{"id":5811,"date":"2015-05-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5811"},"modified":"2015-04-25T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T17:51:01","slug":"william-shakespeares-the-phantom-of-menace-by-ian-doertcher-book-review-may-the-force-be-with-thee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=5811","title":{"rendered":"William Shakespeare’s The Phantom of Menace, by Ian Doertcher (book review) – May the Force be with thee!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>Knights Jedi guard while evil Sith draw near,
\nOut in that “galaxy – far, far away.”
\nAs beings fight for homeworld held so dear
\nCan heroes rise ‘gainst Federation’s sway?<\/p>\n

Villains squeeze the planet of Naboo,
\nWhose patriots do try, do fight, do die.
\nWhen Gungan Jar-Jar<\/a> offers his aid, too,
\nQueen Amidala finds a strong ally.<\/p>\n

Seek out this so-readable retelling of Star Wars: Episode On<\/em>e at your local library<\/a> or independent bookstore<\/a> – ’twas published mere weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Why speak just now of this most-worthy tome,
\nWhy note it not upon its natal day?
\nMark well today’s harmonious date, kind one,
\nAnd may the Force be with us all, I pray!
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

post scriptum – Verily I say, forthcoming and much-anticipated are part two The Clone Army Attacketh<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 in July 2015 and part three Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 in September 2015.<\/p>\n

post-post scriptum – Mine thoughts on earlier-released parts of this series? Look ye here: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 (part 4), The Empire Striketh Back<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 (part 5), and The Jedi Doth Return<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 (part 6).<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: William Shakespeare’s The Phantom of Menace (Star Wars, Part the First) \/ Ian Doescher. Quirk Books, 2015. \u00a0 [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: In the very style of Shakespeare comes this peril-laden tale of Star Wars’ early days as The Phantom of Menace<\/em>\u00a0 relays the fall of the Republic, the rise of Anakin, and much swordplay, speeder racing, and treachery.<\/p>\n

R2-D2’s bleeps and boops become clear through the droid’s asides, and finally, Jar-Jar Binks’ pidgin and pratfalls are nearly tolerable, as Doescher reveals Jar-Jar’s hidden political agenda of uniting Naboo’s humans and Gungans, using trenchant inner dialogue:<\/p>\n

“Such thoughts as these were reprehensible
\nTo all the bosses; thus my banishment.
\nYet this is not the story I’ll relate.
\n[to Obi-Wan:]<\/em> O issa longa tale you seeuh” (p. 31)<\/p>\n

The young queen’s masquerade as her own maid, the fortuitious finding of Anakin Skywalker and arguments among the Jedi about training him (Yoda speaks in haiku), romance cut short, and enemies growing stronger – it’s all here.<\/p>\n

While awaiting the newest Star Wars movie, refresh your memories of the history leading to it – The Phantom of Menace<\/em>\u00a0 will soon be followed by The Clone Army Attacketh<\/em>\u00a0 (part 2) and Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge<\/em>\u00a0 (part 3), while William Shakespeare’s Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0 (part 4), The Empire Striketh Back<\/em>\u00a0 (part 5), and The Jedi Doth Return<\/em>\u00a0 (part 6) are available now.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knights Jedi guard while evil Sith draw near, Out in that “galaxy – far, far away.” As beings fight for homeworld held so dear Can heroes rise ‘gainst Federation’s sway? Villains squeeze the planet of Naboo, Whose patriots do try, do fight, do die. When Gungan Jar-Jar offers his aid, too, Queen Amidala finds a […]<\/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":[69,19,30,62],"tags":[90,22,7,4,11,20,70,37,16,32,18,40,43,39,49,184,31,67,15,21,66,35,33,58,3,6,8,28,59],"class_list":["post-5811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fiction","category-legends","category-science-fiction","tag-abandonment","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-belonging","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-england","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-memories","tag-mothers","tag-non-us-author","tag-outer-space","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-series","tag-surprises","tag-survival","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\/5811","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=5811"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5834,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5811\/revisions\/5834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}