Customer Reviews

Star Wars - The Power of Myth

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This book is besides a nice Star wars picture gallery alsoasplendid popular analysis of the Star Wars myths and legends. Theepisodes and various elements of the movies are compared with episodes in world history, the bible and Greek mythology ect. Luke Skywalker is paralleled with Wilhelm Tell, King Arthur and so on. Lukes companions and enemies and dominating themes as his relationship towards his father Darth Vader, treason, self-sacrifice and heroic deeds are compared with well-known existing myths and legends. World historical events is also clearly felt in the spacefighting (Second World War - Battle of Britain) and the pod racing in Episode One (Ancient Rome - Ben Hur in Circus Maximus). The Jedi-philosophy has many element from the Zenbudhism and the Imperial Storm Troopers are in many ways like medieval armoured knights. The book is nicely illustrated with lots of pictures from the movies. It will appeal strongly to children from 12 years and every Star wars-fan up 99 years. Star wars. The power of Myth will be a great help in guiding you through the rather complicated personal relationships and myths in the Star Wars universe of the four movies. Rasmus of 14 said to me: "Now I suddenly realize how everything works in the four movies and how they are linked together." I can clearly recommend this book to every Star wars-fan.

This thin, colorful book is a trifle formula, yet despite this it reads itself very well (i.e., hard to put down). Its streamlined, "pure protein" format also make it a likely candidate for multiple, enjoyable perusals...

It's brief, it's light reading, and it's fun...

As Roger Ebert rightly observes, a large part of the SW appeal is its visual richness. The book captures and conveys this well: nicely choreographed presentations of lovely color illustrations illuminated by succinct descriptions of mythological parallels.

It is well-known that George Lucas wisely modelled his universe on the work of Joseph Campbell, (note title). The recurrent mythological themes in SW are sufficiently presented to make this book a nice gift for anyone interested in either subject, child or adult.

Recommended.

The great thing about this book it that it's fun to read. It has a lot of pics about legends that are somehow similar to the events depicted on Star Wars. If you are a fan of the Star Wars films, or just a fan of mithology, you will love this book.

It's a great gift for children who are beginning to read, and are somehow familiar with Star Wars.

This is a first rate introduction for younger readers to the structure of heroic stories.

Taking examples from the Arthurian legends, Aeneas, Norse legends, Greek mythology, and other traditional sources and comparing them to the Star Wars epic, this book lays out the framework of the heroic journey. OK, so it's not a scholarly study of mythic literature, but it is an excellent primer for younger (10-14) readers, using both classical sources and a popular contemporary source to describe literary patterns in a fashion that won't put them to sleep.

Try to make an 11 yr old read Chaffinch or Edith Hamilton's Mythology and things will start with eye-rolls and groans. Tell them the have to read a book about Star Wars, and they'll be so confused that you're making them read about a movie that the educational aspects will slip right past their conscious minds and into their brains before they realize that you put one over on them.

The pictures are good, but make the pages a little busy, but given that they show King Arthur with pre-1000 BCE style arms and armor rather than sixteenth century armor, I think I can forgive the author's excesses.

E. M. Van Court

I found the book useful teaching tool for introducing children (ages 3-11) to the characters and their mythic roles in the Star Wars saga. The book has great illustrations which correlate visually the similarity between historical and legendary heroes from history and myth. It helps draw the parallels between myth/history/and contemporary popular fiction.

I used this book in a class called "The Heroic Journey" - this provided my students with an excellent, simple yet useful set of concepts to begin to understand how they can apply Joseph Campbell's discussion of The Hero to the Star Wars trilogy. I was grateful to find something so simple, visually appealing, and well-structured that I could easily adapt to interactive lesson plans.