The Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars: Episode V

by Donald F. Glut

Genres: Star Wars, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published July 29, 2025

About the author

DONALD 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.

Reviews

[Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the novelization of one of the greatest sequels of all time, I have both a lot to say, and barely anything at all. While it is arguably the best Star Wars movie, it is definitely not the best Star Wars book. However, it is a massive improvement over the adaptation of A New Hope that I read a month or so ago. If I could add half-stars to these reviews, The Empire Strikes Back novelization would sit as a three and a half rating, with it being closer to a three than a four.

This has all of the same issues as the previous novelization, but they are just not as bad here. The writing is your typical science-fantasy of the era, and there is nothing here that is any better than just watching the movie. I would far prefer to read a screenplay of this flick, rather than re-read the novel version.

It pretty accurately retells the story of the Rebel Alliance’s darkest hour, with the all of the epic set-pieces, new characters, and crazy twists that make the film such a classic. However, much like with A New Hope, it has some minor differences that stem from this being adapted from an older treatment of the script. In this, it lacks a lot of the humanity, mannerisms, and ad-libbing from the film; factors that make the saga so fun to watch.

This specific re-print is a very nice version. It has a uniform cover with the rest of the saga (with this one reminding me a lot of the 1995 VHS release). While I love the uniformity, it is rather neat to see how writing/adapting these stories changed overtime; for the better in my opinion. If you are going to snag a physical copy, I recommend this version from Disney + Lucasfilm Books, and I also highly suggest reading them in release order as I am.

Anyway, I feel like I have barely said anything here at all. I would just rather talk about the movie than spin the same wheels I talked about in my review of A New Hope’s adaptation. This is a huge improvement over that novelization, but I think Star Wars just works better on the screen, rather than on the page.

With that being said, what I can talk about are my annotations. I mentioned that I have a lot to say here, and these were what I was talking about. The following are the most annotations have written for a Goodreads entry thus far:

- Page 3: Starting off the novel with Luke saying; “Now this is what I call cold!” may be the funniest thing in the entire Star Wars franchise. I have a good friend who is a little obsessed with Luke Skywalker, and lines like these remind me of why she has a big fat crush on him.

- Page 5: I like the allusions to A New Hope here, including Luke reminiscing about the old cantina and the landspeeder.

- Page 9: I love this bit of self-reflection that Han has, with him trying to wrap his head around just how he ended up going from zero to hero.

- Page 14: During Han and Leia’s hallway argument, we get a bit more of it here in the novel than we do in the film. I am very glad the movie cut it down, because the last bit of it messes with the pacing and leads to Leia acting really childish and Han being very misogynistic, as they both try to keep adding their last two cents.

- Page 23: Star Wars uses the term “hell” every once in a while, but as an English major, a language arts teacher, and a franchise super-fan, it always has fascinated me. The thing is, “hell” is used in the form of an expression (hence it being lowercase here). It is used as a synonym for the worst case scenario, death, or something terrible like that. Han is not saying that he will see this guy in the literal Christian Hell (or some place like that), but instead just “on the other side, or worse” — it is just strange because “hell” comes from Hell, much like how when Han says “mumbo jumbo” in The Force Awakens, even though this galaxy would not have the real-world origin of that word to speak it into existence.

- Page 31: Leia whispering a prayer from Alderaan was a genuinely moving little moment.

- Page 37: It has always surprised me that despite several re-edits of the original films, George Lucas never altered or removed the kiss(es) between Luke and Leia. I suppose it is a very different universe from ours, so maybe it’s a bit more familial-friendly in a galaxy far, far away.

- Page 45: Captain Needa’s Star Destroyer is called The Avenger, which I theorize was christened in response to the Empire avenging their fallen after the destruction of the first Death Star.

- Page 49: Rogue Squadron has always fascinated me, both in Legends and Canon. In the film, they mention Rogue Leader and Rogue Two (and so on), but never a Rogue One. I am assuming that Leader = One, but I wonder if the new in-universe explanation is that this is out of respect of the ragtag Rogue One crew from the Battle of Scarif, who sacrificed their lives for the first major victory against the Empire.

- Page 50: Shout-out to Wedge, who has a hidden arc in the three films/novels. He survives every major space battle in the franchise (even in The Rise of Skywalker) and progressively becomes a more confident pilot and leader as the original trilogy goes on.

- Page 52: An example of an unintentional typo that accidentally plagues the entire Star Wars universe. Sometimes “rebel” is capitalized and other times it is not, which even was one of the alterations in A New Hope’s Special Edition. I think it is now supposed to always be capitalized in this universe, much like how Empire is alway begins uppercase as well.

- Page 68: A possible inconsistency with the movie here, as it is unclear if Darth Vader actually saw the Millennium Falcon escape Echo Base. However, on the previous page, he kind of does. I think the way he asks where the ship is on this page is just written weird and caused this confusion for me, as it is asked like he has no idea if it is even around.

- Page 76: A really weird line here which reads as follows; “As if those damn Imperial pursuit ships weren’t enough trouble!” — I scratched my head a bit at this lime because it is not spoken by anyone. It is very odd seeing the omniscient narrator swear and use exclamation marks in a Star Wars novel.

- Page 79: I think one of the reasons Star Wars works so well is because of the music. With that being said, having to read the asteroid field chase without the incredible John Williams score is a bit jarring. Nevertheless, it leaves breathing room for a few extra lines, such as a really ominous “…soon” from Darth Vader.

- Page 90: I like how even Chewbacca gets sick and tired of Han’s constant flirting and mannerisms to Leia.

- Page 105: I always loved the “You will be” line from Yoda in the film, but this short page made me realize something. I flipped back a few pages to check, but this book mistakenly states that Yoda is blue, and not green. I wonder if this is because some of the set footage from the movie made him look blue, or if it is just from an earlier draft of the film.

- Page 115: A special shout-out to Yoda’s Gimer Stick, which is capitalized here as well. I remember this being an accessory for my Power of the Force action figure of the character that had the backpack you could strap on Luke. I never knew what a Gimer Stick was, and I still have no idea.

- Page 118: A factor of these novelizations I criticize is the fact that they really feel like screenplays turned into books. Jumping from Dagobah to the bounty hunters on the Star Destroyer works in a movie, but not in a novel — it is jarring and messy. Anyway, it is cool seeing the bounty hunters described here, with Boba Fett’s introduction having a very early reference to what would become the Siege of Mandalore from The Clone Wars.

- Page 131: I always loved Boba Fett figuring out Han’s fake-out, and it is interesting that the reason he knows to check is because Obi-Wan essentially did it to him and his father in Attack of the Clones.

- Page 135: The cave scene on Dagobah is one of the best sequences in the entire saga. It makes me wonder what Luke would have seen if he correctly chose to not take his weapon with him. I will say that the book kind of dumbs down the scene for the page, as Luke literally thinks to himself “if there might be some even darker meaning…” to his vision — it is basically saying “I wonder if this is a metaphor” out loud.

- Page 142: Even in the movie, I always found the attack on Threepio to be a bit head-scratching. Who did he run into? Boba Fett, an Ugnaught, a Stormtrooper? It is a bit up in the air at first, and then Chewbacca finds him anyway — just always found that odd.

- Page 148: On this page, I think the exchange between Leia and Han about trusting Lando is different from the film. After Leia says “I don’t trust him,” Han responds with “Well, I do trust him” and gets really defensive. I may be mistaken, but I believe in the movie, he actually agrees with Leia and says something like “I don’t trust him either… but he is my friend.” It has been a few months since I rewatched it, but I prefer him not trusting him either, instead of being so loyal in an uncharacteristic manner.

- Page 151: The editing of the scene is better in the film, as Han does not hesitate to start blasting at Vader in the movie, instead of snickering at Lando.

- Page 156: Yoda’s whole “there is another” quote is iconic, but confusing. It does not really go anywhere. In theory, is he talking about Leia, Anakin, Rey? I think it was supposed to be Leia, but this was back when her and Luke being siblings was not really a thing yet. I suppose in canon, Yoda is referring to the Prophecy actually being correct, and Anakin being the one to take down the Emperor and bring balance to the Force.

- Page 166: I have always loved the head-canon that Vader likes keeping Boba Fett around because he sounds like and reminds him of Captain Rex.

- Page 168: Since this is based on an earlier draft, it lacks Harrison Ford’s ad-libbed “I know” response to Carrie Fisher’s “I love you” — which is so much better than what is on the page here.

- Page 180: There is some interesting additional dialogue here during the fight between Luke and Vader. Most of it is very ropey, but it adds a few interesting layers. An example of this is Vader inviting Luke to attack him directly, as only “by taking revenge” can he save himself.

- Page 185: This page is pretty iconic, as it features the slicing off of Luke’s hand and the infamous “I am your father” reveal. My favorite part is when it describes Vader as a “black angel of death,” which is super metal.

- Page 200: A great page to end the novel and my annotations on, as it goes full circle by once again making an allusion to Luke’s growth since A New Hope.

I probably would have written more if it was not for the word-limit and just a lack of time. It goes to show just how much I love these stories, even if I far prefer watching to reading. I will have plenty more of these to share once I read Return of the Jedi, as these novelizations have only gotten better and better by the page.

[Caleb Likes Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Gary Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.