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The Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars: Episode V
- GenresStar Wars
224 pages, Paperback
Published July 29, 2025
About the author
Donald F. Glut
239 books54 followersDONALD F. GLUT has been professionally active in both the entertainment and publishing industries since 1966.
Born in Pecos, Texas, Don grew up in Chicago, IL. At age nine, already bitten by the film-making “bug,” he made Diplodocus at Large, the first of 41 amateur movies featuring dinosaurs, human monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Teenage Werewolf, etc.) and superheroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, etc.) Some of these films made during the late 1960s (e.g., Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster) were eventually shown in theatres and on TV.
Moving to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, Don professionally entered show business as an “extra” (a POW) in the movie Von Ryan’s Express (1965), the first of several such “roles.” He began his professional writing career in 1966, writing articles for and finally editing the magazine Modern Monsters. In 1967, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA degree (for Cinema) in Letters, Arts and Sciences, Don worked as a musician, singer and songwriter in The Penny Arkade, a rock band produced by “Monkee” Michael Nesmith. Shortly after that he briefly furthered his acting career, having a speaking role in a national television commercial starring Dick Clark.
However, most of Don’s professional life has been as a freelance writer. To date he has authored numerous motion picture and television scripts (Shazam!, Land of the Lost, and animation, e.g., Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, G.I.Joe, Duck Tales, Jonny Quest, X-Men, others), comic-book scripts (Captain America, Tarzan, etc., including creating for Gold Key Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods), more than 35 novels and nonfiction books, also numerous short stories, articles, songs, album-liner notes, etc. The Dinosaur Dictionary (1972) and Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (1997), two of Don’s many non-fiction books about dinosaurs, both were listed by the American Library Association among the best reference books of their years of publication. With The Dinosaur Dictionary Don created the much-imitated book format based upon an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names. Perhaps Don is best known for his novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the nation’s No. 1 bestseller for almost two months, which to date (still in print) has sold over 3.5 million copies. In 1982 he created characters and back story for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” toy line. Among his more recent books is Chomper, an entry in the popular “Dinotopia” series.
Don produced, wrote and directed various videos (including the documentaries Dinosaur Movies and Hollywood Goes Ape! and the music-video compilation Dinosaur Tracks®), theatre and movie projects. He has worked as a consultant on numerous other video, film and TV projects, and was “Dinosaur Consultant” on Roger Corman’s movie Carnosaur (1993).
In 1990, Don and Pete Von Sholly founded Fossil Records, which has already produced a half dozen albums. These include Dinosaur Tracks®, More Dinosaur Tracks® and Dinosaur Tracks® Again, featuring paleontology-related rock music written mostly by Don (Dinodon Music/BMI), performed by Don and Pete (as the Iridium Band).
More recently, Don became president of Frontline Entertainment (www.frontlinefilms.com), for which he wrote, directed and co-produced the comedy/fantasy motion picture Dinosaur Valley Girls™, which has already achieved “cult movie” status, and Before La Brea, a documentary commissioned by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles. In 2000, he was commissioned by Irena Belle Productions to direct the movie The Vampire Hunters Club, featuring an all-star genre cast.
Born in Pecos, Texas, Don grew up in Chicago, IL. At age nine, already bitten by the film-making “bug,” he made Diplodocus at Large, the first of 41 amateur movies featuring dinosaurs, human monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Teenage Werewolf, etc.) and superheroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, etc.) Some of these films made during the late 1960s (e.g., Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster) were eventually shown in theatres and on TV.
Moving to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, Don professionally entered show business as an “extra” (a POW) in the movie Von Ryan’s Express (1965), the first of several such “roles.” He began his professional writing career in 1966, writing articles for and finally editing the magazine Modern Monsters. In 1967, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA degree (for Cinema) in Letters, Arts and Sciences, Don worked as a musician, singer and songwriter in The Penny Arkade, a rock band produced by “Monkee” Michael Nesmith. Shortly after that he briefly furthered his acting career, having a speaking role in a national television commercial starring Dick Clark.
However, most of Don’s professional life has been as a freelance writer. To date he has authored numerous motion picture and television scripts (Shazam!, Land of the Lost, and animation, e.g., Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, G.I.Joe, Duck Tales, Jonny Quest, X-Men, others), comic-book scripts (Captain America, Tarzan, etc., including creating for Gold Key Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods), more than 35 novels and nonfiction books, also numerous short stories, articles, songs, album-liner notes, etc. The Dinosaur Dictionary (1972) and Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (1997), two of Don’s many non-fiction books about dinosaurs, both were listed by the American Library Association among the best reference books of their years of publication. With The Dinosaur Dictionary Don created the much-imitated book format based upon an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names. Perhaps Don is best known for his novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the nation’s No. 1 bestseller for almost two months, which to date (still in print) has sold over 3.5 million copies. In 1982 he created characters and back story for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” toy line. Among his more recent books is Chomper, an entry in the popular “Dinotopia” series.
Don produced, wrote and directed various videos (including the documentaries Dinosaur Movies and Hollywood Goes Ape! and the music-video compilation Dinosaur Tracks®), theatre and movie projects. He has worked as a consultant on numerous other video, film and TV projects, and was “Dinosaur Consultant” on Roger Corman’s movie Carnosaur (1993).
In 1990, Don and Pete Von Sholly founded Fossil Records, which has already produced a half dozen albums. These include Dinosaur Tracks®, More Dinosaur Tracks® and Dinosaur Tracks® Again, featuring paleontology-related rock music written mostly by Don (Dinodon Music/BMI), performed by Don and Pete (as the Iridium Band).
More recently, Don became president of Frontline Entertainment (www.frontlinefilms.com), for which he wrote, directed and co-produced the comedy/fantasy motion picture Dinosaur Valley Girls™, which has already achieved “cult movie” status, and Before La Brea, a documentary commissioned by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles. In 2000, he was commissioned by Irena Belle Productions to direct the movie The Vampire Hunters Club, featuring an all-star genre cast.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 9, 2026
Well, this is a novelization of The Empire Strikes Back all right.
Given that this adapts the film of the same name, it’s safe to say that the story here is a good one, and one I enjoyed. This follows up A New Hope, with the Rebels on the back foot after an attack from the Empire; Luke going on a more introspective journey and continuing to learn the ways of the Force; and Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids on the run. I actually really enjoyed a lot of the dialogue between characters here, which is largely adapted or just similar to that from the film, but it’s still enjoyable here; I especially liked the dynamic between Han and Leia, which is helped by some additional dialogue that wasn’t present in the film. Generally this is quite a faithful novelization that, with some small deviations in the minutiae, largely adapts the movie almost one to one.
Unfortunately, it being such a direct adaptation is the biggest flaw of this book for me. As a story it is well done and well told, but it adds very little to the source material—no new scenes, some different but similar dialogue, and little in-depth character introspection. As such, it does make for an enjoyable and unique way to re-experience the film, but not one that you’ll get anything truly new from. On top of that, while the A New Hope’s prose style helped to lend it a unique feel and tone, this one has far less personality in its writing, which again just makes it feel like a straightforward adaptation.
Overall, not a bad book by any means as the core story is still good and the dialogue is often excellent; however, it makes for a subpar novelization in my opinion due to almost no new content. I did still enjoy it, though.
Rating: 7.5/10
Given that this adapts the film of the same name, it’s safe to say that the story here is a good one, and one I enjoyed. This follows up A New Hope, with the Rebels on the back foot after an attack from the Empire; Luke going on a more introspective journey and continuing to learn the ways of the Force; and Han, Leia, Chewie, and the droids on the run. I actually really enjoyed a lot of the dialogue between characters here, which is largely adapted or just similar to that from the film, but it’s still enjoyable here; I especially liked the dynamic between Han and Leia, which is helped by some additional dialogue that wasn’t present in the film. Generally this is quite a faithful novelization that, with some small deviations in the minutiae, largely adapts the movie almost one to one.
Unfortunately, it being such a direct adaptation is the biggest flaw of this book for me. As a story it is well done and well told, but it adds very little to the source material—no new scenes, some different but similar dialogue, and little in-depth character introspection. As such, it does make for an enjoyable and unique way to re-experience the film, but not one that you’ll get anything truly new from. On top of that, while the A New Hope’s prose style helped to lend it a unique feel and tone, this one has far less personality in its writing, which again just makes it feel like a straightforward adaptation.
Overall, not a bad book by any means as the core story is still good and the dialogue is often excellent; however, it makes for a subpar novelization in my opinion due to almost no new content. I did still enjoy it, though.
Rating: 7.5/10
October 14, 2025
This book was a little drier than those that came before (and after). I'm guessing that part of the reason is that the author didn't really write many books over his career: he was more involved in the on-screen portions of his craft. Either way, it's not horrible, but it also didn't transport me into the story, either. Since I'm forced to choose between 4* and 5* (rather than 4.5*, as I wanted), I'm giving it a 4*, as it's not good enough to warrant the extra point.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews