The Enemy Within Book Review: Espionage, Absurdity & Alien Infiltration

A Masterclass in Satirical Science Fiction

Some science-fiction books have the air of belonging firmly to the period in which they were written. Others lead you to stop midway and ask yourself, “Wait a minute—when exactly was this book written?” L. Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth Volume 3: The Enemy Within will make you ask this.

First published in 1986, this third book in the ten-volume Mission Earth dekalogy is an extravagant blend of alien infiltration, political conspiracy, espionage, corruption, manipulation, dark humor, and general human absurdity. Although it is entirely over-the-top and deliberately ridiculous, at times its satire seems almost uncomfortably near to the world we know today.

Maybe it is that which makes this specific volume so interesting.

Earth has already been penetrated. But the threat does not necessarily stem from the obvious outsiders. It comes from those who are operating quietly within the system. Jettero Heller is still determined to carry out his mission. He must ensure that Earth does not destroy itself before Voltar’s intended invasion. Nevertheless, his development of a powerful fuel substitute makes him all the more troublesome to the people who prefer to retain control for themselves.

Soltan Gris goes on with his account of the events from his wonderfully distorted point of view. Since he is an agent of the Voltarian faction—or, as this universe terms it, a member of the Coordinated Information Apparatus—Gris is still plotting, manipulating, and attempting to prevent Heller from succeeding. Of course, things seldom turn out as intended.

The conflict is what provides the book with so much of its momentum. Heller is aiming to achieve something which, in theory, appears fairly simple. Meanwhile, Gris and the ever-more complicated network associated with him are determined to make everything as chaotic as possible.

In fact, “chaos” is the most appropriate term to describe this book.

A World Where Nobody Is Quite What They Seem

One of the most amusing aspects of The Enemy Within is the fact that it is full of twists and turns. One conspiracy leads to another. Political maneuvering is placed alongside alien infiltration. Financial interests come into conflict with espionage. The media, public relations agencies, organized crime, and intelligence agencies all end up forming part of the big system of manipulation.

The Mafia, the CIA, the KGB, the Illuminati, Wall Street, public relations, the press, propaganda, drugs, politics, and a large number of secret agendas should make you suspect almost everybody in the story.

The huge number of elements that Hubbard includes in the narrative might easily appear exhausting. However, the book accepts its own excess and has a certain swagger about it. It is aware of how outrageous it is and seems entirely comfortable in taking things even further.

It’s not subtle science fiction; instead, it is loud, satirical, and deliberately exaggerated.

Jettero Heller and the Enemy Within

Jettero Heller is at the heart of all this.

Heller is surrounded by individuals whose motives are seldom simple. It is precisely because of this that his efforts to carry out his mission place him in the way of those who gain from the present system. The project to develop a fuel substitute becomes especially significant since it menaces existing interests.

What is interesting is that the greatest danger does not have to be some massive alien weapon coming down from the sky. It lies in the network of people who already have influence over Earth.

The title The Enemy Within is therefore very suitable.

The story constantly deals with the notion that it is very difficult to spot an enemy when that enemy appears to be an ordinary individual, works through institutions, controls the information, or is just skilled at manipulating public opinion.

That leads us to one of my favorite sections of the book.

J. Walter Madison: A Man Who Seems Awfully Modern

J. Walter Madison is one of the types of people who at first glance may appear to be exaggerated.

He is a genius when it comes to public relations and shows very little moral restraint. His main concern is not truth, ethics, or indeed the consequences themselves. What is important is attracting attention, securing publicity, and getting people to look in the direction he wishes them to look. In the present-day media environment, his character seems much less absurd than he probably was at the time the book was first published.

Madison ends up with a certain discomfort because of his obsession with publicity, the use of manufactured narratives, sensationalism, and the desire to control public discussion.

It’s almost funny to see how soon the character ceases to have the feel of being science fiction.

It is there that the book’s satire proves especially effective.

Has Science Fiction Been Too Predictive?

This seems to be the question which kept recurring to me as I was reading The Enemy Within.

It is clear that the world presented here is still very different from ours. We don’t have Voltarian agents on Earth—or at least none that I am aware of—and we are not facing an imminent invasion from other galaxies. Fortunately, that particular part of the timeline has not come true.

However, if you remove the aliens and a number of the more extreme features, some of the ideas appear to be extremely familiar:

• Manipulation of public opinion
• Corporate power
• Political division
• Media hysteria
• Propaganda
• Environmental concerns
• The influence of money
• The exploitation of fear
• The capability of producing narratives
• The complex relationship between technology and human behavior

This is no longer something that belongs to the future; it is now a part of daily life.

This gives rise to an odd reading experience since science fiction usually encourages us to imagine a future that has not yet occurred. In this case, some of the book’s alleged exaggerated social commentary can come across as a representation of the present.

The Dark Humor Keeps It from Becoming Too Heavy

Even though the story is full of cynicism, The Enemy Within is not continuously bleak.

A great deal of dark humor is present, and the absurdity of the situations frequently forms part of the amusement. Hubbard takes corruption, conspiracy, and political manipulation and takes them to such an extreme that the absurdity itself becomes funny.

It is certainly a book that will attract people who like dark satire and dark humor rather than those who are seeking a simple, serious science-fiction adventure.

The humor does not necessarily alleviate the book’s more serious themes; rather, it makes it possible to examine them.

The simplest method of showing that something is ridiculous is to make it even more ridiculous.

Soltan Gris Makes Everything More Complicated

The fact that the story is told by a character who is both unreliable and morally dubious gives the series its special character. Gris does not act as the heroic voice leading us through the adventure. On the contrary, his point of view is self-serving, paranoid, and often hilarious in its own way.

He is always attempting to outmaneuver Heller, but his plans continually encounter difficulties.

The fact that the events are viewed from his point of view also contributes to the book’s main theme of misinformation. It is not just that we are seeing a struggle between good and evil; we are also seeing rival agendas, distorted perspectives, and people attempting to control what others believe.

Since the story is so focused on manipulation, the narrator himself can not be completely trusted.

That feels fitting.

Babe Corleone and the Expanding Cast

The book furthermore features characters who give the story, which is already full of them, even more interest. Babe Corleone, who is the head of a Mafia family, is one of the more memorable figures, extending organized crime further into the ever-stranger network of interests associated with Heller.

The character who stayed with me most was J. Walter Madison, also known as a “PR Genius.” In The Enemy Within, his role becomes critical as he is hired to launch a massive, fabricated smear campaign against Jettero Heller. One of the book’s most acute observations is that the individual in charge of a story needn’t have to control the truth; all they need to do is make sure that people hear the right thing. Hubbard masterfully illustrates this through Madison’s calculated use of sensationalism. The idea seems especially relevant in our current digital age, where viral narratives routinely eclipse factual reporting and attention itself has become a supreme source of political and financial power.

An Excessive, Cynical, and Surprisingly Relevant Sci-Fi Experience

The novel Mission Earth Volume 3: The Enemy Within by no means has a restrained style.

It is vast. It is dramatic. It is full of conspiracy. It is at times ridiculous and manages to throw a nearly absurd number of ideas, institutions, and characters into the same story.

Under the surface of the extravagance, there is a surprisingly keen concern with human behavior.

The book looks at what occurs when people become obsessed with power, money, influence, and control. It examines how simple it is to manipulate public opinion and how difficult it then becomes to tell the real information apart from fabricated narratives since everyone has something to gain.

The strangest thing is that observations made in a book written many years ago can sound entirely up-to-date.

Science fiction has always been concerned with creating worlds that do not exist. Yet the most interesting aspect of some classic science-fiction novels is realizing that the fictional world they present is not as far removed from our own as one might have thought.