Book Review: William Shakespeare's Star Wars

Alas poor Vader...

As the title suggest it is indeed a meeting of the Bard and the Jedi in this retelling of Star Wars, done in iambic pentameter. Thus we get soliloquies, asides and a chorus as we follow young Luke Skywalker and his adventures.

I'll give author Ian Doescher credit, his book is a fun combination of Shakespeare and Lucas that works better than it has a right to. Then again considering the elements present in Star Wars maybe not. After all doesn't Luke with his dead father haunting him bring Hamlet to mind? Not to mention C-3PO and R2-D2 standing in for Rosencrantz and Guilderstern. There is some problems here, mostly in taking a work dependent on be visuals and trying to make it work in this setting, that even the chorus asks the reader to go along with it but otherwise it's fun. Heck if someone can combine Jane Austen and George Romero why not?

The book also has some nice art done by Nicolas Delort that captured the idea well, from Luke doing Hamlet holding Yorik's skull-which in this case is replaced by a Stormtrooper helmet-to the droids and Darth Vader in Elizabethan times. All in all nice work.

The book will appeal most to Star Wars fans looking for something offbeat. Others might get a good chuckle out of it so give it a try. Rating:*** out of four.