{"id":15261,"date":"2026-05-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=15261"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:16:20","slug":"may-the-fourth-be-with-you-back-to-william-shakespeare-star-wars-by-ian-doescher-fiction-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=15261","title":{"rendered":"May the Fourth be with you! Back to William Shakespeare Star Wars, by Ian Doescher (fiction book review)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Large<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Favorite holiday for that “galaxy far, far away” is today, so I celebrate the reissued books of Ian Doescher’s mashup series, retelling Star Wars tales in William Shakespeare’s style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommended the original editions over a decade ago, beginning with William Shakespeare\u2019s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope<\/em>, the story that started it all, completely and lovingly rendered in epic Shakespearean verse: https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3298<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next was The Empire Striketh Back (Star Wars: Part the Fifth)<\/em> which I introduced with several original verses in iambic pentameter; here we meet Yoda who speaks in haiku: https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3307<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding out the series based on the original movie trilogy is The Jedi Doth Return (Star Wars Part the Sixth)<\/em>, which I recommended here with a bit more verse: https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=4219<\/a>; it even has a book trailer https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DVp5XZEang4<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doescher thought that the original trilogy was the end of his collaboration with masters Shakespeare and Lucas, but nay, good friends, the saga continueth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommended William Shakespeare\u2019s The Phantom of Menace (Star Wars, Part the First)<\/em> here https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5811<\/a> again penning my own iambic pentameter plot summary, but missed out on The Clone Army Attacketh (Star Wars, Part the Second)<\/em> and Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge (Star Wars, Part the Third)<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past the original trilogy are William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh<\/em>, Jedi the Last: Star Wars Part the Eighth<\/em>, and The Merry Rise of Skywalker: Star Wars Part the Ninth<\/em> (newer titles, different subtitle format…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly all were out of print until Insight Editions began reissuing the series last year; find the whole list at https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/authors\/Ian-Doescher\/232868011<\/a> including new works featuring the Mandalorian and Ashoka (publishing Sept. 2026). <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Darth<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Look for them all at your local library https:\/\/search.worldcat.org\/libraries<\/a> or independent bookstore https:\/\/bookshop.org\/<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is your favorite Star Wars episode?
**kmm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(thanks again to Abdo Publishing for this photo op and their long-time support of Texas readers, librarians, and the Texas Library Association)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Favorite holiday for that “galaxy far, far away” is today, so I celebrate the reissued books of Ian Doescher’s mashup series, retelling Star Wars tales in William Shakespeare’s style. I recommended the original editions over a decade ago, beginning with William Shakespeare\u2019s Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, the story that started it all, completely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,19,68,62],"tags":[90,22,7,75,11,45,5,16,18,44,49,31,67,93,12,15,198,57,342,35,33,6,8,28,59,61],"class_list":["post-15261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fiction","category-future","category-science-fiction","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-brothers","tag-communication","tag-competition","tag-coping","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-memories","tag-non-us-author","tag-outer-space","tag-poetry","tag-refugees","tag-relationships","tag-retelling","tag-sisters","tag-space","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-travel","tag-us-author","tag-villains","tag-war","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15261"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15291,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15261\/revisions\/15291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}