Too, Too Solid Flesh is acyberpunkmurder mystery novel byNick O'Donohoe. It was published byTSR in 1989.
In a dystopian future,Capek the roboticist builds a troupe of androids specifically to performHamlet. When he is murdered, thePrince Hamlet android decides to investigate.
Dragon commended O'Donohoe's portrayal of the "characters [as] true both to their theatrical roles and their larger personalities", stating that the novel was "among the most thoughtful examinations of roles androle-playing", but noted that readers unfamiliar withShakespeare may be confused.[1]Io9 included it on a list of "coolest Shakespeare riffs in science fiction and fantasy".[2] Shakespearean scholar Todd Borlik compared it toPhilip K. Dick'sDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, with "a genuine philosophical intelligence belied by itspulp fiction exterior", lauding O'Donohoe for having "ingeniously retool(ed)"Hamlet in order to "exalt thepost-human"; Borlik also noted the dramatic irony ofHoratio being a human pretending to be an android who had infiltrated a troupe of androids pretending to be humans, and then being unable topass.[3]