This project, mashing up Star Wars and Shakespeare, was ambitious in the extreme. When I first heard about it, I raised a skeptical eyebrow. It seemed a stretch, a literary trick which surely wouldn’t come off. With the third book finished, I stand happily corrected. Doescher has taken a beloved piece of 20th-century pop culture, mixed it with 400-year-old pop culture, and created something so wonderfully accessible that even my pre-school son begged me to read it to him. This series is complex, literate, and great fun. Can we get this guy a laurel wreath or something?

In his Afterword, Doescher mentions that Jedi is his favorite of the original trilogy, and it shows. The writing and character adaptation here are far and away the best of the bunch. The flow and rhythm of the language moves seamlessly from start to finish, reminiscent of the very best of Shakespeare’s work. In Verily, A New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back, for as much as I loved them, there were times when things seemed just a bit off, like a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit. In Jedi, however, the author strikes the right balance between his two sources and truly ends this work on a high note.

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I listened to the Audible version of this book, and wish now that I'd listened to the first two in the trilogy instead of reading them myself. They are SO MUCH BETTER when performed. (I'd stayed away from the first two audio books because I generally dislike audio books with multiple narrators. However, for a play, it just makes sense to listen to it this way.) It is also great that Lucasfilm was involved with producing the audio books, and so the voices used for the characters feel right, and the music playing in the background is the real movie music. I think I will go back and pick up the other two audio books in this series at some point for the full experience.

Ian Doescher finishes his brilliant Shakespeare/Star Wars mash-up trilogy on a high. By this point, it's difficult to know what to say in a review, because everything that was good about the first two books is also present here in The Jedi Doth Return. Both the Shakespearean dialogue and the Star Wars immersion are top-drawer, and the grin that I had on my face in anticipation of this final book only widened upon actually reading it.

I particularly enjoyed Doescher's additions to the original story - the lament of the rancor keeper, the numerous eloquent asides and monologues and, also, the return of the two genre-savvy guards to lampshade the Emperor's plan. There are, as in the previous books, numerous references to Shakespeare's plays: I particularly enjoyed the subtle reference to Birnam Wood and Dunsinane from Macbeth on page 113. But there are also a fair few Star Wars in-jokes for knowing fans; for example, on page 58 Luke calls on the ghost of Obi-Wan to explain why he did not tell him Darth Vader was his father. In an aside, and in a winking reference to the much-maligned Star Wars prequels, Obi-Wan says:

OBI-WAN
[aside:] I never did imagine that, in death,
I would be call'd upon to justify
The words I spoke in life. 'Twas well I spoke
Not of the midi-chlorians to Luke,
For then he would have endless questions still.

It is this sense of humour (note the book's dedication at the start) and sheer enjoyment which comes through in Doescher's writing which makes it such a delight to read. Of course, it helps that Doescher has a poet's mind (the wordplay and juxtaposition is quite ingenious, particularly the pray/prey on page 85 and the repeated use of the word 'move' on page 91) and a strong appreciation of storytelling. In his afterword, he rightly points out that parts of the original Star Wars trilogy are "masterful film moments, and utterly Shakespearean." (pg. 163). Above all else - the humour, the eloquence, the sheer enjoyment - I think that the thing of greatest value I'll take from Doescher's trilogy is just that: the similarities between Shakespeare and Star Wars and, really, most of the stories we tell each other. These books have given me a greater appreciation of the tropes that all good stories share, and allows me to view Shakespeare in particular in a different light.

Because it is the final book, Doescher also takes the opportunity to provide a few mischievous little teasers as to what is up next (for him, or for the Star Wars franchise?). I for one sincerely hope that Doescher writes again. It wouldn't even have to be a Shakespeare mash-up because, as I said above, he is a strong storyteller and has a poet's mind. The books in his trilogy are genuinely great works and perhaps don't even deserve to be labelled as 'mash-ups', since they are so much better than anything else in that genre. Like the original Star Wars films, Doescher's books are so good you will lament that there are only three of them.

LEIA
New hope did guide our first adventures, aye,
Until the Empire harshly struck us back,
But then our noble Jedi hath return'd
And all ensur'd our victory was won.
LUKE
We stop, e'en as our epic play doth end,
To thank thee for thy gracious company.
Our star wars now are ended, for a time -
The song of peace bursts forth in perfect rhyme. ( )

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The Jedi Doth Return Series: William Shakespeare's Star Wars Author: Ian Doescher Rating: of 5 Battle Axes Genre: SFF Minutes: 215 Format: Audio book Synopsis: No summary, why bother? I know this story beyond what I care about. My Thoughts: I ended up listening to half of this while working at the office the other weekend. And that was a problem. I knew this story, so I didn't feel it necessary to actually listen to this and hence I would simply zone out and miss huge chunks of the story. Which was ok since I knew the story. But if this had been another book, it would have been a complete failure and I would have missed so much that nothing would have made sense. It did make me realize that I can only listen to audiobooks while driving to and from work. " ( )

A good ending to the trilogy. Bit quicker and more succinct than the previous two, and with the over use of alien languages it flows quicker. ( )