Rating: 
Summary: WOW!
Review: I decided to pick up this book after attending the I-CON XIX sci-fi convention and seeing an ad for the movie coming out this spring. All I can say is that I'm glad I did! This book was an immensely interesting story of the triumph of the human spirit, but more than that, it was a marvelous sci-fi book. Even though over 1000 pages long, I read this book in 7 days, and that includes time spent for school-work and sports! So, anyone who evens thinks about calling themselves a sci-fi enthusiast had better have read this book or they're full of s**t!
Rating: 
Summary: .............. this book is FUN
Review: I read Battlefield Earth on the suggestion of my husband, a big sci-fi fan. Since I'm not a sci-fi fan, I was skeptical. To my surprize, the book is a fun read. No, it's not a piece of intensely deep literature. It's good-versus-evil, space-aliens-versus-earth-men escapest science fiction. Yes, the science in unbelievable. No, the characters aren't thoroughly developed; analyzing characters in this book is a waste of time. For all of this, the book is enjoyable. Generally once I've read a book, I'm not interested in reading it again. This one, I'll read again.
Rating:
Summary: A simple, great old fashioned story
Review: A great story about nothing more than the good guy beating the bad guy. My interest was piqued by the buzz surrounding the movie, so I pickd up this book again a year after my first read. It's just as good the second time around. All of those reviews concerned with the "art", read someone else(Joyce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez), this is just a simple adventure story, let it be you elitist, pretentious, dare I say, people. As for all you paranoid reactionists who have been watching too much dateline(and taking it for news). Forget about scientology. Hubbard made it up to make money, plain and simple(SEE Harlan Ellison, a real artist in the genre, on being there the night Hubbard made up the sucker-bait).
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable, over-long, and shallow
Review: I read this book a couple years ago, and I still remember how bad it was. *My God*. This book should be used as an example of what happens when the author is trying to fill pages rather then minds. The plot is simple: The evil aliens are trying to kill us for no apparent reason, and it is up to the primitive Earth people to fight them off. The characters are so two-dimensional, you would think that if they turned sideways, they would disappear. He might as well have named the protagonist "Mr. Goodguy" -- oh wait, he did. The aliens are senselessly evil for the sake of being evil; the humans are all pure and innocent. The hero is strong, loved by all, and can do no wrong. He learns how to fly jet planes and fight entire alien races in months, where before he was little more then a cave dweller. Even given the balsa-wood plot and characters so shallow they make a mud-puddle look deep, I could forgive this as an example of cheap, feel-good fiction if it wasn't so incredibly loooooooonnnng. More then 1000 pages, for crying out loud! This might work as a comic book or a short story, but at this length, it is but one thing: A waste of paper! Run, do not walk, away from this trash.
Rating: 
Summary: WYSIWYG-What you see is what you get.
Review: This book is exactly what it says it is in the introduction, a 1930-40s style pulp fiction adventure. Those people nostalgic for this style of writing will enjoy this book. I found this book somewhat lenghty and felt it should have been 2 books (the latter half was not quite as well developed as the first half) yet it was still enjoyable none the less. This book is very reminicent of "Flash Gordon" episodes, the serial not the 70s movie. Like many novels from the 40s this book is more fantasy than science fiction. The science in this book has little relation to our current understanding of how the universe works. All in all, a fun, nostalgic read which makes very few demands on the reader.
Rating:
Summary: John Travolta
Review: I just met John Travolta at Border's in Ann Arbor. Cool guy. Excellent book so far having read 43 pages. Powerful. Still 1000 pages to go. But I can tell from the first 43 pages that this is going to be a very adventurous book. I already know that after 43 pages. Not many books can do that. Not many books can give you that sense of thrill after 43 pages, not Grisham's The Firm, not even King's The Shining, and certainly not Pride and Prejudice.
Rating:
Summary: Battlefield Earth
Review: I just finished reading this book and I think that it is one ofthe best science fiction books I have read. In my opinion it topsDune.
Rating:
Summary: A complete adventure tale without equal
Review: Battlefield Earth is a captivating story that is complete with adventure, romance, action, and a clear cut sense of good and evil. It is a story everyone should read, as it is a supreme credit to the wonder of Science Fiction from an author that is a master at gripping the reader and keeping you in the story. Hubbard kept me up late nights reading this book, and kept me coming back for more, page after page. His command of the literary prose could lose those not accustomed to such a wide vocabulary, which would explain the reviews of those who are critical of the book. It seems some have been so confused that they confuse completely different subjects with the book such as Hubbard's non-fiction works. This same mentality would align with those that would criticize Michelangelo's work in sculpture while examining one of his paintings. It makes no sense, and actually comes across as a sort of psychosis. Battlefield Earth is merely a wonderful Science Fiction adventure. Any reader who actually reads this story from beginning to end will enjoy it like none other. Every genre has it's classics, and Battlefield Earth is one that deserves this title alongside such masterpieces as Dune by Herbert, Ringworld by Niven and the many other fantastic authors of Science Fiction like Asimov, Pohl, Pournelle, Heinlein, and more. I really enjoyed this book, and have gone on to read other Science Fiction works by L. Ron Hubbard and have enjoyed them thoroughly. I respect him as a very fine author, and I consider him to be a very talented man in this field. It is worth your time to read this one. You will enjoy it I am certain.
Rating:
Summary: Blech...
Review: It's tripe. Utter, utter tripe. I can't believe the hundreds and hundreds of pages of "stuff" that Hubbard spews out AFTER the "climax" of the story occurs. A violation of the basic laws of literary construction! Did he get paid by the word for this book or what? This was a halfway decent 300 page novel puffed out into a 1000+ plus bloated monstrosity. The Scientology angle is obvious. The name of the alien race sounds AWFUL AWFUL close to "Psyches", which is the term Scientology gives to their mortal enemies, Psychology. C'mon, we're not idiots here. I tried to approach this book with an open mind, despite my feelings regarding the Church of Scientology, and was disappointed to find that this was pretty much a subtle piece of Scientology propeganda. I'm HIGHLY suspect of many of the 5 star reviews I am seeing here. It's a WELL KNOWN fact that Scientology bused their members out to Waldenbooks and other large chains, and had their members buy 6 or 7 copies of Hubbard's books at a time. I wouldn't be surprised if they bus out their members to movie theaters and make them watch the film ad nauseam.
Rating:
Summary: Will keep you up
Review: I stayed up till 3AM some nights reading this book. I would not join L. Ron Hubbard's religion, but I do encourage you to read this book.
| 
