Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable mind candy, Scientology aspects are well hidden
Review: In regards to the "love-it vs. hate-it," "Scientology vs. critics" reviews of "Battlefield Earth" seen here, I should state that I have been an outspoken critic of Scientology for the past several years. Nevertheless, I will still say that "Battlefield Earth" is an entertaining book -- it's far from the "greatest science fiction saga ever written," and it really bogs down in the middle, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. In fact, it was the first of Hubbard's books that I ever read: I picked it up and read it for the sheer challenge of finishing a thousand-page paperback book. Much of the book is juvenile and laughably silly (such as the evil Brown Limper Staffor and his obsessive hatred for the superhero Johnnie Goodboy Tyler), and some of Hubbard's "science" is so implausible as to be laughable. In one section of the book, the good guys teleport a satellite to a point one light-year away from the planet Psycho, and they use video enhancement technology to enlarge the image at "six trillion power" magnification to get a view of the planet. Then there's the idea that by placing five nuclear bombs next to each other, they will all go off, one after the other. I'll leave it to better writers than I to point out the obvious flaws to these...but despite their being crucial to the plot, they don't detract from the fact that I enjoyed the book. About half of it is full of rollicking action and intrigue (dampened somewhat by ludicrous stereotypical "good guys" and "bad guys"). Hubbard's Scientology ideas are there within the book, but they're deeply hidden. You'd have to know about Hubbard's obsessive hatred of psychiatry and the way Scientologists refer to psychiatrists and psychologists as "psychs" to understand why he chose "Psychlos" as the name for the evil alien overlords of the whole universe; likewise, the Scientology belief that "man is basically good" is what ensures that the final victory of the book will not leave humanity open to corruption on its own, after the story has ended.The writing varies from a furious, energetic pace (when the battles and double-dealings are taking place) to tediously slow (when Hubbard plays the material for more additional sub-plots), and as has already been said, the overall tone of the book is that of a junvenile pulp fiction novel. To compare this silliness with grand space opera like E.E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" books would be sacrilege, but "Battlefield Earth" does stand on its own as an entertaining story. I had trouble getting started with it, and it did bog down, but the final third of the book is fast reading to the very end. This book inspired me to go out and learn more about L. Ron Hubbard and his works...but if you do want to read more, be warned that most of Hubbard's writings are far sillier than what you'll see in "Battlefield Earth." After this book, I worked my way through his ten-book "Mission Earth" series...which are nothing but a blatant commercial for Scientology, and which are so unbelievably awful that you may want to read them just to see if they live up to their reputation as one of the worst pieces of "science fiction" drivel ever published. "Battlefield Earth" is an entertaining, fun read...but after this, you may want to read Hubbard's other good book, "Fear." And then you can visit my Web site and learn about his most famous science fiction creation: the "church" of Scientology.
Rating: 
Summary: Disengage your brain
Review: Old fashioned, pulpy fiction. A throw back to the days of "gee-wiz" SF. It ain't deep, but it's a lot of fun.
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: 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: Once won't be enough
Review: This is the kind of book that bears repeated reading. Even though it is huge I've read it 3 or 4 times and found it fascinating each time I want to read it again to get even more out of it. I love the tongue-in-cheek viewpoint Mr. Hubbard injects into the story. I enjoy the way the characters behave much as all people do, motivated by greed, jealousy and various other petty things. Of course, Jonnie is not motivated by any of those base things - but there has to be a hero! And what a hero. I especially like Robert the Fox. I don't think Sean Connery is too old for the part...A great ride and worth taking several times. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: So long ..... so long ...... SO LOOOOOONG
Review: This was one of the first ever sci-fi books I ever read back in the earl 1990's. I was browsing through my second hand store and my eye straight Battlefield earth due to it's incredibly size. Anyway, here are the good points and bad points.
GOOD:
*You don't need a degree in Nuclear sciene to understand it (just as well...)
*Lovable characters, hatable baddies. You always know what to think of a character.
*Contains romance, action, horror, suspence and intergalactic politics.
BAD
*It ended.
*The movie sucked.
*The book finished.
*I calculate I lost 10 hours of sleep over 1 week to stay up finishing 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: 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: 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: 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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