When she was little, the stars were always a source of delight and wonder. Now they seemed punishing. Worst of all was the black between the stars. This negation of light. This void of nothingness seemed eager to see her destroyed, to wipe her utterly from existence.
The above quote is one of the best from Steven L. Peck’s new novel: The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the La Sals. It sheds light on one of his better characters, Ellie, a young person struggling to survive the devastating aftermath of an old patriarch’s reign. From BCC Press, Peck’s story is a futuristic adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This new version takes place in Utah’s haunting La Sal mountains following a climate catastrophe. The resulting plot is a rustic mix of sci-fi, family drama, and lyrical romance.
King Lear is one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, centering around an aging patriarch who divides his kingdom among his three daughters. Loyal friends and cunning foes position themselves to fill the power gap as the king’s mental stability fails. Having read the play and seen two world-class productions on video, I am convinced when King Lear is done well, it is as good as Shakespeare gets. [1]
I recommend Peck’s adaption as a work of science fiction, less so as a Shakespeare adaptation. Peck trims all the fat off of Shakespeare’s play, but he also trims off some of the meat. He does so to make room for showy prose and elaborate sci-fi elements: genetically-engineered animals; an increasingly self-aware battle droid named Kent; and a near-future Earth where drastic climate change has occurred. He also employs a daemon narrator who frames the story in the grand cosmos of Joseph Smith’s Restoration scripture. In some respects, the novel feels like The Book of Abraham meets Blade Runner.
Peck’s sci-fi elements are fascinating and well-thought-out, reading frighteningly plausible. Plus, as an accomplished scientist and novelist, he’s a bona fide talent, not some untested indie author mooching prestige off a classic. Though the cast of characters feels two-dimensional compared to Shakespeare’s, their story remains gripping and full of spectacle. This is a common trade-off in sci-fi. In one of the best moments, being an instance when both character and theme shine, Leere’s youngest child Delia delivers a powerful speech on the sacredness of the La Sal mountains. Her environmental evangelism sets up a clash with the king which sends the plot careening toward tragedy.
Peck also makes interesting changes to gender and sexual orientation for key characters. Let’s just say this story takes place in a future where “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” must have had some substantial rewrites. Ultimately, Peck makes a compelling case for the relevance of Kings Lear & Leere to contemporary Mormon readers. Through a troubled patriarch, we witness the will of a father swallowed up in the wills of his children. [2]
I’d love to nitpick Peck’s changes to Shakespeare’s play, in particular his choice to have Leere speak in an atrocious, intentionally corrupted form of blank verse. Don’t let that scare you away though. Most of the characters speak normal, and some of the speechifying is as riveting as the Bard’s original. Part of the fun of updating Shakespeare is tinkering with the dramatic DNA, generating new life and meaning from old material. Peck clearly has fun adapting the original. As with Lear, Leere’s tragic story also comes with passion and humor.
Bottom line: you don’t need to be a Shakespeare aficionado to enjoy this book. It’s an exciting, brisk-paced tale. Thematically, with regard to our planet and our patriarchy, the novel is quite thought-provoking. Head to Amazon to read a free sample. The Tragedy of King Leere, Goatherd of the La Sals is available in both paperback and Kindle eBook formats.
Questions for Discussion:
Have you or will you read this book? If so, what are your thoughts on the novel?
What Shakespeare plays do you feel have particular relevance for Mormons? Why?
[1] To refresh my memory, last week I rented King Lear, produced in 2015 by the Stratford Festival and filmed in HD before a live audience. It stars Colm Feore, who is as good a Shakespeare leading man as I’ve ever seen. There are many other versions available on and offline, starring the likes of James Earl Jones, Ian McKellen, and Anthony Hopkins. Everybody wants to play Lear.
[2] As opposed to the Book of Mormon, specifically Mosiah 15:7.
Wheat & Tares 
“Peck also makes interesting changes to gender and sexual orientation for key characters.”
I appreciate the warning. Piers Anthony explores alien reproductive behaviors in “Cluster” including a situation where three sexes, not just two, are required for reproduction. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15473.Cluster “Flint, green-skin carver from Outerworld, saves tribe from Old Snout dinosaur. The Empire forces his high Kirlian aura into alien bodies – wheeled Polarian, slave to insectoid Canopian, tri-sex Spica water world, on dragon to court emulating Elizabeth I. From Andromeda, conquerors bent on destroying the galaxy, follows equally brilliant enemy assassin – female.”
A quick look at the review and write up for the book, plus the post, leaves me with the following story. Evil, climate change denying, right wing, patriarchy, destroys world. Pair of gender fluid “girls” or lesbians, kind of hard to tell, are the only ones that know what to do to usher in a new world, where robots take over and save the dying earth. And the narrator is a demon. (that part sounds kind of cool)
Going to go for a Pass on this one for now.
Demon narrators are cool, but lesbians (or whatever they are) saving the world…No way. If one must attack the patriarchy, at least let it be done by hot, straight women.
Whatever one’s beliefs may be about sexuality, it would be a misrepresentation of both Lear and Leere to reduce them to only a discussion of sexual orientation. The stories are much more about generational tension than who wants to sleep with who. In the case of Leere, I think the author is presenting a plausible future where LGBTQ people don’t have to be in the closet, where they can marry, and have been allowed to marry for some time. Seems a reasonable vision of the future, whether any given person or sect can stomach imagining it in the present day.
Regardless, the characters’ sexual orientations aren’t what drives the plot. They are a relevant part of the larger cultural, technological, and climatic picture of the novel. The Tragedy of King Leere presents a multi-faceted vision of our planet’s future. Kind of like how any given Star Trek episode is about a lot more than Captain Kirk’s sexual appetite. Kind of like how the Old Testament is about a lot more than its range of sexual encounters. And if I chose to appraise either of those works solely on the basis of their sexual content, I’d be missing alot, actually most, of the bigger picture.
Not a fan of Shakespearean adaptations generally. There was a pretty good one years ago with Patrick Stewart playing “King” Lear, a Texas rancher who wanted to leave his ranch to his three daughters. One reason I’m not a fan of adaptations in this case is because I think the original has so much to offer the Mormon perspective. The original play is about many things, of course, but one issue that’s front and center is the meaning/meaninglessness of ritual and the instability of cultural mores. Regan and Goneril perform their love, rendering it theatrical and shallow, much like a lot of the piety theater one observes at church. The play forces us to confront the terrifying possibility of a world without meaning or stability; human voices in the play constantly cry out to the gods or nature only to be answered either by silence or other human voices. Stephen Greenblatt wrote a great essay about this titled “Shakespeare and the Exorcists”. Highly recommended if one is interested in either the play generally or its questions about the possibility of a world without divine influence in particular.
Just to clarify—I was being sarcastic..