The Empire Strikes Back’s novelization is certainly an improvement over A New Hope’s in the editorial department. Chapters start on new pages, there are the appropriate line breaks when switching between character viewpoints, and there are no spelling or grammatical errors. But best of all? There are no Earth terms! You can definitely tell the difference between the book that was released before the first movie and this one in terms of Lucas’s vision. 

There are several expansions of scenes in this book. I liked seeing more of what the Imperial probe droid was doing on Hoth before it transmitted its evidence to the Empire, and I always love reading the conversation between Luke and R2-D2 before they head to Hoth. It is utterly amusing and I always picture it now when watching the movie. And R2’s utter protectiveness of Luke while they are on Dagobah is so sweet! I also greatly enjoyed Luke’s inner thoughts during his battle with Vader and during that most devastating of revelations. 

This is a wonderful novelization of the movie, hitting all the major points while adding in a bit more. I would absolutely recommend this to any Star Wars fan or any newbie wanting to read the novels before or after the films.