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Star Wars Legends: Novels
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Storybook
The further adventures of Luke Skywalker and his friends in their continuing battle against Darth Vader and the evil side of the Force.
58 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 5, 2025
1980. Excellent telling of the story. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
January 15, 2012
I recently rediscovered this slice of my childhood in a used book store. I will unashamedly admit that I felt the same rush of geeky excitement flipping through this photo book as I did when I was six years old. It's a little bit of heaven from my golden age...a time before we could simply slot a movie into a VCR, never mind modern DVD players. Something to cherish.
August 15, 2020
Easter eggs: text features the wampa-invasion subplot cut from the final film, and the scripted carbon-freeze dialogue (“I’ll be back”) instead of the lines revised on set (“I know”).
May 8, 2026
I'm slipping. I went all the way through Star Wars Day knowing all the while that it was Star Wars Day without doing an official Star Wars anything. Listening to the score at work would fit the bill, but I couldn't do that since I was away from my desk for much of the day. AMC was running Star Wars movies when I got home, so I turned one on at night, but that didn't seem like it was good enough. Luckily I remembered I needed to read this and get it onto Goodreads and thus was I once again one with the fourth.
This is just as worn out as my Star Wars Storybook, maybe even more so. There's duct tape on the spine, but a few pages have parted company with it anyway. All the pages are still there which is great because the inside flap has one of my favorite pictures from all three storybooks, and that first page is one that is completely separated.
It's definitely my favorite from this book. The Star Destroyer has always been my favorite ship in the Star Wars universe ever since I saw this as a wee bairn.
And you better believe I was over the moon when Lego announced they were putting out one as part of their Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series.
Just look at me. Happy as a pig in shit. And the back was pretty awesome too.
I can't remember how I managed this purchase. I'm thinking this was the summer of 2004, and if I had already quit drinking, then that certainly would've freed up some capital, but I definitely wasn't so solvent back then that I could justify shelling out that kind of cheddar for toys... not that I would let that stop me. If I was still drinking, then I must've switched from Heineken or Corona to MGDs for a bit... I may not have always had something to eat, but I damn sure made sure I had something to drink... But I don't remember drinking while I built this, and I certainly would've been... Okay, the mists of time are starting to clear. I was newly sober, probably just a couple of months at this point, and I had just gotten taken on full-time at work which gave me quite a bump in pay. That explains the money. And this was one of the many distractions I employed during those white-knuckling days.
Well, I'm glad we got that figured out. Aren't you glad you wandered into this review? How about we talk about the story now. The Empire Strikes Back was my least favorite of the Star Wars movies when I was a kid, so this book didn't get looked at as much as the first one or Return of the Jedi. It didn't have the same level of flash and bang found in the other two and was too slow and grown-upy. It also had all that romancey stuff between Han and Leia.
Not at all, Freddy boy. This is a kids' book geared towards elementary age children so that whole plotline is cut. At the beginning, Han and Leia are sniping at each other all the time, then they're not, then right before Han chills out in the carbon-freezing chamber,
Yeah. Blech. Gag me with a spoon. I don't know why the printing press didn't retch those pages right out into the floor. But I'm no longer in the target audience, so who cares what I think?
As for the rest, I can pretty much just repeat what I said in my review of the first book. Several details found in the movie are trimmed out of this, but it works just fine for elementary age kids. This means that once again some of the more violent scenes are omitted or altered. There's no Luke beheading Vader in the cave on Degobah (or going into the cave at all, for that matter), and instead of losing his hand to Vader, Luke's arm just gets slashed and he drops his lightsaber.
A couple of scenes that were in the original screenplay that didn't make it to the final movie made it into the storybook, mostly the Wampas wandering around the base on Hoth and the rebels having to catch and imprison them. (Thank God those stayed on the cutting room floor.) When the probe droid lands on Hoth later, the rebels identify that it's made out of metal, and Leia says, "then it couldn't be one of those creatures." I always thought that line was a little out of place, but these scenes explain it. A couple of stills made it into the book, but the part where the Wampas attack some snowtroopers is left out of both the movie and the storybook.
Like I said in my first review, I don't know if most preschool to elementary age kids today would enjoy this book since the media landscape has changed so much in the last 45 years and it's harder to hold their attention with a book, but I enjoyed it when I was that age.
This is just as worn out as my Star Wars Storybook, maybe even more so. There's duct tape on the spine, but a few pages have parted company with it anyway. All the pages are still there which is great because the inside flap has one of my favorite pictures from all three storybooks, and that first page is one that is completely separated.
It's definitely my favorite from this book. The Star Destroyer has always been my favorite ship in the Star Wars universe ever since I saw this as a wee bairn.
And you better believe I was over the moon when Lego announced they were putting out one as part of their Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series.
Just look at me. Happy as a pig in shit. And the back was pretty awesome too.
I can't remember how I managed this purchase. I'm thinking this was the summer of 2004, and if I had already quit drinking, then that certainly would've freed up some capital, but I definitely wasn't so solvent back then that I could justify shelling out that kind of cheddar for toys... not that I would let that stop me. If I was still drinking, then I must've switched from Heineken or Corona to MGDs for a bit... I may not have always had something to eat, but I damn sure made sure I had something to drink... But I don't remember drinking while I built this, and I certainly would've been... Okay, the mists of time are starting to clear. I was newly sober, probably just a couple of months at this point, and I had just gotten taken on full-time at work which gave me quite a bump in pay. That explains the money. And this was one of the many distractions I employed during those white-knuckling days.
Well, I'm glad we got that figured out. Aren't you glad you wandered into this review? How about we talk about the story now. The Empire Strikes Back was my least favorite of the Star Wars movies when I was a kid, so this book didn't get looked at as much as the first one or Return of the Jedi. It didn't have the same level of flash and bang found in the other two and was too slow and grown-upy. It also had all that romancey stuff between Han and Leia.
Not at all, Freddy boy. This is a kids' book geared towards elementary age children so that whole plotline is cut. At the beginning, Han and Leia are sniping at each other all the time, then they're not, then right before Han chills out in the carbon-freezing chamber,
Leia took Han in her arms. "I love you," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "I wish I'd told you before."And that's the end of that. There are no scenes or explanation for how they get from acrimony to ardor. Luckily most kids reading this are ignorant and apathetic about such matters of the heart, so they can see all that and roll on without even noticing. Unfortunately, I've become a grown-up myself in the ensuing years, and while I understand and approve of the omission for the target audience, my more critical adult eyes read a scene like the one above and it's like...
Han tried to be brave. "Remember that, 'cause I'll be back." He kissed her softly on the forehead.
Yeah. Blech. Gag me with a spoon. I don't know why the printing press didn't retch those pages right out into the floor. But I'm no longer in the target audience, so who cares what I think?
As for the rest, I can pretty much just repeat what I said in my review of the first book. Several details found in the movie are trimmed out of this, but it works just fine for elementary age kids. This means that once again some of the more violent scenes are omitted or altered. There's no Luke beheading Vader in the cave on Degobah (or going into the cave at all, for that matter), and instead of losing his hand to Vader, Luke's arm just gets slashed and he drops his lightsaber.
A couple of scenes that were in the original screenplay that didn't make it to the final movie made it into the storybook, mostly the Wampas wandering around the base on Hoth and the rebels having to catch and imprison them. (Thank God those stayed on the cutting room floor.) When the probe droid lands on Hoth later, the rebels identify that it's made out of metal, and Leia says, "then it couldn't be one of those creatures." I always thought that line was a little out of place, but these scenes explain it. A couple of stills made it into the book, but the part where the Wampas attack some snowtroopers is left out of both the movie and the storybook.
Like I said in my first review, I don't know if most preschool to elementary age kids today would enjoy this book since the media landscape has changed so much in the last 45 years and it's harder to hold their attention with a book, but I enjoyed it when I was that age.
March 6, 2014
I read this book even more than I read The Star Wars Storybook. I was a little young when I saw Star Wars, but I was at the perfect age for obsession when I saw The Empire Strikes Back.
So glad to have found this book after doing a bit of internet poking. After finding The Star Wars Storybook, this one was easy.
So glad to have found this book after doing a bit of internet poking. After finding The Star Wars Storybook, this one was easy.
April 13, 2024
Fun storybook version of The Empire Strikes back with an additional scene of some kind of creature breaking into the base? I read another review that said this was a scene that didn't make it into the film so it's nice to read about it for the first time.
July 8, 2020
Enjoyable to read the original story and see the photos.
May 15, 2023
A very entertaining and comical adaptation of The Empire strikes back. Below my reading level, it's probably perfect for young readers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews