Breaking Book News: Ian Doescher's 'The Force Doth Awaken' to hit bookstores this October

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(C) 2017 Quirk Books and Lucasfilm Ltd.
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars fans, prepare yourselves. The verse will be with you this fall when Quirk Books publishes Ian Doescher’s highly anticipated William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh.

As fans of Doescher’s Shakespeare-meets-Lucas mashups are no doubt aware, the Portland (Oregon) based author became nearly an overnight sensation four years ago when Quirk Books released William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, a retelling of 1977’s Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope in the style of a play by the Bard of Avon himself. Doescher took George Lucas’s screenplay and rewrote it as a five-act work for the stage, complete with soliloquies, asides, and even a narration by an all-seeing, all-knowing Chorus – presented in glorious iambic pentameter.


This unlikely little volume earned rave reviews and became a fan favorite. It was followed up in 2014 by William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back, Star Wars Part the Fifth and William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return, Star Wars Part the Sixth. A year later, Doescher tackled the Prequel Trilogy with The Phantom of Menace, The Clone Army Attacketh, and The Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge. Again, Quirk Books and Doescher won many accolades from critics and readers alike, and the books sold rather well.

Naturally, when Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens became a blockbuster hit at the box office between December 2015 and Spring 2016, Shakespeare lovers and Star Wars buffs alike began to wonder – will Episode VII get the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars treatment?

Now, I don’t know Ian Doescher personally, but he and I are both authors with pages at Goodreads. And happily, he’s one of those writers who pops in every now and then to answer questions.

As it happens, last year around this time I decided to go to the “Ask Ian Doescher” page on Goodreads and posted this question:

Alex Diaz-Granados asked Ian Doescher:

Have you started working on a "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" version of "The Force Awakens" yet?

And to my surprise, he replied!

Ian Doescher I'm not yet certain whether The Force Awakens will be happening, but I'm hopeful!

Mind you, I bet that he probably was working on a rough draft of the seventh book in the series, but had to be reticent until Disney-owned Lucasfilm gave Doescher and Quirk Books the go-ahead.

So…I was browsing in Amazon, looking for affordable 40th Anniversary of Star Wars merchandise when it occurred to me to search for William Shakespeare’s Star Wars in the Books department. I already own the first six books in the series, but I hoped that Lucasfilm had finally given permission to Doescher and Quirk Books to publish their version of The Force Awakens.

Zounds! The first result was the product page for the upcoming William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh!

Experience The Force Awakens as a Shakespeare play, complete with Elizabethan verse, Shakespearian monologues, and theatrical stage directions! As the noble Resistance clashes with the vile First Order, Rey, Finn, Poe Damaron, Kylo Ren, and BB-8 are pulled into a galaxy-wide drama—in iambic pentameter! Star Wars fans and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike will enjoy the authentic meter, reimagined movie scenes and dialogue, and hidden Easter eggs throughout. Chewbacca speaks! Leader Snoke gives a soliloquy! And the romance of Han Solo and Leia Organa takes a tragic turn that Shakespeare would approve of. All with woodcut-style illustrations that place Star Wars characters into an Elizabethan galaxy. The story may take place in a galaxy far, far away, but you’ll be convinced it was written by the Bard. – From the Quirk Books official website.

Per Quirk Books, William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken will be published on October 3.

Sources:

https://www.goodreads.com/questions/771989-have-you-started-working-on-a-william

http://www.quirkbooks.com/book/william-shakespeares-force-doth-awaken#

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