CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION MUST READS BY L. RON HUBBARD

Guest blogger John Carey

L. Ron Hubbard is well-known for his science fiction. While he has written many novels and short stories throughout his professional writing career, there are some which stand out as must-reads for any hard-core science fiction fan.

Here are my top-five recommended sci-fi books:

BATTLEFIELD EARTH, science fiction space opera

At the top of my reading list for any science fiction is the epic space opera book Battlefield Earth. This is one of the few books I have enjoyed so much that I’ve read it twice.

The good guys are good, and the bad guys play mean and dirty, some blatantly, while others work their evil by smiling to your face while simultaneously stabbing you in the back. This story is loaded with characters you will love, along with many you will love to hate.

This is one of the early post-apocalyptic dystopian stories with very grim beginnings. The story starts in the year 3000, more than 1,000 years after Earth has been decimated by an alien invasion—the humans are virtually extinct.

The hero, Jonnie, gets captured and is starving. While he wishes to escape, he quickly understands that force alone will not win his freedom against sadistic aliens standing nine feet tall and weighing over a ton. He compels himself to withstand their abuse while studying this overwhelming enemy.

Through his never-say-die drive, Jonnie bands his hastily assembled group of men together with a soldier’s esprit de corps and the power of the human spirit, which is so inspiring in the best military science fiction. And the hero soon finds himself leading the few human survivors in a revolt which has almost no chance of vanquishing the evil aliens.

What starts with an alien invasion on Earth and the struggle for freedom soon erupts across 16 galaxies with soldiers, space battles, and interstellar travel (both spaceships and teleportation) in a space opera of epic proportion. And when that battle has ended, an even more evil group of politicians and statesmen step in to take control of Earth, adding unexpected intergalactic twists and turns.

In open warfare, the enemy is clear, but not so when the battle for humanity moves into the political arena spanning numerous alien cultures and politicians. The statesmen smile and tell people what they want to hear while behind the scenes they are planning for evil and illicit gains. Jonnie can’t understand men of this nature and has no desire to work with them, but with the future of every remaining survivor in his hands, he is forced to rise to the challenge.

Will Jonnie succeed in a field he knows so little, inhabited by bankers and politicians who throw countries and planets around like a battlefield-soldier throws lead?

Well, I can’t give away everything; you’ll just have to read for yourself one of the best stories ever. The first 13 chapters or the first hour of the audiobook are free. (This is one of the best sci-fi audiobooks of all time!)

For the Battlefield Earth 40th anniversary, the publisher launched a page with a multitude of information about the book, including the movie, artwork, and science inspired by the novel.

A VERY STRANGE TRIP, time travel comedy adventure

A close second in the science fiction genre is A Very Strange Trip.

Imagine a comedy adventure with an out-of-control time machine and an unlikely hero packed into a fun story to read! You will really enjoy this one.

This is the type of book you take to the beach in the summer and speed through in a day and are happy that you didn’t have any scheduled excursions to tear you away.

The plot hooks you in the first few pages as a young man is ripped from his family and the love of his life while being thrown into the army—where he is soon in charge of driving a military ATV full of experimental Russian top-secret equipment cross-country.

Each character you meet is entertaining yet still real-enough to have been someone you’ve met in life. Private Dumphee quickly stumbles into three beautiful women, who, although they come from a much different time, soon prove themselves capable of protecting him and the cargo.

This quartet handles the accidental time-travel as best they can, even though almost everywhere they travel, or rather when they travel, the locals promptly make them out as enemies.
The group continues back to earlier and earlier periods as the military ATV “time machine” hits rough terrain.

The reader will be sucked into this story, reading faster and faster to figure out how one adventure ends while trying to guess what the next adventure will be! This is a wild ride and a very funny story—it is hysterical at times and wickedly original.

FINAL BLACKOUT, military sci-fi/alternate history

This next novel was an addiction that I couldn’t put down. It also warrants the must-read list and can legitimately be called a page-turner as it pulls you right into the story.

I have read many novels by many authors, but few have left me with the impact of this one.

Written at the outset of World War II, this battlefield novel is set in a dystopian future, where continuous world war and disease have ravaged the land and the people. (Imagine if WWII never ended.)

An English force consisting of a strong group of soldiers, led by the Lieutenant, make their way across France, still in battle against whatever bands of both enemies and friends who try to do them in. Everyone in his force serves the Lieutenant with fierce loyalty because he has proven time and again that whatever he does, the Lieutenant does it for the good of his men.

And even once this group makes their way back to England, the fight has only just begun. Since Communists have long ago taken rule, the repatriated soldiers are vastly outnumbered and must battle to live and remain in their homeland.

It would be dismissive to simply call this a “war” story, or military science fiction, or even alternate history, because it is all of these and much more. You are drawn into the character of leaders and the behind-the-scenes politics where the real battles take place.

You can’t help but think that this novel was a warning of the upcoming World War II and other future wars and the catastrophes which happen to a populace when weak, angry, and controlling men are allowed to rule.

This is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves a student of mankind and politics.

TO THE STARS, space opera

This story illustrates space travel in its most vivid and harsh form. You as the reader are thrown into a time when traveling to the stars is performed only by a small percentage of hardy souls who literally give up everything connected to life on Earth.

To the Stars opens with one of my favorite lines:
“Space is deep, Man is small and Time is his relentless enemy….” —L. Ron Hubbard

The hero, Alan Corday, has run into a string of bad luck. He recently graduated an an engineer 10th class with no employment waiting. His family’s fortune has been squandered which means he will have to fend for himself in a brutal world. And on top of that, the woman he loves is out of reach unless he can change his financial standing.

Shanghaied from the spaceport at New Chicago, Alan is taken aboard the Hound of Heaven. When he wakes, he discovers the spacecraft is bound for the stars at 186,000 miles per second!

The impact of realizing that traveling at the speed of light for three months means that half a century on earth will have passed, hits him. And suddenly Alan understands that the world he left behind is truly vanishing into the distant past. Everything he loves, everything he believes in … is becoming history. He is a wanderer in eternity and nothing in the cold, dark forbidding reaches of space can prepare him for the astounding discovery he will make upon his long-awaited return from the stars.

This early look at Einstein’s Time Dilation theory hits home hard. I could not put it down until the very last page… and what an unexpected ending is waiting for the reader!

Another of my favorite classic sci-fi authors has this to say about the story:
“One of the greatest science fiction novels that has ever been written” —Jerry Pournelle, (Lucifer’s Hammer)

THE INVADERS PLAN, alien invasion satire

This is the first in a ten-volume series. Initially, the idea of committing to a decalogy was overwhelming—but after I read the first 30 pages I strapped myself in for this amazing tale and was hooked.

The story moves quickly: imagine seeing our world, and all of its craziness through the eyes of an alien.

What I loved about The Invaders Plan is how the story is told through the viewpoint of the villain.

Of course I wasn’t rooting for Sultan, but being exposed to the mindset of someone really evil was unique and fun, along with seeing all the traps he sets for the hero. I was always full of anticipation wondering as to how Jettero Heller would overcome them. I was also left wondering if Jettero would ever catch on to these evil plans Sultan was a part of.

When our planet really is going crazy as you see the fake news and odd priorities of those in control, it can be refreshing to see it from a different view. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the similarities to today’s world.

Sometimes you just have to laugh!

CONCLUSION

These stories yank you in with more force than a tractor-beam pulling in a rebel spaceship. L. Ron Hubbard knew how to take you out of this world, and he really delivers with these stories. They are a great escape from the daily grind and are highly recommended.

With so many great L. Ron Hubbard fiction books to choose from, these top five books are a fantastic place to start. You won’t be disappointed, except when you finally finish, but even then you’ll still have over 250 more Hubbard novels and short stories from which to choose!

The publisher has also created several resources for book clubs if you are part of a reading group.

What is your favorite book?  Let me know in the comments!

John Carey paid the bills working as a programmer and IT project manager while he honed his writing skills at night and on the weekends.

John has just published his second book, Not Worthy of the Air you Breathe set in the future where nations have taken a cue from the business world and terminate their low performing citizens at the end of each year.