Brandon's Reviews > William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope

That William Shakespeare sure wrote a lot of plays, eh? Unfortunately for us, he had to go and die some three hundred and fifty years before George Lucas created Star Wars – talk about your bad timing! Luckily, author Ian Doescher has studied the immortal work of the Bard and has rewritten the classic sci-fi script in iambic pentameter.

I received a free copy from the fine folks at Quirk Books in exchange for an honest review.

Sure, you could look at this book as a joke but the truth is, Doescher puts an interesting spin on the events that unfurled a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Not only has he reworded several of the great quotable lines to fit within the language of Shakespeare’s era but he’s also added several asides creating additional insight into each character’s motivations and thoughts.

It should be worth mentioning that artwork is also inserted depicting characters re-imagined in outfits befitting of a Shakespeare play. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Jaba the Hut draped in Elizabethan garb.



I had a great time reading this book but I felt it worked best in small doses. I couldn't read more than a few scenes in one sitting. This isn't exactly a knock at the book per se, just my own preference in terms of taking in the material.

"I pray thee, sir, forgive me for the mess / And whether I shot first, I’ll not confess!"