Hollow World

This was a book that I really didn't know what to expect going into it. Sure, I thought I knew by the synopsis that it was going to be similar to The Time Machine but the time travel aspect is really all it had in common. (Thankfully, as I hated The Time Machine so much I didn't even finish it.)

This is a departure for the author - whose fantasy books I love and that's the main reason I decided to read this book. And, honestly, I loved it. The story is one that certainly not everyone will like, but I found it a lot of fun to read about a future earth that WASN'T a dystopia. Also I like the message I got out of the book - not sure everyone will get the same one.

(Silly me, I thought this would be a nice book that I could work on slowly to make up for the crazy fast way I'd been reading other books. You know, something to slowly read a few dozen pages of a day. Less than 24 hours later, I was done with it, so that plan kind of backfired, but it a wonderful way.)


Review from my blog: https://athousandworldssite.wordpress.com/
‘Maybe if Pax were a woman he might have offered a hug or something, but Pax wasn't a woman. The best a man could do for another man was pretend not to see. Only Pax wasn't a man either.
Ellis was lost.'

(Truthfully, Ellis is often lost.)

Ellis Rogers, just diagnosed with a terminal illness and told he has, at best, a year to live, does what any normal, sane, married man in his fifties would: he hops into the time machine he's been building in his garage. Even knowing it's going be a one-way trip, he's hoping for a cure for his illness and sets the device for two hundred years in the future.

When he steps out of the milk-crate-and-minivan-cannibalized time machine, he's surprised (and a little disappointed) to find himself not in a bustling metropolis of flying cars and gravity defying buildings, but an old-growth forest. Where Detroit used to be. Let's just say that nothing about the future is quite what Ellis expected.

And the book isn't quite what I expected. Even knowing the author's other (fantasy) work, I still half expected a book that was dry and ponderous and, well, privileged. I can't help it, I am ashamed to say that I expected Ellis to be ‘privileged cis white man 1.0' – pretty much like the one from the original time machine story. And like Warren. shudder Oh, so much like Warren.

Ellis, actually, handles the whole thing – drastically changed earth, massively changed human culture – rather well. He's a curious sort. He wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger and I can't help but think that prepared him at least a little. He's likable because he doesn't dismiss the world. He doesn't understand it, he misses his world, but he's not going to say his world was better. He faces everything with a healthy dose of curiosity and – even if I was yelling at him for one awful decision he made – I liked him because of all that.

The other characters were a mix. Pax is absolutely wonderful, without a doubt my favorite in the book and definitely one of my favorite this year. The others weren't so likable to me, but there was only one character I truly hated. (The evil, creepy villain, because yes, this story does have a villain that I wanted to kill in the worst way possible.)

I don't really want to get into the world building because I don't want to give out spoilers. Let's just say that it was interesting and very believably handled. I could see the things happen that did, and I could see humanity reacting the way they did. Also, I have to add that the populace still speaks English. It's a little changed, but I was so thrilled that there wasn't a translation phase where we were left at sea.

This book takes a look at gender, love and individuality (and religion to an extent) and how much they matter – or don't – in the grand scheme of being human. I'd tell you more, but, really, this is a book that it's best to just go along with the ride and not know where it'll end up.

Pros: interesting future world, some interesting philosophical discussions, tense climax

Cons: uneven pacing, overuse of pop culture references

When Ellis Rogers hears that he is terminally ill with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, he decides to use the time machine he built in his garage. He says goodbye to his best friend and learns a devastating secret about his wife, who's been cold towards him after the suicide of their son.

But he goes much further into the future than he intended, and the future is very different from what he'd pictured.

Sullivan begins his book with an author's note, where he explains that the science he uses to explain time travel is meant to be taken much like that of H. G. Wells, a means to an end. If you're looking for hard SF and detailed explanations of how everything works, this is not the book for you.

Like The Time Machine, the book's an exploration of humanity, and toward the end especially, there are some interesting philosophical discussions. There's also a murder mystery to solve, which provides most of the plot based elements of the book.

I enjoyed his look at the future. It's quite unique, and allowed him to examine several aspects of modern day society. And for those of you who like questions of gender... without spoiling anything, his future has some surprises.

The pacing is uneven. Chapters full of character interactions and learning about life in Hollow World are suddenly interrupted when the mystery reappears. I sometimes had trouble transitioning from the laid back enjoyment of the former scenes to the intensity of the latter. It's surprisingly easy at times, with all that's going on, to forget the mystery is even there.

The book comes to a pretty tense climax. Everything focuses and the pacing evens out for the final chapters.

This was a personal pet peeve, and I'm not sure to what extent it will annoy others, but Sullivan threw in a LOT of modern pop culture references, which I found distracting. Especially since I didn't understand most of the references he used. For example, instead of saying that the gram (basically a TV show) Ellis watches is a documentary, he says, “This was a multi-part series similar to a Ken Burns documentary or something produced for the History Channel.” While I know what the History Channel is, I've never heard of Ken Burns. I read something once that a classic is a book that can transcend time. Once you have specific references to current culture the chances of someone being able to pick the book up and read it without problem 100 years later is doubtful. I could have used some end notes to explain some of the references, as will people less in the loop than I am. Luckily for me Sullivan tended to use several references in a row, so if I didn't understand one reference, often another would suffice to clue me in.

It was an interesting story with some thought-provoking moments towards the end.

Tough call with this one - I actually wavered between 3 and 4 stars. It's good, not always great, but good. I think it would be more fair to say it was inspired by Wells' Time Machine than as a direct reboot, but with honest focus that was more on the character and his place in a far future society than on the technology that got him there (a mistake too often made). There is rarely room to doubt in this novel as to which direction the lead character is going to jump, a fact that makes the story comfortable and familiar and occasionally predictable. Having read through most of the Riyria books, I know from experience the author takes some time to ramp to full throttle, which is I think the what left this book a bit lacking. Without the breadth of pages to gain full speed, the book fell a little short for me.

I'd still be happy to recommend the book, especially if you were looking for a fun quick read with a faintly science fiction bend.