Rating: 
Summary: Hahahahahaha!
Review: Now, this one was funny!Could you believe the [dullness] ofthis novel? O,sure, it's a good, old-fashioned adventure-sf story butunfortunately, IT [IS NOT GOOD AT ALL]! p.s. I told my friends about the novel. They thought I was just kidding.You can't write novel as naive as THAT! My advice: stick to Simmons or Bradbury.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible!
Review: I've never liked juvenile-male science fiction, and this ranks down there with the worst of them. If you get part way through the book and keep going in hope it gets better- DON"T BOTHER, it never does - 1000 pages of poorly written cliches.
Rating: 
Summary: More stars if i could
Review: There is so very much praise to be heaped upon this book, i scarcely know where to begin.I first read this book while in middle school and was captured. This book was not a story of some guy fighting for the human race, rather it was a saga (like shogun), a saga that spanned time, and characters and emotions. The characters developed throughout the book, as did the story line. Somehow through 1000+ pages Hubbard was able to keep this book interesting and not predictable in the least. I loved this book the first time I read it, and would keep going back to it to read my favorite scenes. I read this book again in high school and fell in love with it again. The timelessness of this saga can touch anyone, and it angers me a little that this book is typecasted soley as a science fiction book. I think that readers of all ages and genres can appreciate this book as a shining example of humanity and it's best qualities. You are inspired to be the Johnny of your town, to take control and do good for the sake of doing good. you are inspired to ride horses, fight monsters, and be an american hero whos picture is on intergalactic coinage. Read this book. it is long. it is daunting to those who do not like long books. The reward will be well worth it within the first 50 pages of this book, and you will treasure it after you have read it for a long time. ps. I hope the movie captures something of this book, I really like john travolta, and if anyone can do it, he can.
Rating:
Summary: Bad, capital B BAD
Review: Way over long, considering how one dimensional and boring everyone is. I kept reading thinking it HAS to get better, it doesn't. The movie will have to be better because they have to have cut 80% of the drivel.
Rating:
Summary: Not more Hubbard!
Review: I refused to read L. Ron Hubbard long, long before I ever knew what Scientology was. I stumbled across some claptrap or other with his name on it, said "Awful" and went back to Bradbury, Asimov, Vonnegut and Heinlein. I tried to read this tome, I really did, but it was just terrible. Hubbard might have been really innovative in the 30s and 40s, but compared with the greats who have come after, he's nothing special. This particular work was, like everything else with his name on it, an overblown, confused, chaotic mass of STUFF--not one page of which made any sense. I gave it about six chapters and never did get hooked. If you want classic SF, spend your money on one of the great names of the genre. Shut your eyes and pick out a Robert Heinlein book. You will be much better satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, Donald H Woolfe
Review: If you ever suspected foulplay to be involved in the death of Marilyn Monroe, there will be no doubt left in your mind after reading this book. The circumstances surrounding her death are shocking, what is equally as astounding is the huge amount of evidence the author has provided to prove that Marilyn was infact murdered. This book leaves you feeling very sorry for a naive lady who's young life whas tragically cut short by people who were more powerful than she was. A fantastic read.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulp-style science fiction adventure
Review: Hubbard wrote this book after 30 years of writing on Scientology and being out of Science Fiction. (I'm aware that the two are not entirely unrelated.) He says in the foreward that it is 'not in the old tradition', but that is false. The book is in the style of very old pulp SF, which is both its strength and its weakness. It sets out to be a light adventure story with loads of action, and in these terms it succeeds pretty well. The problem is that the 'Golden Age' of SF that inspires this book was, well, not all that golden. The work of that period had lots of faults and this book shows them all. The psychology of the characters is non-existent. They are either good or evil, with little further delineation and no particular explanation. The characters that count are all males; the heroine gets captured by the villain and rescued by the hero, and beyond that has no real function in the plot. The ideas are thin and take a back seat to the action. The prose is functional but far from stylish. The hero is both impossibly virtuous and impossibly resourceful, easily performing feats such as mastering advanced mathematics and physics in spite of being raised in a society that had lost all literacy or technology and was only a few steps above the stone age. With all these flaws, the book is fun. There's no real suspense, since a story like this can only end with Good triumphing completely over Evil, but there is a lot of action and the plot takes quite a few unexpected twists and turns. The book is too long for a pure adventure of this type, but there are only a few spots where the action really slows. The best comparison is very early SF adventures such as the Martian novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs or the Lensman series of E. E. Smith. If you enjoyed these, you'll probably enjoy Battlefield Earth - it's in the same style and, on the whole, rather better. If you expect SF to have the literary sensibility, prose quality, and psychological insight of more modern writers like Card, Gene Wolfe, Gibson, Brin, etc, you're almost guaranteed to loathe this one.
Rating: 
Summary: i don't know what the big deal is
Review: Come on, this is just a novel. It is what I believe to be a quite enjoyable novel, but it is nothing to be passionate about. I read it in about a week, which is quite fast for me since I am a busy person without much free time. It is, for the most part, quite fast-paced, and I did not feel that it was too long. It did take a bit to get going, and I thought that it lagged somewhat in the middle, but overall it was a fun read. That is it: "fun." I did not detect any profound ideas (though I did read it rather quickly). If there was any Scientology in here, then I missed it. Is it the "best science fiction novel ever"? Definitely not. I don't even consider it to be the "hard-core science fiction" which Hubbard claims to have been his aim. It is more of an adventure novel that happens to have a futuristic setting. I would recommend it because it is exciting, and that is the bottom line. Read it for fun.
Rating:
Summary: A darn good read.
Review: I first read this as a teenager when I was devouring all sorts of literature. I really enjoyed it then. Years later as I was rereading it anticipation of the movie I also came to realize that there are rather significant issues brought up in it relevant to current times. This novel works on many levels. From pure entertainment to education. Just my opinion. rnaviaux
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: Unfortunately, the slew of reviews that have been posted aboutthis book tend to focus on whether this book is some kind of'Scientology Primer'. I don't think that it is going to lure anyone into Scientology, but I have to say that I did find that the author did air several of his prejudices through the course of the book - i.e., the Psychlo race was conditioned to be evil through the devious practices of the Psychlo Catrists (Psychiatrists?). I'm not a Scientologist, and I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi, but I must admit I really enjoyed reading this book. It's no great work of literature, but the story is fast-moving, and action packed. Even the banking part was fairly intriguing. If you are not daunted by LONG books, and you are looking for a story that will keep you interested, then give this one a try. However, bear in mind that it is a story of Good versus Evil, wherein the Good are all saintlike, and the Evil are all evil incarnate. Don't look for character shading or internal conflict - it does not exist in Battlefield Earth.
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