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lillygabriella's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
4.5
This is an interesting adaptation in the style of Shakespeare. The language, verse and rhythm sound true to the inspiration while maintaining the meaning of the original film dialogue. A warning to Star Wars purists, this does contain the scenes Lucas added in his versions which had the additional effects. I had a good deal of enjoyment imagining how it could be performed live on stage. I look forward to the next volume.
topdragon's review against another edition
5.0
Bravo to the author of this clever work, Ian Doescher. I am no Shakespearean scholar (despite having actually read the complete works of the bard) , but to write the story of Star Wars, A New Hope, in the style of Shakespeare is an awesome concept.
3,076 lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter verse, broken into 5 Acts, results in an accurate re-telling of the Star Wars story. At first glance, one might think this to be a quirky comedy of a book. But nay! 'Tis a serious work and should be studied in classrooms across this great nation. It was fun to read the characters' lines and visualize a stage play production. But even more fun were the asides. R2-D2 beeps and whirrs through his dialogue but in an aside we get to see what he is really thinking.
For me it would be torture to convert to verse but for this author, it was obviously a labor of love. I very much enjoyed reading this book and look forward to [b:William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back|18283020|William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back|Ian Doescher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391050004s/18283020.jpg|25756794].
3,076 lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter verse, broken into 5 Acts, results in an accurate re-telling of the Star Wars story. At first glance, one might think this to be a quirky comedy of a book. But nay! 'Tis a serious work and should be studied in classrooms across this great nation. It was fun to read the characters' lines and visualize a stage play production. But even more fun were the asides. R2-D2 beeps and whirrs through his dialogue but in an aside we get to see what he is really thinking.
For me it would be torture to convert to verse but for this author, it was obviously a labor of love. I very much enjoyed reading this book and look forward to [b:William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back|18283020|William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back|Ian Doescher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391050004s/18283020.jpg|25756794].
thomasr417's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lesserjoke's review against another edition
3.0
This book is built around a cute idea, but once you get past that basic gimmick of retelling the first Star Wars movie in iambic pentameter -- "In time so long ago begins our play / In star-crossed galaxy far, far away" and so on -- there aren't a whole lot of particularly original spins on the material. Debut author Ian Doescher presents the familiar script as a stageplay in faux-Elizabethan English (to mixed effect for some of the more cinematic moments reduced to exposition from a chorus), and although he includes plenty of nods at real Shakespeare lines, they generally come across as mere word-replacement reference humor rather than anything especially clever, a la Luke's declaiming at the Rebel briefing, "And citizens in Bespin now abed, / shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here." The scansion of the meter works throughout, but the expected sort of sparkling figurative language, the wry and raunchy wordplay that makes the Bard's work so engaging, is fairly sparse.
I think my favorite part of this text would be the audience asides that the writer has added in, including a few Puckish soliloquies in which R2-D2 breaks from his accustomed beeps and bloops to share his thoughts about his companions with us plainly. And it is the same great story as ever, presented in an admittedly fun new fashion. But overall, this strikes me as an experiment which doesn't entirely succeed and ultimately overstays its welcome. I don't feel I need to check out any of the franchise sequel and prequel versions (or unrelated titles like Get Thee Back to the Future or Much Ado about Mean Girls) that Doescher has subsequently produced.
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
I think my favorite part of this text would be the audience asides that the writer has added in, including a few Puckish soliloquies in which R2-D2 breaks from his accustomed beeps and bloops to share his thoughts about his companions with us plainly. And it is the same great story as ever, presented in an admittedly fun new fashion. But overall, this strikes me as an experiment which doesn't entirely succeed and ultimately overstays its welcome. I don't feel I need to check out any of the franchise sequel and prequel versions (or unrelated titles like Get Thee Back to the Future or Much Ado about Mean Girls) that Doescher has subsequently produced.
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
epearly's review against another edition
5.0
If you love Star Wars and if you're at all familiar with Shakespeare, read this book. I couldn't stop smiling the whole way through! R2-D2 has soliloquies, for heaven's sake. What more could you want?
estanceveyrac's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing work. I laughed so hard, people started at me in the subway...
This is a wonderous work, layered, rich, intricate, with many many references, both to Shakespeare & Star Wars.
I kept thinking about a stage adaption & it would work, this isn't a Paul Claudel play, which sounds crazy because who in the world did Doescher turn a spaceships battle into a scence that can be played onto a theater stage & make sense.
Also what kept crossing my mind was how amazing it would be to have a french transalation, which poses obvious problems : we don't have iambic pentameters & the best Shakespeare translation hop from being true to the form & being true to the text, which leads to parts respecting a rythmic form & rhyming while others are just text without any structure.
So adapting it in French, while keeping true to the form is inherently problematic & transposing the many many many reference would be a task for the very patients, if not a very worthy adventure...
This is a wonderous work, layered, rich, intricate, with many many references, both to Shakespeare & Star Wars.
I kept thinking about a stage adaption & it would work, this isn't a Paul Claudel play, which sounds crazy because who in the world did Doescher turn a spaceships battle into a scence that can be played onto a theater stage & make sense.
Also what kept crossing my mind was how amazing it would be to have a french transalation, which poses obvious problems : we don't have iambic pentameters & the best Shakespeare translation hop from being true to the form & being true to the text, which leads to parts respecting a rythmic form & rhyming while others are just text without any structure.
So adapting it in French, while keeping true to the form is inherently problematic & transposing the many many many reference would be a task for the very patients, if not a very worthy adventure...
e0706's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
broprahwinfree222's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
alex_wordweaver's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Wonderful books in a wonderful series. Love reading them out loud with my wife.
oz617's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t like Star Wars, and I don’t like Shakespeare, but I absolutely loved this script! It’s so full of heart, and the blending of archaic modern English with science fiction terms works brilliantly. Actually, the language adds to the concept of Star Wars having happened long ago, even when riddled with modern pop culture references (I laughed out loud at a Star Trek quote). The asides really added to the story, showcasing characters’ internal beliefs, hopes, and fears. Emphasis on the hopes. Those tied the dialogue to the title and the themes brilliantly. I especially loved R2-D2’s iambic pentameter beeps – especially with the later reveal that he could speak English the whole time, but chose to hide that for his own purposes.
My one, painfully nerdy, criticism is that I’d have liked to see some Shakespearean class consciousness in the text. Everyone speaks iambic pentameter in this script, perfectly hitting the rhythms of that every time. It’s skilfully done, but Shakespeare’s characters spoke in plain prose when they were of lower class, and I’d be interested in a version of this text where there was some attention given to the place of farmers, droids, and soldiers within the social fabric of Star Wars.
My one, painfully nerdy, criticism is that I’d have liked to see some Shakespearean class consciousness in the text. Everyone speaks iambic pentameter in this script, perfectly hitting the rhythms of that every time. It’s skilfully done, but Shakespeare’s characters spoke in plain prose when they were of lower class, and I’d be interested in a version of this text where there was some attention given to the place of farmers, droids, and soldiers within the social fabric of Star Wars.