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A review by maebinnig
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by L. Ron Hubbard
3.0
Whew. After an entire semester listening to this on my drive to and from school, the journey has finally come to a close. It’s the end of an era! (I also graduated, but finishing this book was the real accomplishment.)
Since I didn’t read a print version of Battlefield Earth, I’ve apparently been spelling everyone’s name wrong in my head. I’m sticking with my spelling in this review because my way is better.
Before I review the book overall, some notes on this recorded version: I was pretty impressed. The narrator is great, as are most of the voice actors and the sound effects. They salvage some unbearably cheesy scenes with the sheer emotion of their performances. When the narrative tells us that an explosion rocks the camp, we hear the sound of an explosion; when Johnny fiddles with a machine, we hear mechanical clinks and clanks. The music that plays quietly behind some scenes was also great for setting emotional tones.
My only complaint about this “movie of the mind” is the unfortunate “cinematic soundtrack”—not the music that sometimes plays quietly behind the narrative, but the thirty seconds of weird dissonant noise at the end of each track. Do yourself a favor and just skip to the next track when you start to hear it.
So, the book itself. Let me say this first: I didn't hate (most of) it. Parts of it had me sitting in my car in the parking lot because I couldn't go inside without finding out what happened next. The premise is fascinating, and Hubbard put a ton of work into (certain aspects of) this book. But, boy, does it have some very large issues--most of which boil down to authorial laziness.
1. The actual writing is bad. It's lazy and unpolished, full of passive voice and cliches. If I had turned in writing this bad for one of my classes this semester, my teacher would have ripped it apart.
2. The characters are all one thing. Johnny is All Hero. Chrissy is All Swooning Faithful Girlfriend. The Psychlos are All Evil.(Yes, there's an explanation for that, but because all characters get the same one-dimensional treatment, that's no excuse.) I felt sort of attached to them by the end of the story, but only because of familiarity bias (I had spent an entire semester listening to them, after all). He really couldn't have been any lazier with his character development, either. And along those lines...
3. The character depictions are terribly sexist and racist. I don't value political correctness for its own sake, but Battlefield Earth is sexist and racist to the point of dating the book badly and straining credulity. Historically, patriarchal roles tend to weaken after disasters; necessity demands that women step up and close the gaps. But in Hubbard's earth, women are helpless weaklings who WILL die if a man doesn't heroically save them.When Johnny gets put in a cage, he plots and schemes to find his way out. When Chrissy and Patti get put in a cage, they all but die. When Earth's remnant humanity steps up to fight their enslavement, the men get to work learning languages, fixing machines, learning how to fly/drive/run machines, spying, mining, and building uranium detectors. The women? They make food for the men. Seriously. This all culminates in the horrible ending that's supposed to be happy: Johnny insists that his son learning a bunch of languages is not good enough; he also needs to be educated in the outdoors, to be able to catch and tame horses, to throw a kill club, to track and hunt and forage and tan. He's content, however, to let his daughter cook with her mother. KILL ME. (Oh yeah, and then he abandons his family forever, but it's cool because he needs his personal space.)
The racism chiefly comes into playonce the other Earth-tribes are discovered. The Asian characters don't stand up or sit down; they "bob up" and "bob down," constantly bow, wear long-sleeved robes, and beg for the privilege of serving Johnny forever. The Scottish characters wear plaid kilts and play the bagpipes (really! bagpipes survive the alien apocalypse!). The African brigantes rape, pillage, and cannibalize--they are literally more savage than the Psychlos. It's gross and, again, lazy. It would have been fascinating to see the different cultures that could have evolved over 1,000+ years, but instead of taking the time to create those, Hubbard just drew on present-day stereotypes.
4. The sci-fi parts of the novel are, more often than not, lazy and predictable. Again, there are some really interesting bits, and it's to Hubbard's credit that he sees them through. But there's plenty that just made me roll my eyes.Can we just talk about the fact that the evil banking aliens who come to foreclose on Earth are described as physically resembling sharks? Come on.
My husband read the book along with me and enjoyed it. He likes Tom Clancy and light sci-fi--books that are much heavier on action than they are on character. If that's what you're looking for, you might quite enjoy Battlefield Earth--but then again, maybe not. It is really freaking long.
(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)
Since I didn’t read a print version of Battlefield Earth, I’ve apparently been spelling everyone’s name wrong in my head. I’m sticking with my spelling in this review because my way is better.
Before I review the book overall, some notes on this recorded version: I was pretty impressed. The narrator is great, as are most of the voice actors and the sound effects. They salvage some unbearably cheesy scenes with the sheer emotion of their performances. When the narrative tells us that an explosion rocks the camp, we hear the sound of an explosion; when Johnny fiddles with a machine, we hear mechanical clinks and clanks. The music that plays quietly behind some scenes was also great for setting emotional tones.
My only complaint about this “movie of the mind” is the unfortunate “cinematic soundtrack”—not the music that sometimes plays quietly behind the narrative, but the thirty seconds of weird dissonant noise at the end of each track. Do yourself a favor and just skip to the next track when you start to hear it.
So, the book itself. Let me say this first: I didn't hate (most of) it. Parts of it had me sitting in my car in the parking lot because I couldn't go inside without finding out what happened next. The premise is fascinating, and Hubbard put a ton of work into (certain aspects of) this book. But, boy, does it have some very large issues--most of which boil down to authorial laziness.
1. The actual writing is bad. It's lazy and unpolished, full of passive voice and cliches. If I had turned in writing this bad for one of my classes this semester, my teacher would have ripped it apart.
2. The characters are all one thing. Johnny is All Hero. Chrissy is All Swooning Faithful Girlfriend. The Psychlos are All Evil.
3. The character depictions are terribly sexist and racist. I don't value political correctness for its own sake, but Battlefield Earth is sexist and racist to the point of dating the book badly and straining credulity. Historically, patriarchal roles tend to weaken after disasters; necessity demands that women step up and close the gaps. But in Hubbard's earth, women are helpless weaklings who WILL die if a man doesn't heroically save them.
The racism chiefly comes into play
4. The sci-fi parts of the novel are, more often than not, lazy and predictable. Again, there are some really interesting bits, and it's to Hubbard's credit that he sees them through. But there's plenty that just made me roll my eyes.
My husband read the book along with me and enjoyed it. He likes Tom Clancy and light sci-fi--books that are much heavier on action than they are on character. If that's what you're looking for, you might quite enjoy Battlefield Earth--but then again, maybe not. It is really freaking long.
(I received this book for free through a Goodreads giveaway.)