I read Battlefield Earth when I was 14 or 15. I remember it being this awesome, close up and personal look at the post apocalyptic Earth under alien rule.
I never read Battlefield Earth or any of the sequels, but I did read L. Ron Hubbard's Fear in high school and really enjoyed it. It was one of the first books I read when I began voraciously reading books in high school, and for that reason it has remained a huge influence on my writing.
The book is derivative as hell (very Twilight Zone-esque...and I mean VERY), but also creepy as all get-out.
I'm with JAR on this one. I tried to read it in my senior year of high school because my then boyfriend recommended it to me, and we had very similar tastes in reading. Well, we did until that book. I got about two chapters in. I tried again a few years later and managed about half of the book before putting it away and never picking it up again.
I read it, and enjoyed it. It was shlocky and pulpy and I was just in the mood for that. LRH was a pulp writer for years, and while I would never consider him a great writer, he could tell a story.
There are soooooooo many better SF writers than Ron Hubbard, including many better "pulp" ones. I'm with JAR; looked at a couple of Hubbard books before I knew much about him, decided he wasn't worth my time, went on to Van Vogt, Sturgeon, Clarke, Bradbury, Simak, Dick . . . hours much better spent.
I read it. I think it was actually three novels, not just one. Not that that's the way it was packaged, but there were at least three climaxes to different storylines. It kept feeling like the story had ended at that point and then another story set in the same universe with the same characters continued on. I was ready for it to be over when I finally reached the end of the book.
The version I have has a forward by Hubbard where he explains that it was an experiment of his own. Having written to spec for most of his career, he decided to just let it roll and see what happened without worrying about length or even genre to a degree.
I originally picked it up because I like BIG books. They last more than a day. I liked it. I read others by Hubbard and didn't care for them. As for the movie, I expected much the same as "Starship Troopers." The very small action segment of the book would become the movie. I was right in both cases, and neither movie does justice to the original story.
I'm with Stone. I read it when relatively young and liked it a lot, thought it was a fun read. But now, I have a feeling I wouldn't like it nearly as much.
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