THE AUTHOR, THE BOOK & THE AUDIO PRODUCTION.
Despite the infamous reputation of L. Ron Hubbard or how one feels about the individual himself and the practices he may have participated in, this is beyond doubt his greatest science fiction master piece. Unique and killfully written, this action packed and fast moving narrative will keep the listener transfixed as they might ponder; what happens next? Battlefield Earth has all the elements that's make it a certain classic in the Sci-Fi genre, it contains nearly every kind of subgenre that one can think of that fits into the narrative seamlessly. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any Sci-fi fan, I am pretty confident that the majority of people will enjoy this edition. The production quality of this audio book is quite high, the sound effects are good and the narrator's voice is both skillfully expressive and emotive, the use of female voices at the appropriate parts are a nice touch. If I had any criticism at all, it is with the character voices of the Psychlo adversary's, I felt they sounded a little too alike, at times making it difficult to determine what was being said by whom. It must be stated though that I also felt that it did not interfere with my enjoyment of the production.
THE STORYLINE.
This voluminous book is set in a post apocalyptic Earth, where an evil race called the PSYCHLO had decimated Earth' s military and population in just 9 minutes, with the use of invincible gas drones. Johnny " Good Boy" Tyler, one of the few precious survivors left generations after the attack, is captured by a Psychlo called TERL, the chief security officer of the mining corporation tasked with stripping the Earth of its precious minerals. Terl has plans to use some of the remaining humans upon the Earth to mine the last remaining gold deposit on the planet so as to buy his way to power back on his home world. The gold is situated in the radioactive mountains of North America, in which radioactivity remains, this is deadly to all Psychlo's and becomes extremely explosive when tiny amounts mix with Psychlo's breath gas. Terl intends to use an advanced brain educator machine to train Johnny to operate and repair the Psycho equipment, so that he could then train other human captives to help him mine the gold for the greedy and devious Psychlo. Johnny learns much more about Psychlo's and their technology than Terl realizes and as a result, he determines to rid the Earth of Psychlo's forever.
In a battle of wit's between captor and captive, Johnny sets off to complete a complex plan, with the aid of other groups of survivors around the world, to not only destroy all Psychclo's, but they also end up having to also fight a evil and deadly mercenary force called The BRIGANDS, who for generations had been working for the invaders and capturing humans to be tortured by the bored Psychlo, as a twisted form of sport.
Subsequently, Johnny has to rush against the clock to ensure the Earths survival against a gas drone launched by Terl to exterminate the last remaining humans on Earth. He also has to fend off multiple alien war fleets surrounding the planet. They are greedily intent on ransacking Earth's riches, enslaving its population and finally, ensure the planet's destruction. Johnny struggles desperately to find solutions to all of these problems, as everything and everyone he holds dear hangs in the balance between survival and annihilation. Then, without warning, a new adversary, more powerful than the universally hated Psychclo dictatorship shows up. Time is running out ever too quickly now, while Johnny and his friends myst face a dangerous and hideous monster that is intent upon dividing up the remains of Planet Earth to the highest bidder. The INTERGALACTIC BANK, and they are foreclosing on the Psychlo property called Earth!
