Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (novel)

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### Publisher

Ballantine Books

The ***Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back* novelization**, written by Donald F. Glut, is the official novelization of the film of the same title. Like other novelizations, *Empire* contains many scenes and details cut from the film. Original printings of the book do not bear the label "Episode V" anywhere.

## Publisher's summary

*Although they had won a significant battle, the war between the Rebels and the Empire had really just begun. Soon, Luke, Han, the princess and their faithful companions were forced to flee, scattering in all directions…the Dark Lord's minions in fevered pursuit…*

## Continuity

The book is the same as the film, with a few minor differences or changes in detail or plot. A few are listed below.

### Differences from the film

* The novel begins with Luke riding through the frozen wastelands of Hoth on his Tauntaun, rather than the traditional Star Destroyer flyby in the film. It was originally planned that the opening crawl should be at the Hoth landscape via helicopter view, but the idea changed to the traditional space scenery.
* In the novel, the wampa attacked Luke before the Imperial probe droid emerged from the ice after its arrival on Hoth.
* The novel has more scenes with the probe droid and its journey to locate the Rebel base on Hoth. One of them is the droid's encounter with a wampa, which attacks it. The probe droid reacts by disintegrating the creature with its blaster.
* Han Solo never says, "And I thought they smelled bad on the outside." He does however mention that if he doesn't get the shelter built in time, "Jabba won't need those bounty hunters."
* The novel featured more wampas emerging from within the walls of the Hoth Rebel base, codenamed Echo Base, and attacking Rebel personnel and killing a couple Tauntauns. The Rebels managed to capture and contain the wampas in a secure room. Those scenes were filmed for the movie but cut from the final product.
* In the novel, during the Battle of Hoth when Han, Leia, and C-3PO are trying to reach the *Falcon*, C-3PO stops and walks towards the door which leads to the room where the wampas are contained and tears off a large portion of the small warning label on the door and rushes back with Han and Leia. When the Imperial snowtroopers stopped by the quarantined room, one snowtrooper opened the door and tried to enter the room, only to be ambushed and dragged in by a wampa, with the door automatically closing, and is mauled. Darth Vader then enters the scene to check in on the progress, only to realize that they were slowed down by a makeshift trap. This was also cut from the film.
* After the Rebels' shield generator is destroyed, Hobbie crashes his crippled snowspeeder into the head of General Veers' AT-AT, killing himself, Veers and everyone aboard. It was cut from the film.
* Admiral Piett goes down to Hoth with Darth Vader's landing party instead of remaining aboard the *Executor*.
* Yoda has blue skin, which was originally intended for his character design, instead of his recognizable green skin. (The Marvel Comics version of Yoda also depicted the character with blue skin.)
* Luke sees scrolls of what look like handwritten manuscripts in Yoda's house.
* Luke doesn't bump his head in his hurry to tell Obi-Wan and Yoda he is ready to become a Jedi.
* Han and Leia's kiss is not interrupted by C-3PO, but Chewbacca witnesses part of the scene.
* While training Luke, Yoda throws a metal bar into the air and Luke cuts it quickly into four sections with his lightsaber as a test of his reflexes.
* There are only five bounty hunters aboard the *Executor*; 4-LOM is omitted, and Zuckuss is a "human type" instead of a Gand.
* Captain Needa's death is not directly described. The scene merely begins with: "A pair of white-armored stormtroopers lifted Captain Needa's lifeless form from the floor of Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer." In the film, Imperial Navy troopers, not stormtroopers, carry him away.
* When greeting the *Millennium Falcon* on the landing platform, Lando Calrissian's entourage includes aliens. Also all of Lando's men are armed, whereas in the film none of them have weapons drawn.
* The protocol droid Threepio encounters never says, "E chu ta!"
* The Ugnaughts are throwing scrap into a pool of molten metal instead of putting them onto a conveyor belt that carries them into an incinerator. Chewbacca also has far less trouble in forcing them to relinquish Threepio's parts.
* Han attempts to shoot Vader after Lando says "I'm sorry," and Han replies, "I'm sorry, too," rather than immediately after the dining room door opens as in the film.
* Boba Fett doesn't enter the room as Vader says "We would be honored if you would join us."
* Vader's lightsaber during the cave scene on Dagobah is blue rather than the usual red.
* Luke sleeps in Yoda's house, and experiences his friends' pain through the Force in the form of a nightmare that wakes him up.
* During Chewbacca's rampage in the carbon-freezing chamber, the stormtroopers attempting to subdue him keep accidentally hit Threepio, much to the droid's distress and annoyance.
* Following Chewbacca's rampage, the binders are placed on the Wookiee's wrists at Han's suggestion lest he hurt himself, telling the Imperials to remove them once "it's over."
* The novel's description of the carbon-freezing chamber doesn't match its depiction in the film. It was a rather small chamber instead of a huge chamber, the carbon freezing silo platform is trap door-based rather than elevator-based, and Han was not emplaced in a carbonite frame which controls the victim's condition and unfreezing system (which was used to free Han in *Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi*).
* Han never says "I know" in response to Leia's "I love you," which was due to Harrison Ford's ad-libbing the line. Instead, Han reassures Leia that he'll be back.
* Vader's alteration to his and Lando's deal is different. Instead of insisting Lando take Leia, Chewbacca and Threepio to his ship, he sticks to the agreement that "they must never again leave this city," however reveals he's leaving Imperial troops behind to ensure Lando cooperates.
* Vader briefly chokes Lando with the Force to demonstrate his fate if he betrays him.
* When Luke is attacked by stormtroopers in Cloud City, he returns fire with his blaster, unlike in the film, where he doesn't fire a shot.
* Vader says "Bring my ship in," instead of "Bring my shuttle," in the original 1980 release of the film before it was changed in the Special Edition.
* Luke falls from the weather vane at the bottom of Cloud City before the *Millennium Falcon* intercepts him.
* The nebula at the end of the film is a red-orange star.

### Discrepancies with the Expanded Universe

There are discrepancies between the novel and the later Expanded Universe material:

* The book describes Rebel pilot Hobbie (Luke's wingman during the Battle of Hoth) flying his snowspeeder into the head of General Veers's AT-AT in a suicide run after he had been wounded. However, Hobbie is alive and well in books and comics set after the battle.
* In the Expanded Universe, Veers survived as well.

## Media

### Editions

* ISBN 0-345-28392-9; May 1980, Del Rey, 214-page paperback
* No ISBN 3863; 1980; Del Rey; Science Fiction Book Club Edition
* ISBN 0722156537; 1980, Sphere, 215-page paperback (with color photos)
* ISBN 0-345-40078-X; September1995,Del Rey, 216-page Hardcover
* ISBN 0-345-29209-X-225; Del Rey, First Special Printing August 1980, 214-page paperback

#### Foreign

* ISBN 0-7278-0629-7; 1980 British Severn House Publishing, 215-page Hardcover
* ISBN 0-316-88205-4; 1996 British Little Brown Publishing, 213-page Hardcover
* ISBN 1-85723-946-6; 1999 British Orbit Publishing, 213-page Hardcover
* ISBN 5699126643; Eksmo Publishing, 352-page Russian hardcover (*Империя наносит ответный удар*)
* ISBN 978-954-528-850-0; 2008, Trud, 197-page Bulgarian paperback (*Империята отвръща на удара*)
* ISBN 978-954-528-851-7; 2008, Trud, 198-page Bulgarian hardcover (*Империята отвръща на удара*)

### Cover gallery

* Episodev empirestrikesback.jpg

First Edition paperback
* Esbnovel.jpg

1995 Edition hardcover
* TESBnovel-HU.jpg

1981 Hungarian - *A Birodalom visszavág*
* TESB-Japan.jpg

Japanese
* Full Episode 5.jpg

Japanese
* Esb Pl Interart.jpg

Polish - 1991 hardcover release
* EmpireStrikesBack Pl 2.jpg

Polish - *Gwiezdne Wojny: Imperium kontratakuje*. Special Edition release
* EmpireStrikesBack Pl.jpg

Polish variant
* EpV.jpg

Romanian cover
* The Empire Strikes Back Rus.jpg

Russian Hardcover - *Империя Наносит Ответный Удар*

## Collected in

* *The Star Wars Saga*
* *Star Wars Trilogy*

## Bibliography

* *The Jedi Master's Quizbook*
* "Star Wars Publications Timeline"—*Star Wars Insider* 23
* *The Essential Reader's Companion*

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *The Essential Reader's Companion*
2. ↑ ***Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back***, Science Fiction Book Club Edition

## External links

* Amazon.com product page

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