In addition to the wampa, the AT-ATs and the space slug all get speaking lines, which is delightful.Īgain, there are prequel references, though far fewer than in the first book. What scruffy? Scruffy, how? Whose scruffiness? Thou fool-born wimpled roughhewn waste of flesh! Thou man of scruffy looks, thou who herd’st nerfs, Thou oversized child, thou friend of slime, The flowery language Doescher conjures can work to great effect: These tauntauns have an awful stench outside,ĭisgusting rot, and sick’ning filth till thisīy contrast, sometimes the opposite is true. For example, compare Han’s pithy (and perfectly executed) “I thought they smelled bad on the outside” with: Some lines work better with the brevity from the films. The shoehorning of existing dialogue into iambic pentameter works a little more unevenly here than it did in the first book. And it’s somewhat fitting that Yoda, our ancient Jedi master who is more than a bit zen, should speak in an ancient form of Japanese poetry. Doescher describes his thought process and rationale for this in the Afterword, which I highly recommend reading.įor the most part, this works remarkably well. To further separate Yoda’s speech from everyone else, he has Yoda speak in haiku. I was curious to see how the actual character of Yoda would speak.Īs it turns out, this is also something that occurred to Doescher (obviously). One of the minor issues I have with these books is that, after a while, all of the characters begin to sound like Yoda with unconventional grammar and word order. Though with great force this young one’s face I slam, And he’s the third character to speak in the entire book.
Speaking of the wampa, he actually gets a speaking role here. Again, this feels like something Shakespeare could have actually written…if his imagination had conjured up wampa snow creatures and diminutive green warriors. The entire story is retold in iambic pentameter (with one notable exception) and has a genuine Shakespearean feel to it. Ian Doescher continues to do what he did so well the first time around. So how does The Empire Striketh Back compare? Quite well, thank you very much. The second film in the trilogy is beloved by most and usually regarded as the best Star Wars movie ever made (and one of the finest examples of adventure science fiction on film in general). William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Backįollowing on the success of the first adaptation- William Shakespeare’s Star Wars-we are treated to the inevitable adaption of The Empire Strikes Back.
0 kommentar(er)
