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/lit/ - Literature

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1990799 No.1990799 [Reply] [Original]

So everyone knows L. Ron Hubbard for being the founder of the religion Scientology. But most people know that he also wrote Science Fiction books as well (the pic is one of them). I haven't read any and I was wondering if anyone has and what they thought. Please suspend your beliefs about Scientology and address whether or not he is actually a good writer.

>> No.1990804

>So everyone knows L. Ron Hubbard...
>But most people know that he also wrote...

Is it just me or does this sound a bit odd?

>> No.1990807

>>1990804
Sure it's not perfect writing but I'm not going for an essay or anything

>> No.1990809

>>1990804
SLEUTH! I thik you are onto something.

>> No.1990810

I picked up Battlefield Earth at Kuta airport in Indonesia to read whilst flying back in the 90s, I didn't click who the author was, I just bought it because it was a huge sci fi book (1000 pages or so) and the reviews were very good on the cover.

I really enjoyed it, it was not the best written, god tier sci-fi or anything like that but it was exciting, the story kept going and going and going, just when you thought wtf its ending...bam its off again.

You won't be reading the best book ever, you will hopefully be reading a book that is so long and has so much story in it (even if a little mad sometimes) you can fai lto be entertained.

I remember one of the reviews saying it was like Indiana Jones & Star Wars all rolled into one, this to me was true.

>> No.1990813

>>1990799
I got to book 6 of the 10 book series he wrote.

Got fed up when the charecters were too one dimensional. ALL GOOD OR ALL BAD, no gray area.

>> No.1990816

>>1990799
I did the Scientology personality test, they sent me an email asking to call them about my answers and futher interviews...

>> No.1990822

>>1990816
did you do it? are you a scientologist?

>> No.1990826

>>1990822
Nope. Fucking joke... personality tests are easy to contort.

Besides I heard from someone that Scientology was started as a bet between Hubbard and another writer.

I didn't feel like wasting money on phone calls to them

>> No.1990850

I've read some of his earlier stuff and it's not bad. Pulpy as hell, but entertaining. In his later years he got really self-indulgent and decided that he was too good for editors, which resulted in stuff like Battlefield Earth. The central story isn't bad, but the climax occurs somewhere around page 400 of an 1100 page book and the rest is just bizarre meandering. Slow pacing works for some styles, but for pulp SF it just results in a long and boring read.

>> No.1990888

I've read three books by L Ron Hubbard: Fear, Death's Deputy, and Typewriter in the Sky.

Fear was a solid psychological horror novel.
Death's Deputy was good, pulpy fun.
Typewriter in the Sky was mediocre at best. I thought it dragged on, which is surprising considering its length (it is 197 pages, but the font was pretty big and was like double spaced).

The endings were all troll endings, though (I'll post plot summaries in the next post).

>> No.1990899

Fear was about a man who was experiencing very strange, supernatural events. At the end of the book it is revealed that he imagined, literally, 90% of the book. It is also revealed that he killed his wife and best friend (the two other main characters in the book).

Death's Deputy was about a man who could never die, but everyone AROUND him died. Because of this, he abandoned his lover. In the end, he gives up his "power" to be with his love and immediately finds out that his lover wasn't vulnerable to die around him. He died immediately after.

Typewriter in the Sky was about a man who got sucked into his friend's story. His friend was a writer who used him as the basis of a character. In the end, he escapes back to the "real world" and comes to the revelation that his friend is actually God (to be honest, this last part is a bit unclear. the ending was kinda ambiguous IIRC)

I read them so you don't have to!

>> No.1990907

>>1990899
thanks brosef!!

>> No.1990918

>>1990899
Those....those sound terrible.

>> No.1990922

>>1990918
Meh, they were quick, fun reads. If they were longer, I'd probably be annoyed by the endings. Instead they just made me laugh.

I own both To the Stars and Final Blackout. I'll have to give them a read one of these days.

I don't think I'll ever bother with Battlefield Earth, though.

>> No.1990943

I read Fear. His writing is hacky pulp.

Actually I recommend his Scientology writing as excellent Science Fiction.

OP fails to acknowledge Scientology as fiction entertainment because he's ONE OF THEM.