Mission Earth (novel)

Mission Earth is a ten-volume science fiction novel by L. Ron Hubbard, more famous as the founder of the Church of Scientology. It was Hubbard's last work of fiction and all volumes after the first were published posthumously. All volumes made the New York Times bestseller list through a notable and controversial attempt at chart-rigging, but the series received almost universal critical condemnation.

Mission Earth is not a series of ten novels, but a single 1.2 million word novel cut into ten parts for publication.

Contents

1 Authorship 2 Sales controversy 3 Critical reactions 4 Synopsis 5 Volumes 6 References 7 External links

Authorship

The authorship of the novel has been questioned in the past. It was produced in the last few years of Hubbard's life, when he was in seclusion, and many have doubted Hubbard was up to the task of writing Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth, his first works of fiction in over 30 years.

Robert Vaughn Young, the Church of Scientology's public relations officer at the time, had been ghostwriting much of Hubbard's written communication and edited the text for publication. Young came forward in 2000 and stated that, although he had written the introduction of each volume and much other writing in Hubbard's name in the last few years of Hubbard's life, Hubbard had written the entire main text of the series himself. Furthermore, the writing style is consistent with Hubbard's earlier pulp magazine writing. Hubbard is generally accepted as the author of the text.

Sales controversy

The Mission Earth books were a major sales success, particularly the earlier volumes in the series, with all individual volumes reaching the New York Times bestseller list. The extent to which this reflects actual popularity is strongly questioned.

Many industry watchers believe, and Robert Vaughn Young stated, that the Church of Scientology engaged in a massive book-buying campaign, similar to the campaign to promote Battlefield Earth, so as to deliberately inflate sales of the series in order to promote it as a best-selling literary work. Stories of the books being sent to stores with another store's price tags circulated in the science fiction fan community [1] (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=podkayne1-AEC1FF.22160207112000%40nntp.lightlink.com).

In the years following their publication, unprecedented quantities of remaindered Mission Earth books were delivered to second-hand and discount bookstores.

Critical reactions

In spite of its sales success, Mission Earth was lambasted by critics, receiving many negative reviews. It is frequently cited within science fiction circles as one of the worst science fiction novels of all time. More forgiving literary critics usually cite Battlefield Earth as Hubbard's best work of the later years of his life.

The New York Times review of the novel (December 1, 1986) describes it as "... a paralyzingly slow-moving adventure enlivened by interludes of kinky sex, sendups of effeminate homosexuals and a disregard of conventional grammar so global as to suggest a satire on the possibility of communication through language."

In L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, an essay on Hubbard's literary career, Marco Frenschkowski of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz described the Mission Earth series:

The satire is not humorous, but biting and harsh, which makes the novels not easy to read. Also Hubbard somehow had lost contact with developing narrative techniques: he writes exactly as he had done 40 years earlier. When read as entertainment Mission Earth is disappointing: it does not entertain. Many of the scenes (especially some sexual encounters) are incredibly grotesque, not in a pornographic sense, but they are violently aggressive about modern American ideals. The Mission Earth novels on the whole are a subversive, harsh, poignant attack on American society in the 1980ies. As such they has so far received almost no attention, which perhaps they do deserve a bit more. They also have some quite interesting characters, especially when read with a deconstructionist approach. These 11 later novels by Hubbard are not Scientology propaganda literature, but have some topics in common, especially the very strong opposition against 20th century psychology and psychiatry, which is seen as a major source of evil. All open allusions to Scientology are strictly avoided. They are not as successful in their use of suspense and humour as Hubbard's early tales, but have to say perhaps more about the complex personality of their author.

Synopsis

Young wrote a lengthy introduction to the first volume stating that the novel was meant as a satire and that Hubbard's intent was to "poke barbs" at certain segments of present-day society. Critics of Scientology note that the "satirical" view of the planet Earth is close to the actual world view promoted by Hubbard's Church of Scientology, which believes that the entire planet is in the grip of a grand conspiracy headed by the twin demons of psychiatry and psychology.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The Voltar Confederacy wishes to conquer the planet Earth, which they regard as an important potential base on the main route of their planned invasion of the galactic centre. The Grand Council of Voltar becomes convinced that it must send a mission to prevent Earth from destroying itself, so that they may proceed on their timetable of conquest. The mission is assigned to Fleet Combat Engineer Jettero Heller, a character of perfection and incorruptibility. Soon after reaching Earth, he heads to New York City. He investigates why Earth is self-destructing, unaware that he is being tracked and that factions on Voltar want his mission to fail.

Unknown to Heller, Earth is also the base for a secret plan put into action by the insane, diabolically evil Lombar Hisst to seize the throne of the Emperor of Voltar for himself. Hisst has been importing illegal narcotic drugs from Earth and using them to enslave the entire population of the aristocratic heads of government on Voltar. By turning the entire government into drug addicts, Hisst plans to take control of the Empire for himself. Because of Earth's role as a supplier of drugs, Hisst decides that Heller's mission to save the planet must not succeed.

Lombar Hisst assigns a cowardly, sadistic, greedy stooge named Soltan Gris to head the mission to Earth, in order to sabotage it and destroy Jettero Heller. The majority of the story is told from Gris' point of view, with an emphasis on the comical situations Gris ends up in as he tries to stop Heller. Over the course of the novel, Gris finds himself in possession of a ton of pure gold, which he tries to launder through a Swiss bank account in order to keep it all for himself; he becomes a prisoner of two man-hating lesbians (who end up marrying Gris after he rapes them and thereby "cures" them of their lesbianism); he repeatedly finds himself losing large amounts of money, becoming broke, and having to concoct wild schemes to save himself from his creditors; he has an affair with a young nymphomaniac teenage girl who he cannot escape; he hires a hit man to kill Heller's fiancee, only to stumble through the affair and end up being a target for the hit man himself; he embarks on a long sea cruise through the Mediterranean Sea (mirroring Hubbard's own voyages through the area in the 1970s); and finally, he has the tables turned on him as Heller realizes that he is behind the operation to disrupt his mission.

Heller's investigations of Earth soon reveal to him that the entire planet is in the grip of a vast organized corporate conspiracy headed by the Rockecenter corporation and its head, Delbert John Rockecenter (the similarity to "John D. Rockefeller" is one of many blatant puns and references included in the series by Hubbard). Rockecenter is the head of a vast oil-producing corporation that keeps the population of Earth under control by using drugs and rock and roll music to keep the population sedate. (Rock music is used in the novel to spread sexual deviancy, especially homosexuality, among the population of Earth.)

Heller's attempts to break the demonic control of Earth by Rockecenter make him a target, and the corporation uses its most dangerous weapons to destroy him: psychiatry and psychology, and a mad public relations genius by the name of J. Walter Madison (known as "J. Warbler Madman"). Madison initiates a wide-reaching public relations campaign to make Heller known to the world as a troublemaker called the "Whiz Kid," and to destroy his reputation so that all of Heller's efforts to save the planet come to naught. But fortunately, Heller's outstanding skills and abilities are reinforced by the arrival on Earth of his fiancee, the Countess Krak, and the alliance and friendship of the Mafia — specifically the Corleone family.

After a series of world-shattering events, which include the impact of an ice meteor on the Soviet Union, the world's entire oil supply being turned radioactive and a black hole orbiting the Earth (providing free energy for Heller to harness and make available to the world), Heller returns to Voltar to find that not only have Lombar Hisst's plans to enslave the government nearly succeeded, but Madison the PR madman has been loosed on the empire of Voltar and is in the process of starting a galactic civil war.

Volumes

1. The Invaders Plan (October 1985, ISBN 1-59212-022-9)
2. Black Genesis (March 1986, ISBN 1-59212-023-7)
3. The Enemy Within (May 1986, ISBN 1-59212-024-5)
4. An Alien Affair (August 1986, ISBN 1-59212-025-3)
5. Fortune of Fear (October 1986, ISBN 1-59212-026-1)
6. Death Quest (January 1987, ISBN 1-59212-027-X)
7. Voyage of Vengeance (May 1987, ISBN 1-59212-028-8)
8. Disaster (June 1987, ISBN 1-59212-029-6)
9. Villainy Victorious (September 1987, ISBN 1-59212-030-X)
10. The Doomed Planet (September 1987, ISBN 1-59212-031-8)

Following Hubbard's tradition of inventing new words to promote his ideas (see Scientology beliefs and practices), the series' publisher, Bridge Publications (a Scientology-owned company), coined the word dekalogy, meaning "a series of ten books," to describe and promote the novel.

References

• Hubbard Hot Author Status Called Illusion (http://www.ex-cult.org/Groups/Scientology/sandiego.txt) (Mike McIntyre, San Diego Union, 15 April 1990, p1)
• Costly Strategy Continues To Turn Out Bestsellers (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/la90/la90-5.html) (Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 1990, page A1:1)
• Marco Frenschkowski: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, Marburg Journal of Religion, Volume 4, No. 1 (July 1999)
• Hubbard's "Mission Earth" — the rest of the story (http://www.holysmoke.org/rvy/rvy2.htm) (Robert Vaughn Young, 19 February 2000)

External links

• The Magnum Opus: Mission Earth (http://writer.lronhubbard.org/page102.htm) (lronhubbard.org)