Review: ‘William Shakespeare’s Star Wars’

July 2, 2013 at 5:00 am | Posted in Books, Disney, Movies, Reviews, Star Wars, Star Wars Books, Star Wars News | 2 Comments
Tags: ian doescher, william shakespeare, william shakespeare's star wars

Today marks the release date of a rather unique Star Wars book- William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, by Ian Doescher. The book is an adaptation of A New Hope as if written by William Shakespeare, and contains all of the language, poetry, and gratuitious monologues that anyone can expect from a work of Shakespeare’s. Though there are a few bumps along the road, the book is overall quite solid and a fun read. Our full review is below.

Who’d have imagined a Star Wars book containing monologues and asides from R2-D2? Or the use of a Chorus as a narrator? These were among the wonderful little gems in this book, as it truly was a fun read. I am a big fan of Shakespeare, and this felt very similar to his work. Eerily so. It lacks some of the depth behind Shakespeare’s dialogue, but it makes up for it with interesting adaptations of the memorable lines in the original movie. The line “O’ help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, thou art my only hope” particularly struck out to me as iconic. Also, the use of iambic pentameter, the stylized Dramatis Personae, etc, made this feel quite authentic.

The use of monologues in this adaptation is also interesting, and sheds some light on the POV of the characters not quite shown before. For example, reading asides and long ramblings from R2-D2 was especially entertaining and enlightening. It was nice to see R2-D2’s thoughts and motives, especially since most of those aren’t exactly shown in the films. I also found that the POVs of other characters like Uncle Owen were also illuminating, as it detailed Owen’s thoughts about Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Jedi lifestyle, etc.

My only complaint out of the entire book was the use of pictures. It seemed very juvenile and a cheap way to draw younger readers in, which is fine, only that the drawings, I feel, detract from the interesting and fun read that is this book. But beyond that, I was literally happy with everything. William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is quite an easy read, surely can be done with one sitting. It’s fast, it’s interesting, it’s positively Shakespearean. At times I truly felt that I was reading a Shakespeare play, and with the stage directions and the way the book was set up I completely envisioned Star Wars as a play. And that’d certainly be interesting, I’d love for that to happen. Ian Doescher does a good job at adapting A New Hope into William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, and I’d like to see him adapt the next two films in the franchise. Especially with the great last line of this book, which I won’t spoil for you. But it is a little treat!

I award William Shakespeare’s Star Wars 4 out of 5 metal bikinis.

Posted By: Ryan for Roqoo Depot