I understand that the current norm is to compare everything that already has been done. The book pulled that aspect of current society off easily. but the near constant referencing of every book, movie, or tv show was a bit over the top for me. Not that it was bad; I got about 80% of the references. Just seemed like it was ripping off what was references and it took away from the originality of the story. Which the story was well done and original for me. (Unless you want to compare it to Suisei no Gargantia - anime about a future military character being thrown into the past and finding out his commanding officer had the same experience but fly back a bit further in time than he did. but I digress)Aside from the references the book just read so well. I love that about Mr. Sullivan's work. You don't get tired of reading. Everything just flows and hours escape without a fuss. I've read some books that are actually a chore to read a page, re-read the page, then analyze the paragraph to see what the author was trying to say (*cough* Brent Weeks' Night angel trilogy *cough cough*). I finished this book in 3 days time and I am a sloooooow reader. But I had time after work in the evening and I just sat with the book without noting that 4 hours gone each night.As for the story itself. I understand, love, and agree with how his vision of the future played out. I especially liked that the Museum of War and Museum of Religion were labeled Mankind's biggest mistakes. Star trek fans I think will be pleased with the utopian~esc future and the gadgets. Hollow, hollow, hollowMichael J Sullivan is a new author to me - an Amazon recommendation when I was hunting for Kindle/Audible pairings. He's achieved trad published and self-published books - unusually this one was crowd funded, which allowed him to pay for professional external editing and audiobook production under his own control.In many ways that has worked well - the narrator (Jonathan Davis) is good and the text he's reading is sound, editing-wise. Infodumps were few and far between. So the mechanics are good.What about the story, then? It took me on an interesting journey, with a sympathetic, but far-from-perfect protagonist, Ellis Rogers. Ellis grows along the way, experiences loss and healing, learns to outgrow his prejudices and in most ways becomes a better human being. He also saves the world.The book is reminiscent of Heinlein's The Door into Summer, which I intend as a compliment. Except that there isn't a cat, and Ellis is, if anything, a dog person. Oh well...Hollow World is themed around time travel, which is Sullivan's primary "what-if". Unlike The Door into Summer, it's one way. That moves it into the Rip Van Winkle territory, so perhaps the what-if is "here's humanity, two thousand years in the future. It's different."Ellis Rogers builds a time machine in his garage, is diagnosed with an incurable disease, and pushes the button. Arriving not quite when he expected, he stumbles straight into a murder, then meets Pax, whom we realise pretty quickly is going to be a major character.Pax is an arbitrator, so by my reckoning ought to be able to persuade people. However, his main technique seems to be to say "X is true. I can't tell you how I know. Trust me."This happens often enough that it becomes obvious that Sullivan is hiding a key plot element from the reader. For me, that breaks the rules of mystery writing - you don't point to the locked box and say "the solution lies within, but I the author am just going to tantalise you until it suits me to reveal what I have concealed therein." For the sake of balance, I will admit that he does provide clues as to what might be in the box (and I guessed right). But a good mystery novel works by hiding the truth in plain sight, then surrounding it with misdirection. Sleight of hand, not stonewalling.I said I guessed right about the contents of the metaphorical box containing the key plot element. I'm afraid that it was a disappointment, in that it added yet another what-if, which breaks the rules of sci-fi - you make one major change to reality only.Pax says "I can't tell you how I know - trust me" once too often, loses the trust of Ellis Rogers, and vanishes. Thereafter Ellis is on his own, taken in by the plausible lies of those about him, while I the reader am seriously considering a DNF on this, despite the excellent world-building and a lovable-but-annoying AI. The villains are too obvious, and Ellis' stubborn refusal to believe ill of his friend became seriously irritating. Again, there's lots of hand-waving by the author, and you know he's hiding stuff.Finally the nature of the plot is revealed and it turns out that Hollow World has a single point of failure - really? They have Maker technology that can transmute elements and turn out pre-charged batteries of near-limitless power - and yet the villains decide to employ a twentieth-century device as their weapon - really? And that business of teleporting (yet another what-if) the weapons out into interstellar space? Umm, you're in the core of the planet, surrounded by molten rock - just dropping the things into the molten rock is quite sufficient to render the most powerful of weapons quite ineffective - if you don't believe me, ask Frodo.Finally, I have to believe that Sullivan's tongue was firmly in cheek when he engineered a thrilling race against time, and maker-equipped Ellis with a digital watch so we could have a countdown in the movie version.There is good in the book - the world-building - and bad - the physics - and ugly - the breaking of literary conventions. So I did finish the book, and it did take me with Ellis on a journey to a pat ending.But the stuff I had to put up with along the way...
What do You think about Hollow World (2014)?
An excellent SF novel, with one-way time travel, only forward, to a new world.
—Dudley
This book was pretty good. Cool concept. The science parts were the best.
—queen
A clear equal to H.G. Wells Time Machine novel. Read it.
—John
