Ink and Steel: A Novel of the Promethean Age
Bear has done her homework for the setting of this delightful little piece of politicking that begins when Cristofer Marley, better known as Kit Marlowe, turns up stabbed through the eye and branded a traitor. Complications arise when he wakes up in Faerie and is pressed into the service of another queen. A group including Burbage and Oxford brings Will Shakespeare in to replace Marley, and while Will labors for Gloriana, Kit serves the Fae court. Both endeavor to live, love, and do their duty. There is a war to be fought with words both in and outside of the mortal realm. Bear takes a period that is famously a maze of intrigue and treachery, adds more of each to the mix, and comes up with a fine story that even a mere mortal may follow. Her take on the apparent inconsistencies in the lives of  Marlowe and Shakespeare is certainly no less far-fetched than some that purport to be scholarly. A damn fine reimagining of history and legend. --Regina Schroeder