William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope (Book Review)

As with the last book review this is posted in full on http://thefoundingfields.com/ and this is simply a preview. If you want to see it in full then please follow the link through to there.

You know, when you put your mind to it this actually makes a kind of sense. For all it’s been analysed over the years as being a fantasy story in space, Expanded Universe excluded, Star Wars shares a good number of elements with Shakespearean tropes. It features figures of magic manipulating characters and assisting a hero, tragic, fallen figures who succumbed to their own vices, political intrigue, war and a saga which stretches generations. One where a son must battle a father who failed in his mission and brought doom to those he sought to protect. Ian Doescher really struck gold with this idea as it manages to largely work.

The overall story is well known enough to skip, so let me instead focus upon the book’s gimmick of being written in the style of Shakespeare. The characters speak in the exact manner you’d imagine they would and details such as events are delivered via chorus, especially during many of the more vehicle focused moments.

Naturally, being written in script format and with all the ye olde England language you can imagine, reading from cover to cover is extremely difficult. However, this is where the advantage of adapting Star Wars works so well in its favour. The films are extremely well known, through pop culture if not repeated viewings and many moments have become extremely iconic. As such you can pick up the book and flip to whatever page you want, and be amused at seeing the familiar redone in a new style. For example, Tarkin reacting to Leia lying about the Rebellion’s location: