{"id":3298,"date":"2014-04-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3298"},"modified":"2026-05-01T15:49:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:49:54","slug":"s-is-william-shakespeares-star-wars-by-ian-doescher-book-review-yea-verily-a-new-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3298","title":{"rendered":"S is William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, by Ian Doescher (book review) – yea, Verily a New Hope!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>In a galaxy far, far away…
\nIn iambic pentameter<\/a>,
\nHark! William Shakespeare’s Star Wars <\/em> is nigh!<\/p>\n

When Ian Doescher’s love of the original Star Wars movie<\/a> collided with Shakespeare’s plays performed in new arrangements and Quirk Books’ celebrated mashups like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<\/em> (a personal fave), he began this trilogy.<\/p>\n

As Luke mourns the death of his mentor, Princess Leia observes “His heart breaks for a person, Obi-Wan — My heart breaks for a people, Alderaan…”<\/p>\n

If Star Wars is your thing, you’ll definitely enjoy this 400-year throwback with its familiar plot; if Shakespearean style is your preference, you’ll have too much fun reading the famous film in this format.<\/p>\n

Thou must view the book trailer<\/a> – verily, a worthy way to celebrate the Bard’s birthday<\/a> tomorrow!<\/p>\n

**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0 William Shakespeare’s\u00a0 Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope \/ Ian Doescher. Inspired by the work of George Lucas and William Shakespeare. Quirk Books, 2013; Insight Editions. 2025. [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site https:\/\/www.simonandschuster.com\/books\/William-Shakespeares-Star-Wars-Verily-A-New-Hope-PBK-Reissue\/Ian-Doescher\/9798337401287<\/a>]\u00a0 [book trailer<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: “Friends, rebels, starfighters, lend me your ears,” declaims Luke Skywalker as the rebellion begins its campaign against the Death Star.<\/p>\n

Yes, this is the Star Wars story which started them all, retold in iambic pentameter as W. Shakespeare would have staged it!<\/p>\n

The chorus sets the scene on Tatooine or in space, R2-D2’s asides give us insight into the plucky little droid’s character, and Chewbacca says “Auuggh!” as well he ought.<\/p>\n

Already knowing the plot and details of this story allows readers unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s poetic play style to experience its rhythms and pacing with ease.<\/p>\n

First in Doescher’s well-played series, Verily, a New Hope<\/em>\u00a0 is followed by The Empire Striketh Back<\/em>\u00a0 (Star Wars Part the Fifth), with the final volume of the trilogy, The Jedi Doth Return<\/em>, scheduled for July 2014 publication.<\/p>\n

As says Obi-Wan’s ghost, “Remember me, O Luke, remember me, And ever shall the Force remain with thee!”\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a galaxy far, far away… In iambic pentameter, Hark! William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is nigh! When Ian Doescher’s love of the original Star Wars movie collided with Shakespeare’s plays performed in new arrangements and Quirk Books’ celebrated mashups like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (a personal fave), he began this trilogy. As Luke mourns […]<\/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_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,62],"tags":[10,90,22,7,11,20,5,37,16,18,44,71,49,31,67,12,15,198,21,66,35,33,190,58,3,6,8,28,59],"class_list":["post-3298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-science-fiction","tag-a2z","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-kidnapping","tag-memories","tag-non-us-author","tag-outer-space","tag-refugees","tag-relationships","tag-retelling","tag-self-image","tag-series","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-tbr2013","tag-technology","tag-teens","tag-travel","tag-us-author","tag-villains","tag-war"],"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\/3298","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=3298"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15260,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3298\/revisions\/15260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}