Rating: Summary: The Roller Coaster Review: Battlefield Earth is like a great roller coaster - full of ups and downs and twists and turns. About 3/4 into the book, you find yourself thinking the story is over, and yet there are still approximately 300 fun-filled pages left! Hubbard has created a true "space opera" - bold and big and full of excitement. You'll admire Jonnie Goodboy Tyler's intelligence and resourcefulness, Chrissie's determination and support of Jonnie, and even Terl's good-natured greed and total underestimation of man, the "endangered species." Good-natured Scots and Russians are thrown in for you enjoyment. For those of us who have math phobia, Hubbard offers an explanation that just might explain our fears! Just as a great coaster is worth the wait in the queue, this book is worth the 1,000+ pages!
Rating: Summary: The best Sci-Fi / Fiction book I've ever read.... Review: This book is a tome of over a thousand pages, and is an EXCELLENT read throughout the whole book! From the first line "Man, said Terl is an endangered species" to the end of the book was an absolutely entertaining joy ride of laughter, suspense, and pure entertainment.A friend recommended this book to me because he himself thought it was the best book he had ever read, so he got me to read it. Boy, am I glad I did! I couldn't put this book down. I stayed up usually until 2:30 in the morning reading this book, and one night I even stayed up until 5 AM reading it because it is so good. I am utterly enthralled by the price of this book on paperback. It is under 8 dollars?!?!? Absolutely amazing. If I had known how good of a book this would be, I would have paid 200 dollars for this book. (At least!) This book is about Man, in the year 3000 as an endangered species because of being wiped out a millenium ago by a dominant race known as the "Psychlos". A hero named "Jonnie Goodboy Tyler" makes an attempt to win back his people's planet and to salvage the human race. The main bad guy, "Terl" is a Psychlo alien who hates being on earth with the Psychlos and hates earth all together - and his attempts throughout the book are for the sole purpose of getting back to the home planet of Psychlo. And don't worry - what I just told you doesn't ruin the book at all :) Anyways, this is just a spectacular book. The best Sci-Fi / Fiction book I've ever read. That is the bottom line. This book is a steal for under 8 bucks. To also say, I am not really an avid reader. I barely find books that are entertaining enough for me to read. But this book... Man - it is just amazing. Find some way to read this book, even if you go to the library, buy it from a book store, or buy it from Amazon.com. You certainly won't regret it. Have fun reading it! PS: Oh yeah, and the movie does not get close to the book. The book is so big and there is so much that goes on each sentence that no movie could possibly get close to the book. The movie barely does any justice to the book due to the fact that they chopped up the movie to fit it into a movie script - and that they only did maybe half of the book in the movie, but it still skipped LOTS of stuff.
Rating: Summary: Fun, but far too long... Review: This is a book you can really have fun with. It's easy to pick up and put down, even with several days or even weeks between bouts of reading. It's got just about everything, from action to humor to science to politics. No sex. And a refreshing absence of foul language. I've read it three times now over a period of ten years or so. My only complaint is that after about the first third of the book, the author gives you closure on just about everything, with only a couple of loose threads. He uses the next 600 pages to drag you through what seems to be a completely different story, just to tie up those final loose threads. It gets really tedious. It would have been a great book even with large sections hacked out. Or better yet, it would have made a good trilogy, with each logical section standing on its own instead of trying to bundle a lot of disparate events into one long saga. If you can make it through, it has a satisfying ending, but you have to earn it. The author was clever enough to protect his scientific treatments from critics, by putting a rather goofy spin on everything (on purpose, I like to think). It's hard to take anything in this book seriously, although there are some interesting political and philisophical statements made. By the way, John Travolta should have kept his ego to himself instead of ruining this story (and his own credibility) with a piece of garbage movie that had almost nothing to do with the book.
Rating: Summary: Good SF novel Review: BF is great. i understand the bad reviews, you need to approach it with a tongue-in-check attitude. Its very pulpy, which can be ok. i agree that the female characters (especially chrissie) were very flat and underwritten. the motives of the women and other is sometimes questionable. i also found it hard to believe that the cities were still standing, let alone the books hadnt been turned to dust in a 1000 years, when i hear the books of today are said to have the lifespanof 100 years at the most, not able to last nealy as long as the non-mass market type. The action is very good, i think, there is so much of it that it gets boring almost. i just smal parts I know i wont care for. the first 400+ pages or whatever of the revolution was my favorite at first, but then i just reread it, and i think i like the politics part more. i thought a lot of it was very farfetched, but its fun to suspend reality in this book. i didnt notice anything about scientology, but then i dont know anything about it.... this for me is hard science fiction. im sure its not really, since it feels too pulpy for that, but im not usually into real h sf anyway. i did like the all the psuedo-history/technology/politics a lot, it was interesting, if a little unbeivable at how well johhny could actually handle it (and i agree, his name is very hokey, especially his middle name).
Rating: Summary: Starts great but then... Review: The first 1/3 of Battlefield Earth is absolutely stunning, some of the best sci-fi I've ever read. Then the main story comes to a rather abrupt halt, but Hubbard just keeps on writing. I've gone from riveted to bored, wondering if I can even get through the second half.
Rating: Summary: Maybe the best sci-fi book that I have ever read. Review: ...I've read this book many times, and every time I read it, it seemed to be a reading marathon. There is only one point in the book where I have a hang up, and the only reason for that is because there isn't very much action for all of about 10 pages. Guess what, there is a 1,000 plus of 'em. I've read this thing about 4 times. And in fact, I think that I am due to read it again (it's been about 13 years). As a kid, I allways beleived that this would make the coolest movie on Earth. I've seen the reviews, though, and I am not about to watch the movie and mess up this book for me. Keeping it simple, if you can attempt to sit down and read a great sci-fi book that works on many different levels...And you can give it an honest shot, then you will at least like it... Personally, I love this book and recommend it to everyone.
Rating: Summary: Battlefield Earth-Highly Recommended-I Loved it! Review: From page one I was "pulled" through the book. Each chapter a piece of the puzzle that makes you want more. I found it hard to put down. "Just one more chapter" I would say to mayself and coundn't stop there. What a build-up, and Hubbard doesn't let you down. He takes you all the way and you are glad you took the trip. Read it!
Rating: Summary: So bad it should be banned Review: This is absolutely, positively, most truly the worst piece of writing you could possibly stumble upon. I was taken in by the hype of the movie and went out and bought the book. Read about 400 pages and couldn't take it anymore. I burned it. I am not kidding I burned it. This book is so poorly written that it hurts to read it. Do not buy it, read it, pay any attention to any person who says that this book is worthwhile. If you ever meet any one who liked this book cross the street and try to get away. I am feeling dirty just thinking that I actually paid for this piece of garbage.
Rating: Summary: I love this book Review: I have never in my life picked a book up to read it. I mean even in school. I would cheat to get something done. Before I would read the book. I so happened to be bored and went into a book store with a friend and this book caught my eye. I read the first page and had to buy it. Although this book is long it has a lot of detail. I have noticed that a lot of people complain about that. But me I love detail. It lets me go there in my mind. If you look books that allow you to visulaize what you are reading you would love this book. Oh and the movie is nothing like the book. I was so made the makers of that movie had to stop on like the 150th page. I will tell you this watching the movie can't spoil the books ending for you. One last thing. People complained about Jonnie being to much of a hero. Well when nothing is going right and people are looking for hope they will praise anyone or anything to keep hope alive and thats what happened in this book. But it is up to you if you will like it or not. But to me it is the only book to get me to read it from front to back and for someone that don't read books that must mean something for it to be over a 1000 pages.
Rating: Summary: good sci-fi Review: i tought this was a very good story. although it was completely trashed by the movie. i do however have to agree with someone who wrote earlier about the absurd amount of hero worship for jonnie, also the writer made the people a little more accepting than they would be realistically. but all in all it is a worthwhile story. just by all means avoid the movie. and if you have seen it, take my advise read the book, that movie just didn't do it justice.
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