Rating: 
Summary: No new ground. Flat characters.
Review: Despite the author's reputation I decided to read this book out of curiosity and a bit of gee-whiz love for pulpy sci-fi.I found Battlefield Earth somewhat fun but with some major problems. Everything is so well investigated by Hubbard except for the psychology of the human characters. Terl is the only interesting character and after the first two hundred pages you start to tire of him. This story would have been so-so as a 400 page novel but is tedious as a 1000 paged one. There is a line in a popular song that says " in a play where the hero's right and no one speaks or expects too much" (or something to that effect). The author of that song must have just read this book. Everything falls right into place for our heroes. Women are nothing more than whores and slaves. Other races are treated as alien as the Psychlos. There is no suspense in this story because you know the good guy will win. Hubbard blabs on in the into about science fiction and it's importance and his role in it and blah blah blah. If you want real science fiction, you know, the kind that makes you think- check out Ursula K. LeGuin or Theodore Sturgeon. These authors offer so much more than this book could ever do.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring.
Review: I enjoyed the style and premise of the book but eventually just put it down and stopped reading it for one simple reason: The good guys always win, the bad guys always lose. This theme becomes so prevelent and predictable that the battles are literally the most boring parts of the book. All the bad guys get mowed down, one good guy gets shot in the arm, hooray for humanity, repeat for every fight. It's like every Stallone/Van Damme/Chuck Norris movie all rolled into one rather cheesy book. He did a lot of this in his Mission Earth books as well, but there it was intentional and funny, in Battlefield Earth it's serious to the point of just creating a ridiculous story. Maybe 1 star isn't being completely fair overall, but this one aspect was enough to make me stop reading, so I figure it's justified.
Rating:
Summary: Trash
Review: Juvenile plot, nonexistent character development, and horrid writing in general put this book firmly at the bottom of the sci fi trash heap.This book is dullsville. I am quite sure most homeless crackheads could churn out novels superior to Hubbard's mindless drivel. If you are looking for great sci fi to read check out books by Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Robert Anton Wilson, Piers Anthony and Greg Bear.
Rating: 
Summary: Mixed feelings
Review: "Battlefield Earth" seems to be the most heterogenous book I've ever read. If you analyse it deeply, it has potential to be one of the most complete and thoughtful works of science fiction ever, but that's not enough to make this book great. The story is set about 1000 years in the future, and as the first sentence in the book says, "Man is an endangered species", because Earth is now dominated by the Psychlos, a very military powerful alien race that explore mineral resources in planets it dominates, regardless of sentient life pre-existent in those planets. Psychlos are ruthless, violent and self-minded; human race, now down to no more than 50,000 scattered people, is back in an almost neolithic state. Then, enter the scene Jonnie Tyler, the main and pratically only character in the book. This is the first mistake by Hubbard. Tyler, although an interesting character, tires the reader as he goes further in the story. For example, women are treated like ridiculous domestic and winning characters from beginning to end. Tyler is almost like a super-hero that takes upon his back the task of saving the humans. Everything he does, although with lots of risks, will be resolved, one way or another, in the end. No reader can take that lightly after more than 1000 pages. I couldn't. The first 400 pages are very good, dealing with Tyler trying to fool Terl, the main Psychlo on Earth, into sending a bomb back to his home planet. In this first phase, the interaction between Tyler and Terl is enjoyable, and the science matters displayed along the pages are good, although a little repetitive. Then the book looses its pace. Too many uninteresting supporting characters, boring situations dealing mainly with politics and military battles. In the end, everything was a little too confusing, because I was skipping the parts didn't catch my attention (something I rarely do). The fact is, after page 500, Hubbard's style of writing made me loose interest in my own planet's quest for survival! So, I really enjoyed the first part of the story, but the second part was very boring. If you want to read this one, prepare yourself beforehand: this is not a light and fast book to read in the beach. Grade 6.3/10
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good Science Fiction Epic
Review: I love this book. I've read it four or five times now and find it better each time. The only reason I don't give it five stars is that it IS a bit hokey (i.e., simplistic). But, its sheer massiveness and level of fun outweighs that. A science fiction classic that is well worth reading. WARNING: under no circumstances watch the movie -- that thing sucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Book!
Review: I picked up a used copy of Battlefield Earth at a local bookstore for a few reasons: I had heard good things about the author, L. Ron Hubbard, but never read any of his books; the back cover rightly said the pace was " . . . fast, unrelenting 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' action . . . . a real page turner"; and it was over 1,000 pages long, perfect for my three week trip. However, I unfortunately looked at the first few pages on the way home from the book store and finished in a week and a half, before my trip had even begun! Once I started it, I simply COULD NOT put it down! The action never let up and the characters, especially Terl, the arch villain, were very real. The Psychlos are the perfect science fiction conquering aliens, complete in every detail down to their unique number system based on 11. After Jonnie, the brave hero in a world that had stagnated by the year 3000, left his village and was captured by Terl after attacking (and nearly beating) a Psychlo assault tank, the plot only got better. I was kept on my toes wondering whether Jonnie and the others, with their machine-given intelligence, would meet the deadline to deliver the gold they had been forced to mine. I thought the book would end with Jonnie and the Scots teleporting the coffins of uranium to Psychlo. However, then came the other aspects, like Brown Limper, the "Mayor" of Jonnie's village, the Tolneps, and - well, I won't spoil the rest. Don't see the movie of this book, because it is well known to be one of the worst adaptations of a novel ever. Battlefield Earth is an awesome book by itself and every bit as good as other science fiction classics such as Dune, Ender's Game, and the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov. This is a great book to read again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Intense, Intelligent Reading
Review: This book is an epic spanning several universes, starting humbly in a dirty section of a used-up planet where only a few survivors are left of the original inhabitants and these don't dare come out of hiding...This is Earth in the year 3000. Suspense, intense battle action, romance...it's all there.
One of the very best.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Fast Pace Excietment! I really liked it!
Review: This book is a fast pace - page turner for sure. Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. This book is creative and all the while L. Ron Hubbard truely shapes your emotion towards each charater. This book truly brings you into the "world" of Battlefield Earth and leaves you searching for a way for Jonnie to beat the Pshchols for real. If you love a great story you will most definitely want to read again and again - read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Rave
Review: Firstly, I must say that I am not your typical science fiction fan, but I have to say that Battlefield Earth is exceptional. The preface to the book is one of the best pieces of writing I have ever read. The book itself is fast paced and entertaining with good character definition and very enjoyable. I liked it
Rating:
Summary: Would have made a great short story...
Review: I wanted to be fair and read the book before seeing the movie, and here's fair: the book may be better but it's gonna take up days of your life, and the movie is over in 2 hours.
I have to say, there's a lot of aspects to this book that would have made for a fun and interesting short story, or even a serial in an old time pulp magazine. But as a novel, especially one of such ponderous length, it's sorely lacking in execution. The characters that might have been brisk and entertaining in a 20 page story are too obviously one dimentional, and the sexism, rasicm, and just generally obnoxious treatment of anyone who isn't an Arian (whoops, sorry, 'American') ideal of touch action hero manliness is hard to swallow at this length. Not to mention some of the rather over the top plot premises that are difficult to take when presented as 'hard science fiction'. I have read a few books of similar length, and with a good book you hardly notice. But with a poorly constructed one... oh, the pain.
I've noticed a depressing amount of people saying "I never read science fiction but I like this book" or similar in their reviews, and I beg them: READ other science fiction! Any other!Any one that doesn't involve, say, cavemen with harrier jets.
I'd strongly recommend for people really interested in it to get it as a used copy. Who knows? Maybe this'll be the only science fiction book YOU enjoy. Or maybe you'll find it campy. I'll sell you mine, it hasn't been seeing much action lately.
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