From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars)

By: Seth Dickinson, Hank Green, R. F. Kuang, Martha Wells, Kiersten White

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes, Dion Graham, Jon Hamm, January LaVoy, Soneela Nankani, Marc Thompson, Sam Witwer, Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Celebrate the legacy of The Empire Strikes Back with this exciting reimagining of the timeless film featuring new perspectives from 40 acclaimed authors.

On May 21, 1980, Star Wars became a true saga with the release of The Empire Strikes Back. In honor of the 40th anniversary, 40 storytellers recreate an iconic scene from The Empire Strikes Back through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains, to droids and creatures. From a Certain Point of View features contributions by best-selling authors and trendsetting artists:

• Austin Walker explores the unlikely partnership of bounty hunters Dengar and IG-88 as they pursue Han Solo.
• Hank Green chronicles the life of a naturalist caring for tauntauns on the frozen world of Hoth.
• Tracy Deonn delves into the dark heart of the Dagobah cave where Luke confronts a terrifying vision.
• Martha Wells reveals the world of the Ugnaught clans who dwell in the depths of Cloud City.
• Mark Oshiro recounts the wampa’s tragic tale of loss and survival.
• Seth Dickinson interrogates the cost of serving a ruthless empire aboard the bridge of a doomed Imperial starship.

Plus more hilarious, heartbreaking, and astonishing tales from:

Tom Angleberger, S.A. Chakraborty, Mike Chen, Adam Christopher, Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S. Dawson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Christie Golden, Rob Hart, E. K. Johnston, Lydia Kang, Michael Kogge, R.F. Kuang, C.B. Lee, Mackenzi Lee, John Jackson Miller, Michael Moreci, Daniel José Older, Amy Ratcliffe, Beth Revis, Lilliam Rivera, Cavan Scott, Emily Skrutskie, Karen Strong, Anne Toole, Catherynne M. Valente, Django Wexler, Kiersten White, Gary Whitta, Brittany N. Williams, Charles Yu, Jim Zub

All participating authors have generously forgone any compensation for their stories. Instead, their proceeds will be donated to First Book - a leading nonprofit that provides new books, learning materials, and other essentials to educators and organizations serving children in need. To further celebrate the launch of this book and both companies’ longstanding relationships with First Book, Penguin Random House will donate $100,000 to First Book, and Disney/Lucasfilm will donate 100,000 children’s books - valued at $1,000,000 - to support First Book and their mission of providing equal access to quality education.

Read by Jonathan Davis, Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes, Dion Graham, Jon Hamm, January LaVoy, Soneela Nankani, Marc Thompson, Sam Witwer, and Emily Woo Zeller.

©2020 Ballantine (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An A+ list of today’s best sf/f writers explore the inner reaches of a galaxy far, far away, which is sure to appeal to sf readers and Star Wars fans alike.”—Booklist

Uninteresting and Disappointing

Nowhere near as good as the first “From a Certain Point of View”. This one was very disappointing. Too much unnecessary romance that went nowhere and added nothing to the stories. There was a handful of great chapters, but the rest were about uninteresting characters.

Good despite the LGBTQ agenda

Most of the stories are well written and phenomenally read. However, it’s becoming more apparent that Disney is still continuing to push their new LGBTQ agenda based on some of the stories told.

New and old faces alike, so many perspectives.

This was a fantastic listen as good as the first, so many good stories, I love the side stories featuring empire defectors and the hope that the rebels have.

Some fun moments

I like the first better, but this had some fun moments! Performances were excellent, some stories were so-so. Regardless, it’s always good to hear stories from the Star Wars universe.

Excellent audiobook

I loved all the stories here except one
I loved the bounty hunter stories and especially the imperial officer stories.
Kendal was the best and the only one I didn’t enjoy was “my first kiss” which was a poorly written pile of bantha droppings. One bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch so it’s still heavily recommended!

A must for all fans of the series.

These stories continue to fill in the space between the the films with amazing detail and are guaranteed to fill fans with nostalgia.

Wonderful, and Spectacular!

I loved this book! ESB is one of my favs so hearing it from a lot of background characters really helped make the story that much better! I’ll be watching with extra detail hoping to find them all in each scene! Great job to the cast as well, especially the ladies!

hit and miss

given that this is a small orgy of various stories the quality will differ. some are quite frankly just boring and uninspired. But some are just great. one get to hear stories from the people in the sidelines, stories from the creatures and people who one would never expect to have a story. overall great, definitely worth a listen. just skip over the boring stories.

Amazing and Fun

Great way to flush out the story, background characters and all the conflict surrounding the Rebels and Imperial.

The “scum and villainy” a highlight

A few years ago a Star Wars anthology novel called “From A Certain Point Of View” was released. Each segment detailed the stories and perspectives of background characters as well as old favorites as they passed in and out of the narrative of Star Wars: A New Hope. We got to learn things like how the band in the Mos Eisley cantina got their gig, why Greedo was so eager to kill and not capture Han, and even what it was like to be an imperial on the Death Star during its final moments. FACPOV had some misses to be sure, but on the whole it was a really fun and immersive deep dive into the world of A New Hope.
At long last we’ve been given the sequel novel and much like the original trilogy films I found The Empire Strikes back to be the superior entry. Where FACPOV: ANH was good this anthology is great. Nearly every story works and adds that little something extra to what I think is the best Star Wars film ever made. In all honesty however, I don’t think this is necessarily written for the casual Star Wars fan. You’ll need to be pretty familiar with the heroes, villains, rogues, scoundrels, and creatures of the Star Wars universe to get the most out of it.
These are really interesting stories that run the gamut from fun and frivolous to action-heavy and dark. I thought the entries dealing with the galaxy’s most dangerous bounty hunters were the most interesting and fun to read. There’s no shortage of scum and villainy in the Star Wars universe and these authors used them to incredible effect.