Definitely one of the best science-fiction books ever written, probably top 15. The writing is solid and the story is sufficiently complex. The only thing really wrong with the book is the spelling and possibly grammar. I don't know Scientology well enough to pick up the themes throughout the book, but they certainly didn't diminish the book's worth.
Sadly, this seems to be the only novel by this author, which is really a shame. ( )

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. ( )

“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. ( )

I read this years ago. No stars AT ALL.

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. ( )