Battlefield Earth

Did everyone survive Daylight Savings Time? It seems so early this year! Literally.

I’ve nearly finished Ron Hubbard’s 430,000 word epic sci-fi, BATTLEFIELD EARTH. It’s long but well worth it as I draw to the end. I always enjoying finding new favorites, and this is one I’ll reread.

As a side note, did you know Mr. Hubbard also wrote westerns? I didn't, but check out David Cranmer's blog where earlier this week several of us had a good discussion around David's post on Hubbard.

Spoiler alert – don’t read ahead if you don’t want me to give away part of the ending.

So, the premise of the book has been that it’s the year 3000 and aliens have mined the earth and reduced us to cavemen, but we steal their technology and battle back. It’s great, but what I like here at the end is that just as I think humanity has overthrown its aggressors (the aptly named Psychlos), we discover that there’s an even deadlier threat – a mortgage on the planet owed to the Galaxy Bank!

Perhaps it’s the current economic times and news of Citi and all these others struggling, but I just love this twist that Hubbard has thrown his readers. Just when we think we’ve saved the planet, we forget that we need money to pay the mortgage. I hadn’t quite figured out the little gray bankers, but they seem devious (no offense to the bankers out there).

On a writing note, I’m making a note to try and give my readers a little unsuspected, ending twist in my future works. It takes some extra planning and forethought, but I always like a book with an extra surprise to it.