The Empire Strikes Back (Step-Up Movie Adventures)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent novelization!
Review: To say the least, this book was great. I didn't think it was as good as the novelization for Return of the Jedi, but still fairly descent. FAR better than the kids' novelization, which I was bored with very quickly. This book fleshed out the story of The Empire Strikes Back, while adding plenty of stuff that wasn't in the movie, and generaly making it a more endearing story. Even so, some of the scenes could have been better written, and it often felt rushed. Now that I've read this though, I wonder why I ever wasted my time with the fifty-three page kids' version. There is nothing in this book I could not have read and comprehended at ten years old, and I probably would have enjoyed it more even then. I wouldn't say that this as essential to all Star Wars fans as the novelizations for A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, but I would recommend it anyway, since it does shed new light on things.

Rating:
Summary: Read Yoda's Teachings
Review: You can always tell if a novel is good if you can envision the locales, the charcters and the action. Continuing the story from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back is a darker, yet much more exciting translation of the film by Donald F. Glut. From the Ice Planet Hoth, to Luke's training and his confrontation with Darth Vader, this inventive tome is taken further from the overly-descripitive New Hope, and while the book is basically a word-for-word copy of the film it's such an enjoyable adventure that it hardly matters. Is it better than the film itself? Well, no, but to be transfixed by the first couple of pages is a very good sign. Escapism at it's finest.