While nothing can ever beat '10 Things I hate About You' for Best 'The Tempest' adaptation, a sci-fi retelling has a pretty good shot, I think. The novel plays into the theatrical aspect of the source material and provides absurdist elements found in many works by The Bard. That said, I did feel some emotional distance to the novel and its characters.

Well, it’s exactly what it says on the tin. It is, if nothing else, a Tempest adaptation. An old man with powers raises his daughter on an island alongside the island’s “less-civilized” (the characters’ words, not mine) sole inhabitant: Kalivas. A ship bearing the old man’s former enemies wrecks on the island, throwing what had been a near-utopic stasis into flux. There’s a wedding at the end.

Usually I love a Shakespeare adaptation. But usually, there are enough different things happening with the narrative to make it engaging, even when I know how the story will end. I hated Macbeth by Jo Nesbø, but it was interesting to see how he would incorporate the witches, the hallucinations, and the walking wood into a gritty, cop drama setting. Kalivas retains so much of the original that, even with sci-fi flourishes, I was sorta bored. I kept waiting for Kalivas to break script and do something to regain his agency or for Miranda to do something unexpected against her father. The final chapter does deliver something entirely different (and it’s the best part), but the fallout from it is only loosely alluded to in the four-act play that serves as a quasi-epilogue.

What I would have loved was a hard lean into the sci-fi elements, with maybe some commentary on the original text’s colonizing overtones, rather than such a closely hewn adaptation. What sci-fi we do see — the mainlanders’ body modifications, Kalivas’ mother’s inventions, the nanobots and drones — is really exciting. Instead we have a 36-year-old main character lusting after the only woman he’s ever met (chronologically probably 13) and stock characters whom I don’t have reason to root for.

WILD. Absolutely, gob-smackingly delightfully WILD. Our Caliban, in this Tempest, is the only human left in a world populated by post-humans—beings physically enhanced by technologies which seem to have dispensed with their empathy and fellow-feeling, leaving them as buffoonish as any lower-caste comedic relief Shakespeare ever dreamt up. Timely, funny, mind-bending. A psychedelically spiraling romp; an absolute treat.

Told through the perspective of a reimagined Caliban named Kalivas, Kalivas is a sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Which, I know, if you're a high school Shakespeare survivor like me that doesn't sound appealing at all. But I really enjoyed this re-telling and it made me interested in re-visiting The Tempest.

Kalivas, who is now the only true human left after a societal collapse, is a servant to a court of mechanically enhanced individuals (known as "posthumans") and struggles with his loneliness, his enslavement to "The Master", and his infatuation with The Master's posthuman daughter M--a reimagined Miranda.

I really enjoyed that this version was through the eyes of Kalivas, as Caliban is one of the more fascinating parts of the original play. Rather than a story about revenge it becomes a thoughtful character study about the last true human struggling with his place in the world. The writing was fantastic and I'm interested in picking up anything else author Nick Mamatas has written.

We get a neat sci-fi future take on the Tempest, where the last man on earth is now our Caliban, and the future that is coming to replace is are our Miranda and Prospero. This was a solid read where we get a man slowly falling apart while the new world struggles to be formed. Also appreciate the turn it takes into play format at the end. Pick this up and enjoy the ride.

I truly appreciate the chance to read “Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest,“ though I’m sorry to say I wasn’t able to finish the story and therefore can’t offer a full review. What I have read is imbued with clever storytelling, wit, wry humor, linguistic elegance, and a thrilling modernization of a classic play—this time featuring a “posthuman” being or two.

That said, the pacing makes it hard to keep the mind glued to the page. Each rise in tension is followed too quickly by a fall. And while the prose is expertly crafted, it reflects its dramatic roots a bit too much, flattening characters and actions to fit a very specific mold. Still, it’s a work I hope to return to in the future with a mind more attuned to its nuance—hence my rating.