Ill Met by Moonlight (Hardcover)

by Sarah A. Hoyt (Author) "An Elizabethan town of whitewashed wattle-and-daub buildings, nestled in the curve of the gentle-flowing Avon..." (more)
Key Phrases: translucent palace, keeping cupboard, flying fairies, John Shakespeare, Arden Forest, Henley Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It takes a lot of guts to write a novel about William Shakespeare, and Sarah A. Hoyt has what it takes. The deed inherently invites comparison, and of course Ill Met by Moonlight falls short of the work of the greatest writer in the English language. However, the prose is solid; the story lines are involving, tough-minded, and sexually charged; the characters are interesting and sympathetic; and echoes of Shakespeare's work ring through the novel. If you like good fantastic fiction, you will enjoy Hoyt's debut novel. If the idea of turning Shakespeare into a character in a book bothers you, or if you don't like fictional explanations of where a real person got his inspiration or ideas, then steer clear.

Young schoolteacher Will Shakespeare, struggling to support his new wife and baby daughter, is not entirely surprised to come home and discover they are missing. Believing his wife has returned to her family, he ventures into Arden Forest, heading for her village--and beholds a fine palace where no dwelling should be, with dancing lords and ladies of unearthly beauty, and his own dear wife dancing with them. He believes he is dreaming, until an impossibly beautiful young noblewoman steps forth to converse with him--and kiss him. The Dark Lady will help Will rescue his captive wife and child--if he will aid her in a soul-damning plot to kill the fairy king. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly
"To be or not to be?" This is a conundrum posed not by the immortal Bard of Avon but, in newcomer Hoyt's quirky novel, by Quicksilver, heir proper to the Elven Realms Above the Air and Beneath the Hills of Avalon. William Shakespeare, who has yet to begin his career as a playwright, suffers a terrible personal blow when Sylvanus, evil king of the Elven realm, kidnaps his new wife, Nan, and their baby, Susannah. The young Shakespeare vows to get them back, but just how he'll go about it he doesn't know. Enter Quicksilver, the elf who was tricked out of his inheritance by his brother, Sylvanus. In the form of the Dark Lady (Shakespeare's supposed muse), Quicksilver allies himself with Shakespeare to bring about the downfall of Sylvanus and return Nan and Susannah to Will. Much treachery, romance and elvish behavior follow. Hoyt's Will Shakespeare makes an engaging main character, and the book generally romps along as a straightforward fantasy. Numerous references to the plays and a number of direct quotations mixed in with the text add to the fun. In her epilogue, the author discusses her sources and makes a plausible case, given the meager evidence, for assuming that the playwright was happily married. This is a literate first novel with the promise of good things to come. (Oct. 9)Forecast: The Pre-Raphaelite blonde on the jacket scarcely fits the image of the Dark Lady, but she does serve to signal that this is a quality item with crossover appeal to Shakespeare fans.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1st edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441008607
• ISBN-13: 978-0441008605
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,925,990 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful tale worthy of the Bard, November 9, 2001

By A Customer

Take a story that has a poor man's wife and daughter kidnapped, the mysterious death of a monarch, the rightful heir passed over due to a physical abnormality, twist them and entwine them together, and you'd have a pretty good story. Now, make the poor man none other than a young William Shakespeare, living in Stratford prior to his ascension in London. The murdered monarchs turn out to be King Oberon and Queen Titania of the fairy people. The abnormality of the rightful heir Quicksilver turns out to be the ability to shape-shift between two aspects of himself, a quality that his brother Sylvanus exploits to become the king. Now mix up these elements and you'd swear that Sarah Hoyt had three witches stirring a brew and speaking cryptic riddles in her office when she wrote "Ill Met By Moonlight".

In this well crafted novel we meet young Will Shakespeare, before he went to London, and before he wrote his first play. Earning a meager wage as a teacher, he lives with his wife Anne and infant daughter Susannah in a small house on his father's lot. His simple life is broken apart when he returns home one night to find his family gone. In trying to locate them Will finds that Sylvanus has taken them to the fairy palace so Anne can be wet nurse for Sylvanus' daughter whose human mother has recently died. Quicksilver in turn discovers Will, and embroils him in a plot to regain his throne that forces Will to eventually fight the powerful magic of Sylvanus not only for his family, but for his life.

Hoyt's use of language not only provides the images of the places and participants, but also the feeling of the setting as it must have appeared during Shakespeare's life. She seamlessly blends the real world with that of fairy as Will moves between the two worlds to find his family, and discovers that there may be more for him in life than his role as a humble teacher. Working to stay true to what is known of Shakespeare's early life, she weaves a story full of court intrigue, mysterious deaths, and hidden motivations that introduce many character types that show up in various later plays by the as yet still mortal bard.

Written for readers of the twenty-first century, using characters and locations from the sixteenth, "Ill Met By Moonlight" is an excellent tale of heroism, conspiracy, and the search for justice. A story that would be worthy of stage presentation in five acts, if such were still being written today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOVEL PREMISE, MILDLY INTERESTING, January 26, 2004

By	Phillip B. Spotts "cintibookworm" (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is a bold endeavor using the best-known figure in English literature as your main foil in a light hearted fantasy concerning men and fairies. Ms. Hoyt has taken William Shakespeare as a very young newlywed and enveloped him in a plot that has the usurper fairy king kidnapping his wife and child, first as a wet nurse and then maybe as a wife. Coming to his unlikely aid is the rightful king, who just happens to be able to change from male to female, and in a tale of mismatched love and lust plots to retrieve Will's wife Nan.

An interesting premise and actually not a bad little story. Some may be put off by the use of such a famous persona in such a light fantasy but as it happens I'm not one of them. I'd be willing to bet the old Bard wouldn't care all that much either, anything for a good story I'm sure. The biggest problem I had with the whole thing is the rationalization of why Will's wife Nan was picked by the usurper Sylvanus to be his wife. She was a self admitted `old maid' and a bit of a shrew who married a much younger William out of, oh I don't know, desperation? Certainly if she were a raving beauty she would have been snapped up long before Will came along, regardless of any possible personality flaws. So why did a centuries old fairy, with all the beauty and power of his enchanted position precipitate his own ruin by kidnapping this rather ordinary human woman? Beats me, I can't figure it out. To be honest it is easier to accept the existence of fairies than this plot twist.

I will say one thing of Ms. Hoyt, she certainly knows Shakespeare's works, at least the more well know ones anyway. Inter-dispersed with almost every spoken line is a hint, and sometimes a bit more than a hint, of some famous quote from one of the Bards plays. It's actually interesting trying to place some of the more paraphrased ones with their original.

As a romance it's only fair and as a fantasy it's good. All in all I would RECOMMEND it. It garnered just enough interest from me to proceed onto the next one, from there we will see.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Met, March 12, 2003

By	Richard Wells (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ill Met by Moonlight (Paperback)

Sarah Hoyt has written a lovely fantasy that has the young Will Shakespeare saving his wife from the world of fairy, meeting his muse, and witnessing an internecine fairy conflict that will become grist for much of his future writing. She has also given us a literary guessing game as characters, quotes, and plots of the Bard's output come peeking around the corners of the story. Ariel is a dream. Her look into "fairyland" is often stunning in its invention. I particularly liked the use of dew drops as a sort of Elizabethan era DVD. There are points where the plot drags, but the book is short enough that we quickly move back along, and the excitement of fairy duels and life at court more than make up for any shortcomings. This book will do well in the hands of an adult, but should do exceptionally well with the "young mature" reader. Recommended.