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    Battlefield Earth
    Battlefield Earth
    Battlefield Earth
    Audiobook (abridged)8 hours

    Battlefield Earth

    Written by L. Ron Hubbard

    Narrated by Roddy McDowall

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Suspense, politics, war, humor, and intergalactic finance.

    A towering masterwork of science fiction adventure and one of the best-selling science fiction novels of all time, L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth opens with breathtaking scope on an Earth 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 in a battle of epic scale, danger and intrigue with the fate of the Earth and of the universe in the tenuous balance.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGalaxy Press
    Release dateMay 20, 2005
    ISBN9781592124176
    Battlefield Earth
    Author

    L. Ron Hubbard

    With 19 New York Times bestsellers and more than 350 million copies of his works in circulation, L. Ron Hubbard is among the most enduring and widely read authors of our time. As a leading light of American Pulp Fiction through the 1930s and '40s, he is further among the most influential authors of the modern age. Indeed, from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, there is scarcely a master of imaginative tales who has not paid tribute to L. Ron Hubbard. Then too, of course, there is all L. Ron Hubbard represents as the Founder of Dianetics and Scientology and thus the only major religion born in the 20th century.

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    Reviews for Battlefield Earth

    3.5/5

    639 ratings31 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I loved this book when I was a teenager. When I started writing fiction in my twenties, I couldn't ignore that the story reads as self-indulgent. Hubbard crammed too many concepts into one, rambling novel. The would have appealed to a wider audience if it had been more heavily edited and possibly split into two books. Still, I like how he played with common science fiction tropes and showed our species capable of rising above our own ignorance with determination and courage.
    • 1/5
      this audio version is HEAVILY abridged. As a result it is difficult to follow if you are not familiar with book already. if you are familiar it is maybe worse as the book moves forward skipping so many scenes it feels like the book isnt tracking properly. I would not recommend it as an audiobook unless they come out with an unabridged version.
    • 5/5
      Poorly abridged version. Make sure you listen to the newer unabridged version it's very good.
    • 4/5
      Hugely abridged but catches most story elements well enough
    • 1/5
      So much is missing in this audiobook that it's just way too lacking. I wish they had an unabridged version. I should have listened to the other reviews. I wouldn't waste your time with this!
    • 5/5
      JonBee is obviously a small minded dim bulb who only has something bad to say about the book because he doesn't like Scientology. Frankly this is one of my favorite books, I've read it a few times. There is speculation as to whether Hubbard really wrote it but I'll tell you what, it's not preachy and boring like most Syfy you see other it's got action and concepts that are impressive given when they were put forth. if Hubbard really wrote this I can see why he was smart enough to come up with his own religion (as despicable as it has become) .
    • 1/5
      Sweet baby Jesus, this is awful. Don't get me wrong, the core concept is brilliant; it's just a fucking pity this author wrote it. IT IS SO CHEESY. It has every stereotype ever from the golden era of sci-fi. All the god-awful crap that would have killed the genre before it started if it weren't for covers with half-naked chicks being rescued and the somewhat questionable tastes of 12 year old boys.THE CHARACTERS SUCK. The characters utterly lack the depth to be one dimensional. Good guy, good. So good. Extra most-best smartest. Golden. No flaws. Bad guys. Grrr. Bad. Monsters made of the dumb. IT IS SO SEXIST. Okay, so not a shocker. I mean you saw the cover, right? Yeah, me too. However, in stark contrast to much classic sci-fi, there are no redeeming factors to be had here.IT'S SO FUCKING WHITE. I mean, come on! For fucks sake, only white people are left. We're just ~16% of the world population. Humanity gets wiped out and all that's left is a bunch of white people? Why? Did we push all the brown people under the bus when the fucking attack came?Also, it's fucking heavy, and it's killing my wrist. Fuck this book. I DNFed it at page 237. Read the Wiki summary instead. Strained a muscle in my eyes from rolling them. TREES DIED FOR THIS SHIT MOTHERFUCKER.I received a complimentary copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
    • 4/5
      Whew this was a long one. I'm sure many are familiar with L Ron Hubbard as the creator of Scientology - I'm not going to let that have any bearing on this review, because really my opinions on the author's beliefs have nothing to do with how I feel about the book itself. I've never seen the movie, but I found the book to be an interesting post-apocalyptic saga of the resilience of mankind. Civilization, if you can call it that, has been thrown back to basics, although some remnants of what the world once was still remain. The big challenge is navigating the aliens that now control Earth as a human, and surviving in a world mankind no longer dominates. Following Johnny on his journey out of his settlement, exploring fallen cities, and trying to survive being captured by aliens was fascinating. The descriptions are vivid, and the thought of the world one-day ending up this way is chilling. A great sci-fi saga that has withstood the test of time.
    • 1/5
      “Scientology is bullshit! Man, I was there the night L. Ron Hubbard invented it, for Christ's sakes! … We were sitting around one night... who else was there? Alfred Bester, and Cyril Kornbluth, and Lester del Rey, and Ron Hubbard, who was making a penny a word, and had been for years. And he said "This bullshit's got to stop!" He says, "I gotta get money." He says, "I want to get rich". And somebody said, "why don't you invent a new religion? They're always big." We were clowning! You know, "Become Elmer Gantry! You'll make a fortune!" He says, "I'm going to do it."In "The Real Harlan Ellison" from Wings Interview (November-December 1978) p. 32”In 1990 I read a Hubbard novel thinking it was science fiction. It was a fine sleep-inducing bit. The 1100 pages of "Battlefield Earth" could induce a lengthy coma. Like a fool, I finished it and discovered afterwards that I had forgotten how to read. It was weeks before I could read another book. It was comically awful, and implied quite strongly that Hubbard was a mysogynist and who enjoyed quite weirdly sexualised prose. I'm hardly a paragon of political correctness, but I found it to be in fairly poor taste. Scientology was small at the time, and I knew then that it was a cult, but I assumed too few people would be stupid enough for it to proliferate into the monster it is today. I underestimated the stupidity of celebrities I guess.Back in my awkward teenage SF hoarding years (as opposed to my current awkward 50-something clutter-hoarding years), I picked up the first book in the Mission Earth “dekalogy”. Mission Earth (all ten, there was a blurb on the back of all of them saying that they had to invent a new word "dekalogy" to describe the magnificence of Hubbard's achievement!). If you really want the full dose of Hubbard crazy, Mission Earth is the series to read (not “Battlefield Earth). Even back then the homophobia, anti-psycologist rhetoric, a healthy dose of misogyny, and so much more was simply horrifying. Even while reading it I was horrified, but I still read all ten crappy books. Re-reading “Battlefield Earth” now I wasn’t able to finish it, perhaps reading 100 pages or so, which is a trait that I picked up a long time ago and have cherished ever since. I've always been able to close a book or walk out of a movie. But I still don’t know why I kept “Battlefield Earth” for over 30 years in my home library… Hubbard was a cynical scumbag who made himself rich by literally making up an absurd pseudo-religion. But despite his character flaws and his dubious legacy, Hubbard's short novels for Campbell's “Unknown Worlds” and “Astounding Stories” in the 40s are generally pretty spiffy and worth reading. I'm speaking of “Final Blackout”, “Fear”, Typewriter in the Sky”, “Slaves of Sleep”, and “Death's Deputy”. A pity we're unlikely to see any of these reprinted nowadays.I propose promoting chimps to human status and demoting these dipshits because of their wanton disregard for human intelligence. My dog is smarter than these.
    • 3/5
      The basic story is good but it is sooooo wordy! Especially the last 100-150 pages. This could do good with a Reader's Digest condensation.
    • 3/5
      Hubbard is a highly detailed and imaginative writer, but each section would have worked better as a novella in a series rather than all together in a 1K page tome.
    • 5/5
      A very entertaining read...
    • 1/5
      This book is so bad, after I'd read it the first time, and some time had passed, I couldn't believe it could be as bad as I remembered it being. But it was.
    • 1/5
      I picked this up to read because a well-known fan had assured me (and lots of other people) that this was so bad, it was good.It wasn't. It was worse than that.
    • 3/5
      L. Ron Hubbard may be better known now as the father of Scientology but he wrote some great classic science fiction. This opus tells the story of the battle for earth in the year 3000.
    • 5/5
      Think of the 'Star Wars' sagas and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' mix in the triumph of 'Rocky I,' 'Rocky II,' and 'Rocky III,' and you have captured the exuberance, style and glory of 'BATTLEFIELD EARTH.'It was the above blurb from The Evening Sun in 1984 that convinced me to take a chance on a 1,000-page science fiction novel, and I have never regretted it. It's been over twenty years since I last read Battlefield Earth, and it's still as much fun as I remembered. It remains one of my top two or three favorite science fiction novels of all time.It's the year 3000, and Earth has been conquered for a thousand years by the vicious Psychlos, an alien race that is gutting the planet of its mineral resources. Humanity has been reduced to around 50,000 people, scattered in primitive communities around the globe, barely hanging on. High in the Rocky Mountains, Johnny Goodboy Tyler becomes fed up with his village's meager existence and decides to set out to find a safer place to live. While exploring the ruins of the ancient city of Denver, he encounters Terl, the Psychlo security chief on Earth. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that becomes one wild ride after another as Johnny tries to single-handedly take the planet back.Battlefield Earth is non-stop action and adventure--space opera at its finest. The story hearkens back to the golden age of science fiction, with spaceship battles, alien technology, cliffhangers, and impossible odds. It also suffers from some of the same limitations of vintage science fiction: weak (and nearly non-existent) women characters, stereotyped villains, unbelievable escapes. But those limitations are more than made up for by the tight plotting, unrelenting action, and sheer exuberance of the story. You almost need a bowl of popcorn while you're reading it.Speaking of popcorn, avoid the movie version of Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta. Some call it the worst movie ever made, and it was named "Worst Picture of the Decade (2000-2009)." at the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards. The movie only covers the first half of the book, and suffers from "hammy acting,...mediocre special effects, corny dialogue, and several plot inconsistencies." Thankfully, I've never seen it, because I didn't want to ruin my experience of the book. But if you've suffered through the movie, don't judge the book by what you saw. And if you happened to like the movie, then chances are you will love the book.Battlefield Earth is vintage science fiction on steroids. It's not perfect, but it's a whole lot of fun.
    • 3/5
      This pulp fiction story has all the basics. Hubbard includes adventure, gritty characters, science fiction environment, and superficial relationships. The familiar alien invasion, good versus evil theme, includes environment devastation along with human genocide. There is a slim chance that the human race will survive or overcome the Psychos invaders, but Jonnie, the hero of the story, sets out to accomplish that goal. At times, the action requires the reader to suspend logical and statistical probabilities. In addition, there is just enough character development to keep the plot moving. It is one of those books, a person has to pick up and decide whether it is worth the time commitment to be able to judge whether it is worth reading.
    • 5/5
      I received this book in exchange for an honest review an was amazed at the foresight of this author! This book is not a fast read, but it goes into detail of what could happen if ruthless aliens decided they wanted the riches of our planet and would stop at nothing to take them! Not even earth's combined military is enough to stop the Psychlos from achieving their mission, but one lone boy/man is captured, treated like an animal until he has the chance to save earth, but Johnnie Tyler wonders how he can achieve the impossible when all of earth's superpowers couldn't? One thing he knows is it is better to die trying than be kept in a cage as an animal......
    • 5/5
      Literally could not put this book down. One of my favorites, but I refuse to watch the ridiculous looking John Travolta movie.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't a big science fiction fan until I read this book. The characters and plot were so interesting I was annoyed when I had to stop reading the book to go to work. The bad guys are despicable and the good guys are awesome. I highly recommend it, even if you are not a science fiction fan.
    • 5/5
      This is the best book I ever read in scope and smooth development of character and plot. Quite epic.

      Mr Hubbard entirely escaped my attention when in my retail book selling days and I rather thought he was a fiction as a fiction writer, likely because I wasn't much of a Sci Fi reader and many of his earlier titles were not in print on trade lines. I tended towards historical novels, and the creativeness of the accompanying art of the sci fi genre was not really understood or appreciated by me yet even though we sold a ton of books with Frank Frazetta artwork I was not in the creative groove here.

      The main character is nice and bright and caring and simple who has a lot to learn and a lot of problems to solve to prevent the extinction of people, the human race. Pretty dramatic.

      The suspense factor of having so many problems introduced that need resolution just kept me on the edge of my seat, or up late late at night, to find out how it would all end.

      I'm glad I read this book. Even 7 times or so. I have a tendency to do that with my favorite stories. Did that with Lord of The Rings and some of the Oz books when younger. I guess I marveled at such creativity.

      The first time I read Battlefield Earth, I thought the story would be over about midway through after the main intensely suspenseful military segment was concluding and I thought "What more could there be?" but what followed was diplomacy, finance and a peace tome economy to build among other things.

      I guess we hear so little of such things in the news that that is why I expected it to end with the military climax....

      I expect the upcoming unabridged audiobook to be superb
    • 1/5
      This is the reason I joined 'Library Thing'.The book is so bad that I had to read it all to tell people how bad it is. Without reading it, I could not state a warranted opinion. The only good thing about the author was the way he found the tax avoidance loophole by creating the Church of Scientology. You just gotta give credit where it's due
    • 5/5
      This is an epic Science Fiction book and a must read. 1,000 pages of pure action. The main character is factually up against all odds to save the last of the human race and he has many aliens and other species he's got to contend with. The ending is incredible and you just need to make sure you clear out your schedule when you start this one!
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite all time SF adventures! The audio just released on a playaway -- I definitely recommend it. You will have a hard time putting this one down -- but with playaway, you can bring it with you just about anywhere, Enjoy!
    • 1/5
      One dimensional space epic with no complex themes. The internal dialogue is formulaic and clumsy and the good/evil conflicts are too transparent to enjoy. I put the book down after 344 pages at the point that Terl tries to kill Johnny Goodboy after getting his gold and couldn't pick it back up. The message I got from the book is that "things will work out in the end if your quest is righteous."
    • 4/5
      I enjoy long books, and Battlefield Earth happens to be the world's longest book. Hubbard's writing and storytelling is great, but Hollywood messed it up (not to mention Hubbard is the creator of scientology, which adds another layer of craziness to this tome).
    • 4/5
      Good science fiction? No. But pure pulp. Fun, stupid read. Just check your brain at the door.
    • 1/5
      Let's see: Cardboard characters...check!Unbelievable plot...check!Bad science...check!Poor writing skills...check!Yep, it's got it all.But, by my own standards, I couldn't give it the ½ star rating it really deserves. I had such a sick fascination with it that I actually skimmed through the middle 700 pages to find out how this gobbler was brought to an end. That would make it a 1½ star book. Impossible!...I'll average it to 1 star.Oh, I forgot to mention the introduction Mr. Hubbard wrote for the book that evidenced an ego the size of California.Do not buy this book!
    • 1/5
      Horrid. Absolutely horrid. I must first, for honesty's sake, unashamedly admit that gave up on this book at page 511. I figure if you read 500 pages of a book and you still hate it, it is time to quit. The characters the Hubbard portrays are lifeless, cardboard, cliché caricatures. The Psychlos are flat and stupid. To be continually outwitted by a farmboy, using their own technology, was eventually too much to take. Hubbard’s writing style leaves much to be desired. He uses clichés, is very wordy, and repetitive. It is mind-boggling that he is able to fill so many pages, while saying so little. All that being said, however, my biggest complaint was how unrealistic his character dialog’s were. No one talks like this. I have seen B-Movies with better dialog.All in all, I would recommend reading ANYTHING else. I have not read a book this bad in memory.
    • 1/5
      I think it is suffcient to say "AWFUL". Just way to long to waste time on.