Before thinking up Dianetics and then Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was a pulp fiction writer. As you can see in the photo, he cranked out yarns in various genres, but mostly Hubbard was a science fiction writer.
Hubbard’s 800-page sci-fi novel Battlefield Earth was published in 1982. I spotted a hardcover copy in a bookshop, marked down to ten bucks from $24. I bought the book and really liked it. John Travolta later produced, and starred in, the notoriously bad movie adaptation.
On a Facebook group, somebody posted a Battlefield Earth cover with different art from my copy. I don’t know who painted the original cover, but there’s no mistaking the other artist. It was Frank Frazetta.
My motivation to buy Battlefield Earth was remembering how much I enjoyed reading Hubbard’s Fear. I’d picked up an old, beat-up 1950’s reprint of the 1940 novella at a convention for cover price — 35-cents.
“Enjoy” may not be the right word to describe reading Fear. I recall it was genuinely unsettling. With Halloween a week away, I thought I’d read Fear again, but I no longer have my old paper copy. During the time when I was an occasional contributor to the (defunct) Comics Buyer’s Guide, I sent it to Don and Maggie Thompson for a reason I don’t fully recall. Fortunately, the Kindle edition is only $3 on Amazon.
