I completely agree that there are large stretches of utter dreck interspersed with moments of delightful bizarreness. The big problem is that what those moments are is so subjective. Personally, I found the whole "learning the Psychlo math" section delightfully surreal, because the math itself is so paranoid.
One warning: do not try to read it in big chunks. I may have enjoyed it as much as I did because I was reading it, literally, at stoplights. It's not too bad, in fifteen- to thirty-second bits.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Another crappy Anvilicious book with a ludicrous premise and message that gets ridiculous amounts of customers and supporters regardless? Can't...Resist...Book...Even...After...Atlas Shrugged.... I might consider picking it up then.
Didn't think it was nearly as bad as most people seem to. Definitely not subtle, at all, but it does have a lot of interesting subject matter, but needs some appreciation of bizarre semi-intellectual weirdness or one isn't likely to enjoy it at all (other than by laughing at it).
Don't like "Them" for their hypocritical fanatic jackassery and bullshit, am wary of the author spewing opinionated garbage, but, otherwise, I find this book to be mostly fine.
Honestly, I never had to put it down and stop reading it for months at a time. Contrast with "The Lord of the Rings", which would throw a lots of wondrous and interesting plot at me for many chapters then hit me with 5 pages so boring I couldn't keep my eyes on them for half a minute, needing over a month to work up the nerve to get past them. Twice.
Of course, that's probably because THAT book's good parts (most of it, actually) were THAT good. THIS book is ... like a lowland plain: not the soaring (but slightly bumpy) mountains, but not the abyss of the sea floor either. It's a very flat area with several large hills (and a few bottomless sinkholes for those judgmental types).
I didn't think the book was terrible. It was a little long, and Johnny's invincibility got downright annoying. A great twist would have been to have him die somehow at a crucial or perhaps random point. Could have easily still attributed everything to Johnny by having the others continue on 'in his spirit' or something.
It was a mindless but entertaining read, sort of like a too long Michael Bay/Steven Seagal film.
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Should You Read It? Good Question...
Battlefield Earth is a wretched piece of literature, a rambling tale of an invincible hero, the plot device he is in love with, unimpressive villains, and a world-shaking conflict the outcome of which is never in doubt. It is hundreds of pages too long, lacks any sense of excitement, and doesn't hide its prejudices well. It is clearly garbage, but that is not Battlefield Earth's biggest problem.
The biggest obstacle to enjoying Battlefield Earth is that it is almost exactly between So Bad It's Good and So Bad It's Horrible.
Parts of it are charmingly awful: the way the author's racism shines through in the form of national stereotypes or certain characters, the ever-present paranoia about psychologists messing with our brains, the ham-handed attempts at political commentary, the way the main character grows in Sueishness almost to the point of parody but is nonetheless played completely straight. But these redeeming moments can be few and far between, surrounded by vast stretches of mind-numbing tedium.
A reader may have to force him- or herself through certain sections not because they are bad, but because they are un-entertaingly bad. Jonny suffers a head injury while hijacking a drone bomber - can he disable it before it unloads its deadly cargo of toxins? Of course he will, there's hundreds of pages left. You just have to suffer through a couple of chapters until he does. Uh oh, now Jonny has to master Psychlo mathematics to figure out this teleporter - how many pages will it take for the plot to move forward this time? And while the concept of having to learn math to save the world may sound hilariously stupid, it's a lot less fun than it sounds, and turns out to be just regular stupid.
Getting any enjoyment out of Battlefield Earth largely depends on the reader's willpower and tolerance for pain. With the right mindset, parts of the book are narmfully hilarious, but to experience these nuggets of fun you'll have to endure entire chapters that are the literary equivalent of Styrofoam peanuts. If you're willing to put some effort into it, Battlefield Earth can be rewarding, but otherwise you may want to take our word for how bad it is.
If this piques your curiosity and you do buy it, get it used. No sense rewarding Them for publishing it.