The Invaders Plan [Abridged] (Audio Cassette)

So rather than having a book follow the main hero character and the way he easily thwarts all the bad guys, we instead see it told from the perspective of those bad guys, how they lay all these intricate traps and their befuddlement as the hero inexplicably manages to thwart their every evil move, sometimes without trying. It's intentionally funny in a very Wile E. Coyote sort of way.

But there's two warnings I think have to be said:
1) For readers in general, the series peters out starting around book 7. It's like he ran out of gas after 6 books but really wanted a set of 10 so pushed out 3 more books. The ending is disappointing and the last books are like a punishment to read.

2) PARENTAL WARNING, EXTREME PERVERSION. If they made a loyal movie out of this series, it would not be rated NC-17, it would actually be illegal in most civilized countries, and that's no exaggeration. It starts off innocently enough but eventually gets into some of the worst perversion you'll ever read in a book. Sex with a corpse isn't even the worst of it. The fact that more people don't comment on this leads me to believe most people never read the whole series. The review that mentioned therapy was not even kidding.

So in the end I'm not sure what to say about it. The books always stand out in my mind because of the perspective and humor of seeing things from the bad guy's viewpoint, but I never actually suggest this series to friends because it's so absurdly perverted in places. Having read this series as the first thing I've ever read by Hubbard is a big part of why I never took his Scientology and other stuff seriously: L. Ron Hubbard was not right in the head and there's no way you can read this whole series and not arrive at the same conclusion.

If you're 18 or over, go for it, but I wouldn't suggest buying this series for your kids.

The great thing about the Mission Earth series is, as others have mentioned, it's told from the first person POV of Soltan Gris, a coniving, weasly, agent who uses blackmail, extortion, and murder to try and maintain his power in the agency over Jetro Heller, the James-Bondish "hero" of the series with the Devilish good lucks and amazing talent. The great thing abot HUbbard's writing, is that you don't root for Heller to succeed. Seeing everything from Soltan's point of view creates a lot of sympathy and drawsyour favor toward him.

The entire series can get a bit monotonous at times and hard to make it through, but I can never forget the guilty pleasures and immense enjoyment I had when I first started reading this series.