A science fiction novel set in the year 3000, when Earth is an empty wasteland full of aliens, and one man decides to marshal the survivors to rid Earth of the alien invaders.L. Ron Hubbard's most famous book may be, as he says in the introduction, pure science fiction but it is also pure drivel--so much like a third-rate pulp adventure from the 1930s that it is almost unbelievable that it actually dates from 1982. The prose is appalling, the plot riddled with clichés and the depiction of the year 3000 lacks imagination. Here we find Jonnie Goodboy Tyler and his cardboard cut-out allies defending a very old-fashioned vision of the future against the giant alien Psychlos. It's the sort of Flash Gordon yarn George Lucas so brilliantly used as the starting point for his Star Wars universe but the result is 1050 pages of perhaps the very worst science fiction ever written. If you want great space opera, try Hyperion by Dan Simmons, orNeverness by David Zindell.

As a fast moving, simplistic story of good vs. evil, driven by action and corny dialogue in the manner of those old black and white serials, it does the job and is the perfect vehicle for Hollywood producers more concerned with special effects than story. But today's readers, now used to intelligent plotting and characters and stories that actually have something useful and interesting to say, will find Battlefield Earth sadly lacking in almost all areas. --Gary S. Dalkin

Genre: Science Fiction