William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily a New Hope

By Ian Doescher

Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. ‘Tis a tale told by fretful Droids, full of faithful Wookies and fearsome Stormtroopers, signifying…pretty much everything.

Reimagined in glorious iambic pentameter, William Shakespeare’s Star Wars will astound and edify Rebels and Imperials alike. Zounds! This is the book you’re looking for.

This is geek love. Shakespeare meets Star Wars, holy mackerel. I was laughing just reading the title. I brought this home and read the first act out loud to my family, including my nieces and nephews and we all had a blast. My Nephews went home quoting this book. The best part is, not only was it a laugh, it was truly artistic in how Mr. Doescher presented it. It was a legit Shakespeare experience! I was shocked how I went from amused to really liking it as a form of literature. I thought it would be a satire and poking fun at both Shakespeare and Star Wars, but dude this was pretty fantastic. Who knew that two such opposite things would mesh so well? Well done Mr. Doescher, well, done indeed.

I give it a 3.75 out of 5

The Winter's Tale

By William Shakespeare

The Winter’s Tale doesn’t have a summary as such, so I’ll just review and summarize here. This is the story of two kings, friends until one king accuses the other of cheating with his wife. Chaos ensues, the accused king escapes, the queen goes on trial and dies from grief. The King is devastated by his wife’s death. The worst part is she was pregnant and delivered a baby before she died, and the king wanted the baby abandoned because he thought it was his friend’s child. After the death of the queen it is shown that the queen was faithful and the king’s paranoia has destroyed his family, and possibly his kingdom. The rest of the play is about how things work out for the best and how love wins out and sacrifice is rewarded. I’d like to see it one day. While it has similar themes as some of his other plays, it has a maturity and depth to it that some of the others don’t display, and also a lot more hope than his other tragedies.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Peter Pan

By J.M. Barrie

Considered a masterpiece since its first appearance on stage in 1904, Peter Pan is J.M. Barrie’s most famous work and the greatest of all children’s stories. While it is a wonderful fantasy for the young, Peter Pan, particularly in the novel form Barrie published in 1911, says something important to all of us. Here “the boy who wouldn’t grow up” and his adventures with Wendy and the lost boys in the Neverland evoke a deep emotional response as they give form to our feelings about parents, boys and girls, the unknown, freedom, and responsibility. Humorous, satiric, filled with suspenseful cliff-hangers and bittersweet truths, Peter Pan works an indisputable magic on readers of all ages, making it a true classic of imaginative literature.


This book has been on my 'to read' list for years, and finally I got to it, and was a little disappointed. I never really liked the disney movie much, but as a kid loved Sandy Duncan as Peter Pan and watched it all the time. Sadly, I have never seen the actual play in person, and liked the live-action version with Jeremy Sumpter well enough. Peter Pan has always been touchy with me, but I did laugh every time in this book when Peter declares, "Ah, the cleverness of me!" He's quite the arrogant little bloke. I suppose I was thinking it wouldn't be quite so wordy, being a children's sort of play, but it was quite wordy at times and I looked forward to the dialogue. It was fun to read and brought me some pleasure in reading, but I want to look for the play version to read now and see what differences in feeling there are. Peter Pan will always be a classic adventure, and it's worth a gander, even if you've seen every adaptation there is under the sun!