William Shakespeare meets 'Star Wars'

Han Solo, Han Solo, wherefore art thou Han Solo?

He's in a galaxy far, far away from the one imagined by George Lucas. Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and all the other residents of the Empire gang can now be found in "William Shakespeare's Star Wars," author Ian Doescher's mashup of the Bard and Lucas. Doescher -- who "has loved Shakespeare since eighth grade and was born 45 days after 'Star Wars Episode IV' was released," according to cover notes -- really had to help the characters brush up on their Shakespeare, since they all speak in iambic pentameter for the book's 174 pages.

Dialogue runs the gamut, from the truly Shakespeare-inspired ("Alas, poor storm trooper, I knew ye not, yet I have ta'en both uniform and life from thee) to the truly bizarre (a typical R2-D2 line: "Beep beep, beep, beep, meep, squeak, beep, beep, beep, whee!").

The Bard-inspired "Star Wars" is the brainchild of Quirk Books, the folks who gave us "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" and "Android Karenina." As Shakespeare would say, you might think, this be madness, yet there is a method in 't.