Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books I've ever read
Review: Battlefield Earth is a classic novel. The good guy is very good and solves stupendous problems, which was inspiring. The science fiction aspects of it are really cool giving an idea of how space travel could be accomplished.
Rating: 
Summary: Suprising!
Review: I didn't enjoy the movie at all but I decided to read the book anyway. It was an excellent read with a plot that dwarfed the movie. (The movie stopped about halfway through the book.)
Rating: 
Summary: A bloated monster of a novel
Review: I feel guilty writing an abrasive review about a book that, in the first few pages, throws reams of praise and exaltation at the reader. At the times when I felt like ripping the book apart, I would read those starry-eyed reviews and feel almost obligated to enjoy the book. But I couldn't. The characters (and their subsequent dialogue) are perhaps the most mundane, cardboard creations I have ever read in a work of literature. The good guys are all flawless superhumans who go about smashing alien's faces in with ease.
Now, the first time this happens, it is not unwelcome. The initial 400 or so pages of the book set up the story well, and really draw the reader in. After all, the underlying concept for the story is fairly original and intriguing. The humans, after thousands of years of oppression and ostracization, finally turn the tables on their alien oppressors. Yay! Jubilation! We look past the shallow characterization, cookie-cutter writing style, and mindless technology descriptions, seeing the core of the matter: humanity, with its back to the wall, makes a final last stand and comes out victorious.
So 400 pages are enough to overshadow the fact that this book really is juvenile drivel. Guess what? 650 pages left. And this is where I started to really hate Hubbard's writing style, his egotistic introduction, and the glamorous praise that adorns the novel. NOTHING believable or remotely interesting happens in the next 3/5's of the novel. Perpetually omnipresent and omnipotent humans smash every obstacle in their way with no trouble at all. Over-the-top alien invasions are rehashed again and again. Two billion more stupid, cookie-cutter, mundane characters clog the story. Ludicrous technologies are explained in middle-school, fallacious, shallow manners. It is an ardurous, thankless slog through a wasteland of bad writing and nonexistent plot to the end.
L. Ron Hubbard, in his introduction, praises the "logic" and "realism" of science-fiction that makes it infinitely preferable to fantasy. He champions that his style of writing and stories are the only worthy scifi out there. By the end of the novel, he has contradicted every single one of his assertions, and ruined the integrity of the raving reviews of his book. Battlefield Earth should have been a 400 page novel. It would have been quite good. Instead, it is a worthless, bloated monster of a novel that leaves the reader, upon finishing the book, feeling horribly empty.
Rating:
Summary: A classic adventure Sci-Fi book
Review: I have read this book twice. Once when I was a teenager over 15 years ago, and then last year again. Both times I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the fact that my tastes have changed over the years.Battlefield Earth is a long book, but it is definitely a page turner. It is what I would call a sweeping saga that twists and turns as the protaganist (Johnnie) and the evil villain (Terl) each gain and then lose the upper hand. Over and above the great action and witty dialogue, especially from the alien Psychlos, I felt it was an uplifting book, giving hope that man will overcome his future travails, and that the spirit to endure and improve will sweep humankind forward no matter what comes in the way. I especially liked the Terl character. There is no doubt that he is evil through and through, yet he honestly believes that he is the victim, and that his actions are totally justifiable under the "horrible" situation he has been put in. Also, Terl can be outright funny at times, not only with the wild plots he comes up with, but also with some of the witty lines he comes up with. If you are looking for a gripping page turner with a great plot and interesting characters, this is a book I would highly recommend.
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: 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: ho-hum
Review: I read this book first in junior high school and thought is was a great book. My memories of it were so good that I decided to read it again 15 years later. This time I could not get past the first 100 pages. The dialoge seemed so sophmorish and the story so simple. The characters also acted in a way that seemed very unbelievable. If you are looking to torture yourself, see the movie and get it over in 2 hours instead of the days it will take to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Science Dysfunction
Review: I'm an old time Science Fiction aficionado. I read Battlefield Earth before I knew much about the author and his strange cult Scientology back in the 1980s.
I found Battlefield Earth to be about a novel too long, the logical ending for the first novel is right smack in the middle but for some perverse reason it just keeps going, on and on and on... It has a decent kernel story but the consistently clumsy prose makes it an impossible read unless you already think it's the greatest book since War and Peace.
The story is pretty shallow, hero humans kick big dumb alien butts. Then they kick even more big dumb alien butts. I was looking for some deeper meaning and found, more of the same; nothing. It's like a dial-tone in book form.
This is not a book for adults. It's unabashedly juvenile, thin thematic content, shallow characters, terrible pacing, huge plot holes and a grandiose ending that prompted me to NOT read the last couple of pages and throw the book across the room as an insult (I'm not kidding.) The movie is a pretty good representation of the first half of the book. It should have been rewritten or today it might not be known as the worse Science Fiction film of all time.
Anyone who thinks this is good Science Fiction has never read good Science Fiction. I urge you to get a nice book by Robert Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Bradbury, Herbert, or Greg Bear.
Better yet; read your local white pages, I guarantee you'll find a better story and you might meet some interesting people.
Rating:
Summary: This is a classic, a great book
Review: Its hard for me to believe someone would say it was boring. I also find it a little funny that, in this time we live in, another complaint is that the good guys always win. I've read the book 4 or 5 times, and am planning on reading it again. There are sub-themes that I find particularly enjoyable. It is a large book, and as such is probably intimidating, but it is worth the time.
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