THE ENEMY WITHIN: Volume III of MISSION EARTH

Chunk Three of the 10-book pulp epic Mission Earth--the remaining seven volumes will appear, according to the publisher, ""at approximately two-month intervals."" This one's an often mindless, twiddling addition to an impossibly bloated, misshapen enterprise. Voltarian super-agent Jettero Heller continues his covert mission to save Earth from choking on its own pollution. Meanwhile, his handler, slimy Apparatus legman Soltan Gris, proceeds with his plans to enrich himself, restrain Heller, and obey his orders from above (Gris' boss Lombar Hisst intends to disrupt Voltar with drugs supplied by Earth, then take over as Emperor). Gris, accordingly, must stop Heller at all costs (else the Emperor will invade Earth prematurely)--but Gris can't kill Heller until he discovers the latter's private method of communicating with the Emperor. Heller's adventures are at least vaguely readable and sometimes even smile-worthy, though Hubbard's flood of sly allusions scarcely merits the term satire. On the other hand, Gris' turgid catalogue of self-inflicted difficulties is just plain idiotic, and tedious in the extreme. Preposterous balderdash, strictly for series fanatics.