Too, Too Solid Flesh is a cyberpunk murder mystery by Nick O'Donohoe. It was published by TSR in 1989.
In a dystopian future, Capek the roboticist builds a troupe of androids specifically to perform Hamlet . When he is murdered, the Prince 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 and role-playing", but noted that readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare 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 to Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep , with "a genuine philosophical intelligence belied by its pulp fiction exterior", lauding O'Donohoe for having "ingeniously retool(ed)" Hamlet in order to "exalt the post-human"; Borlik also noted the dramatic irony of Horatio being a human pretending to be an android who had infiltrated a troupe of androids pretending to be humans, and then being unable to pass. [3]