Shakespeare's best. Way ahead of its time. ( )

Over-the-top silly and just plain awesome! ( )

Hilarious. Hi-lar-i-ous.

I think anyone who loves Star Wars and/or Shakespeare will get an immense kick out of this book. There are dozens of highlighted passages all over my book(/Kindle) and notes attached to them. It's wonderful getting to see the author makes asides with knowledge we know having seen Episodes 1-6 as a populace.

We can see where Beru and Obi-Won are both coming from with so much more drastic clarity, as well as asides from Vadar that reference his entire life. We can cringe and giggle at the whole of Leia and Luke, and every little reference to the word "sister."

Not to mention that the whole thing has taken quoted pieces from all over Shakespeare's plays and dovetailed them together, so that you're laughing at Star Wars, but also flailing happily about a line from Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth, Twelfth Night, and on and on. I'm definitely going to advise this for anyone who loves these ideas.

As is necessary as an English Master and a geek, I'm going to give you two ratings, the way I do when these two intersection.



As a Star Wars --> Shakespeare book
I'd rate it: Perfect Five Stars


As a Shakespeare Play --> Star Wars
I'd rate it a 3.9 Stars (It drags a little in Act IV-V for Shakespeare's liking) ( )

Clever clever. I had so much fun with this-the author wrote it all in iambic pentameter, here and there borrowing from Shakespeare's plays.(Luke started one speech with a nod to Julius Caesar, and by the end had moved on to Henry V). When C-3PO thinks he hasn't turned off the trash compactor soon enough to save Luke and co., he says "A plague on 3PO for action slow, a plague upon my quest that led us here, a plague on both our circuit boards, I say!"

Hee hee.

For people who know the movie by heart, or have at least seen it a few times, the famous lines are still recognizable in their Shakespearean form, often to hilarious effect- When Luke comes to rescue Leia, she says, "Thou truly art in jest. Art thou not small of stature, if thou art a stormtrooper?" The book is filled with gems like this.

The author also came up with some swell plays on words of his own, like Luke's response when Han tells him he won't be fighting in the last big battle-"Then take thou care now, Han, thou Solo act, For certain 'tis the part thou best dost play."

But my favorite thing that Doescher did was to cast R2D2 as the wise fool, making asides to the audience in perfectly good English, while beeping and whirring to everyone else. That R2D2's a sassy bloke.

Very entertaining.


( )

Fantastic! I must say, though, when Ian gets it right, it's when he stayed closest to the original.

Things I liked:
- R2's color commentary in glorious iambic pentameter
- the asides: that first fateful meeting between ObiWan and Luke, the thought Han, the snarky Tarkan...
Things I hated:
- Han shot first. Period. The End.
- Why was it necessary to bring Jabba to the Millennium Falcon on Tatooine?
- Luke's "Friends, rebels, starfighters, lend me your ears" speech ( )