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119th out of 5,106 books
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14,162 voters
Battlefield Earth
"Nonstop and fast-paced. Every paragraph has a big bang-up adventure."
—Kevin J. Anderson
Suspense, thrills, action and adventure. Earth has been dominated for 1,000 years by an alien invader—and man is an endangered species. From the handful of surviving humans a courageous leader emerges—Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, who challenges the invincible might of the alien Psychlo empire...more
Suspense, thrills, action and adventure. Earth has been dominated for 1,000 years by an alien invader—and man is an endangered species. From the handful of surviving humans a courageous leader emerges—Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, who challenges the invincible might of the alien Psychlo empire...more
Paperback, 1050 pages
Published
January 2001
by Galaxy Press
(first published 1982)
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As a Mormon I feel a sense of gratitude to L. Ron Hubbard for coming up with a religion with followers that most people perceive as being bigger weirdos than Mormons.
The book is good fun. An against all odds, buckskin rags to laser beam riches, story of a poor caveman named Johnny Goodboy who ends up the most powerful entity/person in the galaxy and annihilates an entire race of nasty overlord bugbears in the process. Yea it is pure crap but its pure crap with a Tom Selleck mustache
The book is good fun. An against all odds, buckskin rags to laser beam riches, story of a poor caveman named Johnny Goodboy who ends up the most powerful entity/person in the galaxy and annihilates an entire race of nasty overlord bugbears in the process. Yea it is pure crap but its pure crap with a Tom Selleck mustache
Don't be fooled by the fact that the movie adaptation was the worst movie ever made, or that L. Ron Hubbard is responsible for the spiritual pyramid scheme that is scientology. This book is the coolest.
21 likes · like · see review
This was a horrible book (and even worse movie). I read it in 2000, so it has been a while, but I remember just how stupid of a book it was. I struggled through every page. I can't believe I even finished it, but i wanted to read it before I saw the movie. Big mistakes.
To get an idea of what it is like, go play with a 5-8 year old boy. Pretend to shoot him with a laser. He will then pretend to put up a forcefield to block the laser. Then you have to pretend to have some weapon that will break t...more
To get an idea of what it is like, go play with a 5-8 year old boy. Pretend to shoot him with a laser. He will then pretend to put up a forcefield to block the laser. Then you have to pretend to have some weapon that will break t...more
10 likes · like · see review
Battlefield Earth is a good science fiction novel. One of the most remarkable ideas from this book is the complete unity of the population of earth. I know that world unity and peace may be just as science fiction as aliens and advanced technologies, but I hope we can make progress in that direction. I just hope it doesn't take a severe global disaster (like aliens threatening to destroy or enslave all of us) to accomplish world unity.
L. Ron Hubbard leaves his philosophical ideas, for the most p...more
L. Ron Hubbard leaves his philosophical ideas, for the most p...more
5 likes · like · see review
Feb 29, 2008
Ted Read
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
nobody and their grandmother
Shelves:
the-garbage-dumpster
Back in the 80s when I was just a little nerd I mowed many a lawn to afford the then-outrageous sum of $39 for the hardcover of this book. I had no idea who L. Ron Hubbard was back then, of course. I just saw a post-apocalyptic sci-fi book that seemed to be cool and I wanted it. I was a fairly well-read little kid back then even if it was only classic or now-obscure science fiction authors.
So... this was the first book I ever HATED. I think it went off to a used book store years later but if I c...more
So... this was the first book I ever HATED. I think it went off to a used book store years later but if I c...more
10 likes · like · see review
Post, post-apocalypse novel that goes a step further than most. Don't let the L. Ron Hubbard part scare you, no Scientology mentioned. The John Travolta movie sucked, so ignore that, too. The book is multi layered in meaning and probably has more truth in it than most apocalypse novels. Johnny Goodboy Tyler has been living in his village in a primitive mountain lifestyle for all of his eighteen or so years. The village is dying, with people sick, passed out on herbs, or just apathetic in their h...more
9 likes · like · see review
Don't be put off by the fact that the founder of Scientology wrote this novel, and definitely don't let the horrendous movie throw you off. This book is incredible! Well, at the least the first 3/4 of the book is. The last few chapters are interesting, but not gripping, as they detail the events that occur in the aftermath of the climax.
May 22, 2007
Kecia
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
no one
Shelves:
no-that-great,
booksireadinthe80s
Without a doubt the worst book I ever read. It was loaned to me by a co-worker and I read the whole thing. There is nothing to recommend this book. No redeeming qualities at all. Big Fat Waste of Time.
4 likes · like · see review
Aug 21, 2008
sunyatta
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
19 year olds who don't know who L. Ron Hubbard is
Recommended to sunyatta by:
My stupid ex-boyfriend who is one of the worst people I've ever
Ha, Ha, Ha.
I just remembered I read a fucking L. Ron Hubbard book!
I was 19. It's filled with ridiculous made up words and names!
I just remembered I read a fucking L. Ron Hubbard book!
I was 19. It's filled with ridiculous made up words and names!
6 likes · like · see review
As I scanned through the other reviews of this book, I noticed something rather interesting: very FEW 3-star ratings (at least among the couple screens that I skimmed through). I find it interesting that this book tends to evoke such strong and diverse opinions in many readers. (Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code caused similar reactions but, unlike Battlefield Earth, it also derived some benefit from a reasonably well-made movie adaptation.)
For me, Battlefield Earth was written well enough--yes, I k...more
For me, Battlefield Earth was written well enough--yes, I k...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
1 like · like · see review
This is another of those books that was a fun read when I was a teenager, but I just couldn't re-read it a decade later because of the horrendous writing and transparent preaching. The protagonist's name is "Johnny Goodboy Tyler" for crying out loud!
New York Times review of the movie based on the book can be summed up as:
"It may be a bit early to make such judgments, but Battlefield Earth may well turn out to be the worst movie of this century."
The book isn't quite that bad, but it's in the run...more
New York Times review of the movie based on the book can be summed up as:
"It may be a bit early to make such judgments, but Battlefield Earth may well turn out to be the worst movie of this century."
The book isn't quite that bad, but it's in the run...more
3 likes · like · see review
Mar 07, 2013
Linda Burke
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who likes scifi, adventure, or westerns
Recommended to Linda by:
noone
Shelves:
science-fiction
The movie may have been one of the worst ever made, but the book it was based on is a stellar example of Science Fiction writing. The book is set approximately 1000 years after a near-extinction event caused by the invasion of an aggressive, sociopathic mining race called Psychlos. The few humans that survived the invasion have done so by living in squalid conditions in areas that the Psychlos (called "monsters" by the remaining pre-industrial revolution minded citizens of planet Earth) cannot r...more
This pulpy mishmash of "Flash Gordon" and "Planet of the Apes" is actually fairly enjoyable light adventure for a good portion, but it eventually collapses under the ponderous weight of Hubbard's ceaseless moralizing and bloated sense of self-importance. The main character is named Jonny Goodboy Tyler, for Glob's sake - Hubbard's self-consciously on-the-nose reaction to Luke Skywalker, written with the aim of turning the thick tome into a "major motion picture," as the jacket copy proclaimed for...more
On impulse, I got this e-book with the ten-finger discount; Hubbard has been dead for a good long time, and the profits from selling this book now go to the organisation he founded for the betterment of the earth and which has been corrupted by a psychopathic, angel-faced dwarf (David Mi$cavige) and not even close to its 1950's glory.
I stayed up all night reading it from cover to cover; when I finished, it was five o'clock in the afternoon, and I had started at midnight. MAN, this book is ADDICT...more
I stayed up all night reading it from cover to cover; when I finished, it was five o'clock in the afternoon, and I had started at midnight. MAN, this book is ADDICT...more
I have fond memories of my mother reading this book aloud to me, in small installments every night for months, when I was in middle school. I don't remember a lot of the details, but I was intrigued, excited to find out what happened next, and more often than not this book had my mother and I rolling on the floor laughing. There were some great moments, like poor Chirk getting her brain zapped anytime she tried to do even simple arithmetic, and the little girl begging to shoot one of the Psychlo...more
I'm on page 50 of 1050 of Battlefield Earth: So far this is absolute drivel. The main character's name is Johnnie Goodboy?!?! Seriously? This is the best L. Ron. "Lord Xenu" Hubbard could manage?
I've never posted a negative review as a book usually has some redeeming qualities, this novel has none. Let's see...little to no effort was put in character names; Jonnie Goodboy, Chrissie, Pattie, an antagonist named Zzt (that's not a type-o, and I prefer Yyz as it's more pleasing to the ear--ha ha Ru...more
I've never posted a negative review as a book usually has some redeeming qualities, this novel has none. Let's see...little to no effort was put in character names; Jonnie Goodboy, Chrissie, Pattie, an antagonist named Zzt (that's not a type-o, and I prefer Yyz as it's more pleasing to the ear--ha ha Ru...more
Before Scientology... or possibly after Scientology... anyway, at some point in time relative to Scientology, Lafayette Ronald was actually a decent sci-fi writer. Battlefield Earth is his epic tale of epicness, and if you haven't watched the movie - be thankful, since that has nothing whatsoever to do with the book except sharing a title and a few character names.
The book is actually in four parts, even though they're not clearly separated.
Pages 1 through 450 are a pretty good tale of man's st...more
The book is actually in four parts, even though they're not clearly separated.
Pages 1 through 450 are a pretty good tale of man's st...more
This one had been on my list for quite a while. It appeared to be a modern classic of SF and I had heard a lot of good things about it.
While at the steel mill, I had make to trip to repair some equipment in the LAF (Ladle Arc Furnace) #2, and saw Gary the operator reading a well worn paperback of Battlefield Earth, so I asked him about it. Gary said he loved the book, and it was his 5th time reading it! As soon as he finished reading it, after 1050 pages, he went back to page #1 and started rea...more
While at the steel mill, I had make to trip to repair some equipment in the LAF (Ladle Arc Furnace) #2, and saw Gary the operator reading a well worn paperback of Battlefield Earth, so I asked him about it. Gary said he loved the book, and it was his 5th time reading it! As soon as he finished reading it, after 1050 pages, he went back to page #1 and started rea...more
okay this book is not that bad if you can go with the its "it just so happens" premise. I can believe like 75% of it but the rest is pretty ridiculous. I did not feel very satisfied with how the main just so happened to be the way he is and that they just so happened to be in the position he ended up in. so much like a role playing game character who can learn a new language just because he got a new level and had some points to spend so now he can speak Japanese with no training. It was however...more
1. First of all, I have never read any of Hubbard's Scientology books, nor do I care to, and as such, I neither know, nor care if there are any Scientology references or symbolism in this book.
2. If you had the misfortune of watching the movie starring John Travolta, ignore any misgivings you may have had - the movie was so far from the books, that if you only changed a few names, it would in no way resemble this masterpiece.
With that in mind, my review is as follows:
This is a book chronicling t...more
2. If you had the misfortune of watching the movie starring John Travolta, ignore any misgivings you may have had - the movie was so far from the books, that if you only changed a few names, it would in no way resemble this masterpiece.
With that in mind, my review is as follows:
This is a book chronicling t...more
Before L. Ron Hubbard went bat sh@t and decided to write pseudo-religious books convince people that they are under the influence of cosmic beings abandoned on earth by an evil emperor. He was, at one point, a terrific Sci-Fi writer. Battlefield earth is a crowning achievement in epic Sci-Fi drama. A plethora of well developed characters weave a futuristic tale of mankind so long ruled by an alien species that their own history is a myth. Until one man, kept as a pet, decides to learn their lang...more
Hubbard was a top adventure and science fiction writer in the 1940s. With his Dianetics research pretty wrapped up by the early 1980s, he returned to writing with Battlefield Earth. What first struck me was that the characterization was similar to the pulp fiction of the Forties without the corny dialogue. And a lot of the dialogue was very tongue in cheek. Please don't compare this book to the awful movie of which it is loosely based. The book is superior. It's written as a satire of government...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book is a great scifi/ fantasy. Johnny B. Good is a man of earth who starts off in a village in the future, and this society is very low-tech. In the future, earth grows weak and is in Peril. Johnny decides that he needs to venture out and see what is out in the real world besides their village. He finds the city of Denver, which is of course deserted. Waiting for him there is an alien who is on his shift at earth. This alien species is a catlike race, and are over 10 feet tall. They are be...more
Okay I know that everyone except for Scientologists think that this is supposed to be crap, but it's actually pretty decent, for pulp sci-fi. It's not Anna Karenina, but so what? I thought it was a pretty interesting adventure yarn (though a bit long winded). The movie, on the other hand, is another story...
Admittedly, the novel has some inconsistencies and logic problems, but when I first read it, I didn't know much of anything at all about L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology, so I was able to approa...more
Admittedly, the novel has some inconsistencies and logic problems, but when I first read it, I didn't know much of anything at all about L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology, so I was able to approa...more
I read this book many years ago and have recently listened to the soon to be released unabridged multi-cast audiobook. I found this book to still be incredibly well written with a high volume of fast-paced adventure (which I like a lot). Hubbard really creates memorable characters, sometimes with a minimum of words, such that you know that person. I also like how the evolution of the hero rapidly moves out of his personal plight and that of his girlfriend and the town he grew up in, to that of a...more
Apa jadinya jika manusia adalah ras yang terancam punah?
Populasi manusia nyaris habis sekejap, dalam suatu serangan bom asap dari ras bernama Psychlo. 99,9% mati langsung karena bom asap tersebut. Sebagian lagi dihabisi oleh serangan pasukan Psychlo. Hanya tersisa sedikit populasi manusia yang bisa bertahan.
Itu latar belakang ceritanya.
Cerita ini dimulai sekitar 1000 tahun setelah kejadian tersebut. Menceritakan tentang seorang pemuda bernama Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, yang keluar dari desanya demi m...more
Populasi manusia nyaris habis sekejap, dalam suatu serangan bom asap dari ras bernama Psychlo. 99,9% mati langsung karena bom asap tersebut. Sebagian lagi dihabisi oleh serangan pasukan Psychlo. Hanya tersisa sedikit populasi manusia yang bisa bertahan.
Itu latar belakang ceritanya.
Cerita ini dimulai sekitar 1000 tahun setelah kejadian tersebut. Menceritakan tentang seorang pemuda bernama Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, yang keluar dari desanya demi m...more
Every time I pick up a book, I'm looking for a story that will make me FEEL the way this story makes me feel. Every emotion, with the volume set on high. This is the standard by which I judge any book I read now - is it as good as Battlefield Earth. How close does it come.
I have read Battlefield Earth five times in the decade since I first picked it up; and that is because from the very first read it's been my opinion that there simply isn't a better written story, anywhere.
I actually use this b...more
I have read Battlefield Earth five times in the decade since I first picked it up; and that is because from the very first read it's been my opinion that there simply isn't a better written story, anywhere.
I actually use this b...more
Whether or not you proscribe to the delusional ramblings of L. Ron Hubbard or not, this is one of the most epic and involving tales of the fall and rise of man in the face of imminent destruction at the hands of a malevolent alien race. If you have not already read this book, then you need to find a copy and devour it at once. You will not be sorry.
I offer this caveat: DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE...EVER. NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER.
I offer this caveat: DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE...EVER. NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER.
I've read this book a few times now. The first time I read it, I was probably in high school and at the height of my sci-fi reading. I enjoyed it then, and probably would have given it five stars. Re-reading as an adult I notice that there are issues with some of the science and that it was in definite need of an editor, but I still enjoyed it. All 1000+ pages of it.
If you've seen the movie (which I also liked, if only for its cheese factor), you're only getting half of the story. (view spoiler...more
If you've seen the movie (which I also liked, if only for its cheese factor), you're only getting half of the story. (view spoiler...more
1 like · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L. Ron can't write a good story | 14 | 50 | Apr 24, 2013 05:29am | |
| Check out this book!!!!!!!! | 22 | 67 | Mar 16, 2012 08:32am |
L. Ron Hubbard was a popular pulp writer of science fiction, fantasy, adventure, mysteries and westerns during the 1930s and later founder of Dianetics and Scientology.
Known Pseudonyms:
Frederick Engelhardt
Kurt von Rachen
Rene LaFayete/Rene La Fayette/René Lafayette
Frankie Rohne
More about L. Ron Hubbard...
Known Pseudonyms:
Frederick Engelhardt
Kurt von Rachen
Rene LaFayete/Rene La Fayette/René Lafayette
Frankie Rohne
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