not purists!) and absolutely perfect for these few days between the Longest Day and Midsummer itself!

[Mervi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stand-alone alternate history steampunk clearly inspired by the Shakespeare play in the title.

A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk is pretty much what the title says: A Midsummer Night’s Dream recast in Steampunk. The story begins with a group of mechanics; men who have lost body parts in wars and those parts have been replaced with mechanical parts. Even though they now serve their country and fellow citizens very diligently, they are shunned by all other people. Our six heroic mechanics have decided to perform a play to the Queen in honor of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Sadly, some of the mechanics require repairs before the Queen can fully enjoy “Pyramus and Thisbe” and they don’t want to return to the malicious care of the man who built them: Doctor Oberon Malieux. So, they head up to the Queen’s Artificer, Pauline Spiegel. The mechanics, Pauline, and her friends becomes embroiled with a plot to overthrow Britain.

Of course the retelling needs two pairs of star crossed lovers. They are Pauline Spiegel, a humble artificer, and her intended, Alexander MacIntyre who is a lowly clerk in the British Royal Household and Pauline’s friend Clemmie Hozier and her intended, certain young Lieutenant with the name of Winston Churchill. However, Pauline’s and Winston’s mothers were best friends and promised that their kids would be married to each other and to Winston duty becomes before love. Clemmie isn’t thrilled and Pauline is adamant that she wants Alex.

The villain of the story is Oberon Malieux, a brilliant doctor who has built the mechanized men from wounded soldiers from the Zulu War. However, lately has also built mechs from the criminally insane and uses them as his private army. He want power and wealth for himself and doesn’t care whom he hurts in the process. He also requires the expertize of his estranged wife, Lakshmi Malieux, who is an expert in eye surgery and has created small, insect like mechanoids. But she doesn’t want to help him; in fact she wants to stop him.

The book has lots of steampunk elements and very clever use of mechanical objects and people. It’s set in a Britain which is on the brink of war but that doesn’t darken the mood of the story. It uses quite a lot of real historical people with twists. The political scene is also somewhat different from the real politics around that time. I greatly enjoyed them and the characters, too.

The story is fast-paced, almost breathlessly fast and great, light-hearted fun. It also has lots of references to various Shakespeare plays.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had a soft spot for the works of William Shakespeare for years. While the prose isn't always the easiest for me to get through, I've found myself intrigued not only by his stories, but the way his works have lasted through the centuries. And, of course, with stories that have been around for so long, I'm especially interested in ways they are adapted, keeping the themes of the original plays in new works. This is what led me to A Midsummer Night's Steampunk by Scott E. Tarbet, a re-telling of my favorite Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a steampunk twist in Victorian England. I had high hopes for this book and wasn't disappointed!

The story begins as a swarm of micromechs (sentient, mechanized insects) descend upon London in search of a stolen automaton at the command of Dr. Lakshmi Malieux. The automaton, full of mysterious power and named Jubal, was created as a gift for Queen Victoria on the celebration of her Diamond Jubilee and stolen by the nefarious Dr. Oberon Malieux, Lakshmi's ex-husband, in the hopes of harnessing its power. We meet Pauline Spiegel, a gifted young artificer, as well as her friend Clementine Hozier and their respective loves, Alexander MacIntyre and Winston Churchill (yes, the same one). We are also introduced to a band of mechs (mechanized men) who are planning to put on a play for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in hopes of earning the trust and respect of the public, many of whom hold prejudices toward them. From here the stage is set for the classic story of A Midsummer Night's Dream to unfold while the protagonists race to thwart the sinister Dr. Malieux's plans for world domination.

What I really enjoyed about A Midsummer Night's Steampunk was how seamlessly Tarbet integrated historical elements with the story as it unfolded. From the inclusion of historical figures (including Jack the Ripper!) to events that actually unfolded, I found myself reading up on the historical backstory of the characters in the book more than once as I was reading it. Beyond that, Tarbet did a great job adapting the classic A Midsummer Night's Dream to the steampunk genre - many of the elements from Shakespeare's classic comedy are present and fit well within the reality he created. The story was captivating, the characters were compelling, and the conclusion was more than satisfactory - I'd happily recommend this book to both fans of Shakespeare and steampunk, as well as anyone who enjoys an exciting, well-crafted story!

[Nicholas Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favorite Shakespeare comedy mixed with the creative ingenuity of Steampunk... what could go wrong?

I met Scott E. Tarbet through mutual friends at LTUE 2018. I was immediately intrigued by the concept of Steampunk Shakespeare, and I have to admit, his hat made me smile.

After getting the signed paperback copy home, it went into the TBR stack awaiting its turn. The day finally came when I cracked the binding with eager anticipation and started chapter one. "Okay," I thought, "it starts kinda slow, but it's rooted in Shakespeare, so it'll get better."

This process went on for a few days, and I couldn't get into the story enough to continue. Sorry, Mr. Tarbet. It's not my cup of steaming tea.

What I liked:
I greatly enjoyed the mechanical versions of Quince, Bottom, Snug, etc. I liked the descriptions of old London and finding familiar characters and settings retold to line up with the author's vision.

What I didn't like:
I had a hard time feeling invested in the plot. Perhaps I was expecting more Shakespeare and less Steampunk.

Steampunk has never been my most favorite genre, but I guess I'm less of a fan than I thought.

I gave A Midsummer Night's Steampunk two stars only because it just wasn't for me. But I sincerely hope true Steampunk fans give it a go and thoroughly enjoy it.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, rollicking adventure tale that went by very quickly! It's definitely an interesting take on the Steampunk Victorian age, one I haven't encountered before. It's got great and engaging characters - female and male alike - although the protagonist herself seems more like a macguffin than the originator or driver of any actions.

[Arlene Arredondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Praise Scott Tarbet!
Genuinely masters the combination of two genres, which I though would be a disaster, but I really enjoyed every part of this tale. And found a few moral concepts that makes this relevant to young adults.
Note: I received a digital copy for an honest opinion.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

More gaslamp than steampunk. Usually retellings of Shakespeare make me happy, but this one just didn't do it for me. Probably an excellent book for someone else, just not my favorite thing.

[tivasyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

посереднє пригодницьке стімпанкове чтиво для підлітків. трієчка.

[Scott]

As the author, I will refrain from giving it a star rating.