Book Review: Hamlet, Prince of Robots by M. Darusha Wehm

The best thing about Shakespeare is that you can endlessly redefine the stories. Romeo & Juliet works as well set in NYC to a musical score as it does set in fair Verona. The Tempest is just as good whether the action takes place on an island or an alien planet. Shakespeare can be set in any number of high-schools without dampening its power.

And so, Hamlet is now HAM(let) - Humanoid Artificial Mind (learned emotive type) - with V1 being the dead king and V2 our titular Danish Prince.

Rather than a wholesale retelling, M. Darusha Wehm sticks rigidly to the original plot. The new story is faithfully recreated scene by scene - with the Cybernetics corporation of Elsinor plagued by the death of its flagship robot and the CEO shacking up with his murderer. It isn't overly subtle in its exposition or tropes - but neither was the original.

It has a lovely spin on the usual turgid cliches about what it is to be human

It was the overwhelming thought that had consumed him of late—could a human feel what he felt. The depth of pain, the totality of loss. Surely if humans had to contend with emotions of this magnitude, they would cease to function.

The poetry of the original is still there but (alas and alack) no rhyming couplets! It is an excellent update and had me smiling throughout.