Epic plain and simple. The people that fallow Scientology may be crazy, but Hubbard is not. I would put this book in the top of great Sci-Fi. Took a while to read, but was totally worth it. This covers a hell of a lot more than the movie even scratched the surface of and if you know anything about americanized versions of great books, you should know that they never do the book justice. Find out for yourself.