Hollow World

My main problem with this: never for a second did the main character seem convincing. The guy is supposed to be a MIT scientist who has assembled his own time machine, yet he is never thinking, talking or acting even remotely like a scientist. Besides this, there are many gaping holes in the story, for example the open question why a technologically advanced society has not only never discovered the method for time-travel themselves, but also shows no interest in it. Do not buy!

I normally read the fantasy genre, which is where I met Michael Sullivan. His fantasy books were light and fun. For me they were entertainment. I don't normally branch off into SF very often but because I enjoyed his previous books, I downloaded the sample. The sample was engaging and I decided to take the plunge and buy the full copy.
Really what I want in my novels is entertainment or an escape. What I ended up getting was a SF novel that wanted you to ask "who is God" and "why should we love someone". I can deal with that in my novels if it's subtle, but this really wasn't; and that's not what I was looking for.

Apparently Michael J Sullivan thinks that global warming is going to push us all into a genderless Godless communist Utopia. Hooray. Only a true beta cuck could write something like this without vomiting to death.

Main character seems to be a naive idiot (other than somehow inventing time travel - maybe an idiot savant?). Plot gets dumb & dumber very quickly. Major disappointment, given the author's previous work. I could not make it past the mid-point of the book.

This is one of the best ‘time travel’ novels I’ve ever read, but the actual time travel takes second place to the interpersonal relationships that take place 2000 years from now in one of the most fascinating futures I’ve ever read about. There are some small similarities to H. G. Wells’, ‘The Time Machine’ in which the traveller discovers a world populated on the surface by the gentle Elois, and underground by the violent Morlocks. In this novel the ‘Elois’ live underground in vast spaces carved out of the tectonic plates. The surface is referred to as ‘the grass’ and is viewed more as an exotic recreational area than as a place to live. Our time traveller drops into the midst of a murder, an extremely rare occurrence in this time period, and from there things take off. Ultimately, it turns out that another human from the past plays the part of the ‘Morlock’ in this story, trying to destroy the inner world and ‘start over’ on the surface... kind of a ‘New USA’. The hollow world dwellers have over the millennia moved past sexuality and are written as asexual, neither male or female. This creates a fascinating dynamic between Ellis, the man from the past (with a past) and Pax, the hollow world dweller he strikes up a friendship (and kind of a love interest) with. There’s some action in the novel but this book goes much deeper with it’s focus on xenophobia, tolerance, the human drive (or lack of), and particularly relationships between very, very different people. I highly recommend this novel. If the author gets the support and interest he has promised to write a sequel or two... here’s hoping. This book would also make an incredible 3D movie along the lines of Avatar. Here’s my plea to Michael Sullivan: Please... more Ellis and Pax!

This was good, well written, with some twists, the most interesting of which is that the "hollow world" is not presented as a dystopia, the way so many future "utopias" are presented. That's quite fascinating, given the qualities of this world: No one works. People are given everything for nothing. People are no longer gendered. There are orgasm machines, there are no gods, etc. etc....and, you know, it ain't so bad. In fact, the utopia really is a utopia, to an extent. That was unique.

Having said that, my main problem was the villain of the piece. I am very, very liberal, and I'm agnostic. However, the villain was too predictable in every way for me, almost cartoonish. I've met people "like that," and they're not, really, "like that," not in person, not when you meet them in person. There's far more complexity to people of all political and religious persuasions in my experience, and none of that is visible here. The ending was also predictable.

Anyhow, I was really torn between 3 and 4 stars. I'm sort of giving it a 3.4 lol so rounding down to 3.

Hollow World is enjoyable, has a fantastic concept and doesn’t fit well into any one category, which is appealing to me. But best of all, I enjoyed it. I can see many people reading this and coming to wildly different conclusions and feelings, it is really just that fascinating. I am probably going to recommend this to a lot of people I know so that we can have some dialogue on it. Here is my interpretation.

Ellis Rogers, on an impulse, decides to push the button and try traveling forward in time. He is dying, his marriage is over and his son has committed suicide. Since he has nothing left to lose, and only 6 months left due to a terminal illness he goes for it! When he arrives, he witnesses a murder and heads down into the Hollow World, where things like murder just don’t happen anymore. We are introduced to Pax, hairless and sexless, one of a few million people who are left inhabiting our planet after a climate related apocalypse. Every person is a clone which has been engineered to perfection. People live forever and there are no rules, money, hunger or other problems because they have replicator machines called “makers” that can make anything you desire. In this society uniqueness is the treasured commodity and people differentiate themselves in a variety of amusing and interesting ways.

We follow Ellis Rogers while he tries to acclimate to this Utopian society, where people’s emotions are the most dangerous obstacle to total happiness. Ellis spends most of his time thinking on religion, specifically Christianity and his personal beliefs. Personally, I believe that Hollow World is a Christian sci-fi novel. I was personally annoyed by the constant harping on the topic of Christianity and the Bible. There was enough general spirituality also discussed to help offset some of this, but in reality it is strongly entrenched in the Christian framework. What would you do as the last Christian in existence? That is the strongest secondary tone in this novel. While none of the future people actually asked him, “Who is this Jesus you speak of?”- it danced right on the border the whole time on being outright evangelical. That being said, I am fairly touchy on the subject and I may be reading more into it than is actually there. That is why I think it would be fun to pass this book along.

So- the world-building, concept and idea are all 5-star for me. I like the characters, but not as much as the world. I would be more interested in the stories of the inhabitants, or perhaps the stories some of the pioneers who built this world and saved humanity from disaster. The ending feels almost mournful, reminiscent of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. I would have enjoyed Hollow World a lot more if I hadn’t worried about it turning into a sermon every time I turned the page. Or was this book anti-christian since there is no God in the future? Hmmph. Like real life, there are no easy answers.

Hollow World is an enjoyable and interesting imagining of the far future, and, in my opinion, a step up for Sullivan as an author.

Ellis Rogers is dying. He's trapped in a loveless marriage, and blames himself for the tragic death of his son. He's on the far side of fifty, and his best friend is a bitter old man longing for a Golden Age that never existed.

Ellis is also a gifted engineer and MIT graduate. He's been poking at an inspired but flawed paper on time travel for years, and thinks he's found the mistake in the author's math. He's built a rig to implement the concept. He's even gone as far as packing up a survival kit. But until he knew he was going to die, he never had the nerve to push the button.

The world that greets him on the other side of his one-way trip is vastly different than he expected.

Hollow World deftly weaves together speculation, social commentary, mystery and adventure. Sullivan's vision of the far future (and why it turned out that way) is ambitious but plausible. It avoids the most common far future tropes - it's neither a perfect paradise nor is it a wasteland. Instead, it's an advanced society that's quite alien in many ways, but also beautiful. It's conquered many of our problems, but those solutions have brought problems of their own. Ellis' own invention introduces new elements of chaos into this mostly-peaceful mix.

Where Hollow World really shines is in its handling of characters. Ellis Rogers in particular is forced to confront his own feelings and preconceptions, and experiences notable growth. It's fascinating to watch his attitudes and perceptions change under the influence of new ideas - and even change back under the influence of old ones.

There's definitely social commentary in HW, but it's not always clear what the final message of the book should be. Characters at various points on the political and social spectra are nuanced, complicated and fallible. For a significant portion of the book, it's unclear where Ellis Rogers himself is going to come down due to the extremity of the changes in his life. It made for excellent reading and down-time speculation. Sullivan does all this without pointing it out himself, allowing us to follow Ellis, Pax, and others on the journey and draw our own conclusions.

This story was so much more than I was expecting. I was expecting it to be great and enjoyable because I like the author's writing, but this book has so much more in it than a good tale. It makes you think, a lot. It deals with a ton of huge concepts and ideas but not in a heavy handed way. You discover things with the protagonist and it comes off so well in the story. As Ellis Rogers, the main character, is discovering things and rethinking his worldview you find yourself as a reader contemplating the same issues as well. I don't want to give any spoilers away but I'll just say that this is a time travel novel and the society that Ellis discovers in the future is an amazing place to visit, but also something that really makes you think about a ton of issues.

Okay so the book makes you think, but it's also really fun, has characters you will love and love to hate, and fantastic settings. I really enjoyed my visit to Hollow World and you will too. The people you'll meet and the places you'll visit you won't soon forget and you'll think back on fondly when you finish the story. I found myself rooting for the main character and enjoying his journey. He was written really well. Very believable motivations, very fleshed out and real. I feel as if I've met him. A certain person of the future, the one on the book cover, is my favorite character though. His name is Pax and he is awesome. You'll see what I mean when you read or listen to the story. The audiobook is how I read this by the way and the narrator Jonathan Davis did a fantastic job. I've heard him read a few Star Wars novels and so I knew I was in good hands but he really made this story shine. I especially loved the way he voiced the antagonist of the story.

There's so much more I could say about his book like the fact that it also made me laugh a lot, but I don't want to spoil anything. I have no problem calling this novel an instant classic and I think that anyone who's a fan of Science Fiction would agree. To sum up, great characters, cool settings, thought provoking issues brought up by a difference in the society of the future our protag discovers. Five stars all the way baby.

When Ellis Rogers retires, his marriage was on the rocks, his best friend had betrayed him, and he was just been diagnosed with cancer. Rather than wallow in misery, he uses his engineering skills and some misunderstood equations developed by a forgotten scientist, builds himself a time machine, and whisks himself away into the future.

The Hollow World, by Michael Sullivan, follows Ellis' adventures in the utopian world that he has found. Avoiding any spoilers, suffice it to say that Ellis is not only unprepared for what he finds but is also the only one equipped to root out an evil plot that threatens this gentle, future world.

Some aspects of Sullivan's future world are unique but others are horribly cliched. There are a few inconsistencies as well. But okay. This may not be genius level science fiction, but for me it was an engaging read from start to finish. And just when you think that Sullivan might be writing too predictably, he throws in a plot twist that changes everything.

The book sometimes wanders a bit and you may not find yourself impressed by the depth of the characters, but Sullivan is a craftsman when it comes to writing an overarching plot and that is really what keeps the book moving.

This may not be the book for someone who doesn't love a quick sci fi novel, but I'm a junky and Sullivan gave me my fix. On the whole, a great effort and something that piqued my interest: I'll be looking for the next adventure in the Hollow World. So if you are a fan of pulp sci fi, the kind that still tries to make you think at least a bit, this one may be for you. For the right person (a person like me), I'd recommend it.

I'll be honest with you:
Michael J. Sullivan wrote this book, so I went in knowing I'd love it.

What I didn't expect, was just how intricate a story he'd weave; How he made the characters interesting, unique and the focal point when the reader is learning everything about the world they're in; How he made something so wondrous as whisking oneself into the future seem both a great adventure and possibly a death sentence at the same time.

The protagonist, Ellis Rodgers, was an interesting one. I didn't immediately love him, he was flawed, cranky and made mistakes. This made him realistic and one that was easy to identify with, but perhaps made it a little harder to warm to him. The mental state he was in lent itself to the story, the confusion, the awe, the shocks, the pre-conceived ideas and the expectations - they all helped the story along in their own ways. When Michael added in the supporting characters, Pax, Vin and Warren, you had yourself a merry little band of conflict and adventure.

I adored Pax, right from the first time we were introduced. I did have a slightly different view of what the inhabitants of Hollow World looked like, I first thought they looked something similar to pikmin (minus the flowers/leaves etc), but then I noticed the cover, and realised they were not quite so different, and as the book progressed I developed a better sense of how they looked and how they interacted with each other.

The fact that this story is science-fiction, shouldn't put potential readers off. It's got enough sci-fi in it to seem plausible (which is a little bit scary!) but it also is most certainly a work of fiction and fantasy, the mix is pretty much spot on perfect for me. I didn't find the science too overwhelming, it only served to enhance the believability of the story.

There were times while reading that I really wanted to be able to experience some of the things Ellis did. The way in which Michael can paint a vivid picture really added to the fantastical elements of Hollow World. I most certainly want to know more about this world and the characters within it. I do hope that Michael gets enough support from his readers to convince him to write some more tales from Hollow World.

Pick this one up today, if you'd like to be transported into the future that comes alive upon the pages.

**Note: I received an electronic copy of this book through Net Galley in return for an honest review**

First, I wasn't even aware of the Kickstarter campaign for this. I bought it after reading the description on Tor.com. I'd read some of the author's fantasy novels, and was impressed that he was trying something so different with such an interesting premise.

Others have described the plot. I'll only say that it is an engaging one. But even engaging plots like this won't work without good characters to support them. Everything hinges upon us understanding and empathizing with the main character because we'll be seeing a new world through his eyes, and Ellis was a wonderful main character. He was very well-fleshed out. The book starts with the tragedy of his life in the present, his desperation and courage, and you understand the man who gets into the time machine with nothing to lose. His reactions to the new world, the confusion, the eagerness, the hesitation, the self-denial, it all makes sense. He was just a great character. So was Pax. The pages vibrated with life when Pax was on them.

The world itself, well, I wish we could have spent more time there. It was incredibly fascinating, full of so many ideas. But the book belonged to the characters and so I understood the choice, and thought it the right one.

The one thing I didn't like was Warren. I get that there had to be an opposing view, but I think that he was so very extreme that it took away from what Ellis was learning and becoming and accepting. Because NO ONE wants to agree with a slave-driving misogynist racist fundamentalist abusive bastard -- he was almost a parody of a villain. Warren needed to be (IMO) a much more layered person, not so much the crazy religious nut stereotype. As it was, Ellis' turn against him was a given. But I think the book would have soared had he been presented with real decisions to make, if Warren would have been persuasive in his own right rather than repellant, playing more on Ellis' fears and loneliness and frankly his outdated philosophies in this new world so the decision would have been harder. I do think that Ellis came to some of this on his own. I just think it could have been even better without such a very stereotypical foil.

I hope Michael Sullivan decides to stretch his wings again and give us something else new. I like his fantasy, but aside from the villain, this was just lovely.

This book is just great. Recommended to all fantasy, utopia-dystopia lovers, time travel fans and whatnot. This won't involve any sci-fi, but it doesn't really need it in my opinion. And anyone who loves a good story with enough thrill will love it. Nothing literary, written in a down to earth tone and speaking of simple folks (well.. mostly simple folks, if you could call them that.. considering.. you'll see, it IS about the future, after all). Anyway, it might be written without too many intricacies, but it surely deals with some real tough questions, some you keep wondering about weeks after finishing it, only finding that even though you DO have an open mind, you just don't have a clue about what is right and what you would pick.
Anyway, this is a story that involves time travel, but it's not really about time travel. It's more about human nature and what it can become. The author looks deep both into the future and into the heart of man, of where it would go if you give it enough freedom. The author has built a wonderful world, one that really captivated me. And the future society is surely very interesting, not of a type I have encountered so far in books or movies. You just end up loving the characters (especially Pax, man, I loved that guy.. or not guy, well, anyway - you need to read it to get it). You get attached to the main character as well, even though he makes the wrong choices sometimes, obviously. The book does have a really fulfilling feeling when you finish it though. I don't know, it just feels right. And then you choose some fluff for your next book, because you don't want to ruin the aftertaste.
Maybe I am simple for liking non-literary books too, but some just feel really right. This one felt like home to me.

First, I must mention that I absolutely love Michael Sullivan’s other books...I own them all. I could easily give his other books five star ratings and recommend them to friends and family....but not this one. Hollow World is a travesty. A book that regurgitates all of the old and tired leftist cliches that are so prevalent in today’s society. What is the biggest danger to a future utopia? It’s white males, Christianity and Americanism. Not true Christianity and Americanism but a bizarre leftist interpretation. What is a leftist’s future utopia? A world comprising of faithful recyclers, genderless, godless and socialist. What ends all of societies ills? Removing the Y chromosome so there is no more toxic masculinity! I am profoundly disappointed that such a talented writer and story teller has fallen prey to the untruthful, unoriginal group-think of today’s progressivism.

Ellis Rogers has built a time machine. Leaving a wife who blames him for the death of their only child, he attempts to travel two hundred years into the future in search of a cure for his terminal lung cancer. Due to a miscalculation, Ellis overshoots the mark and finds himself two thousand years ahead in a world he hardly recognises. The human race now consists of androgynous clones residing in a series of underground cities set beneath each tectonic plate. War, hunger and disease have all been eradicated, making people effectively immortal and free to pursue their own interests without the need to work. Using ‘Makers’ to recreate any object from gravel and ‘Port-a-Calls’ to travel instantaneously between two distant points, the inhabitants of Hollow World want for nothing – except individuality, the one thing Ellis has that they don’t.

I really can’t recommend Hollow World highly enough. It’s well written, with an engaging and accessible style, and touches on some interesting themes, such sexuality, religion and the way in which one person’s paradise can become another person’s hell. The concept is complex, original and beautifully executed. There are some well-defined and likeable characters, as well as some not-so-likable ones. Most impressive of all is the author’s world-building ability: Hollow World is a detailed and believable vision of a far-future society very different from our own. Kudos, Mr Sullivan!

Hollow World is certainly a different world then the fantasy work I've previously read by Michael Sullivan. I received a copy of the e-book after supporting the Kickstarter for this novel after reading some of the Riyria Chronicles.

The story follows Ellis Rogers, a white-collar worker with problems at home. When he is given a death sentence in the form of a terminal cancer, its the last push he needs to try out his homemade time machine. Leaving everything behind, Ellis is rocketed into a future that he never dreamed possible. And that's where I'll stop, because to give any more is to ruin the surprises that await.

Having read some of the author's previous works, I went into this story with two expectations. First, I expected to find a world that was new and original. Hollow world exceeded my expectations. The 'future' that Michael Sullivan created mirrors nothing I have ever read before. The level of detail provided and the history of the world (which covers the entirety of the span between the present and the huge leap into the future Ellis makes) is what I would expect for a story that would span multiple books. The author spreads it out in a way that makes it interesting to read without bogging down the twists and turns of the plot.

The second thing I expected were characters I could truly care about. Again, another success. While it takes some time to warm up to Ellis for reasons I don't want to give away, you can't help but root for him to make the right decisions the further you get into the novel. Ellis is a troubled man, often reflecting on mistakes he has made (sometimes for so long they slow the story down slightly). You can't help but feel for him though as the future slowly changes him. The other main character, Pax, is the first person Ellis meets with a difficult past of his own. Seeing the relationship between these two people from different times with their different problems, and how they help each other to deal with them really helps tie the reader to the characters.

Overall I found this to be a great read that was hard to put down (which seems to be the consensus of most of the other reviewers I have seen). While he has mentioned that this could be a stand alone novel, I would happily recommend it to any fan of sci-fi/fantasy, and hope that some day Mr. Sullivan visits Hollow World again.

When Ellis Rogers receives his diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a death sentence (as the median life expectancy in IPF patients after diagnosis is 2 to 3 years), he decides to take the plunge and use the time machine he’s built in his garage. He arrives 2,000 years in the future and stumbles upon a murder, which is something now unheard of in the future. In Hollow World, Ellis just may find everything he’s ever wanted- even the things he never realized he needed.

HOLLOW WORLD is a beautifully written science fiction tale. The author created a very well-developed and intricate version of Earth’s future and gives it perspective through the eyes of someone from our time. Ellis Rogers is a man with a lot of pain in his heart and it’s absolutely fascinating to watch him discover the future. HOLLOW WORLD isn’t a science- or action-heavy novel, so if you’re looking for that, this might not be the book for you. However, if you enjoy thought-provoking sociological and philosophical questions wrapped in a time-travel adventure – you’ll love HOLLOW WORLD. The writing is absolutely solid, deceptively simple, and will leave you utterly changed. HOLLOW WORLD is one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in a long time. Pick it up!!

His own future destroyed by the suicide of his only child, the failure of his marriage and the diagnosis of a terminal illness, Ellis Rogers, who has been building a time machine, decides to travel forward to a time when a cure may have been discovered for his illness. Instead he ends up two thousand years in the future where a utopian society exits. The basis of this society though is the loss of almost everything that makes us human..

The book deals in large part with the cost of survival, individually and as a species. This is an idea book which does harken back to pre-Gernsbackian science fiction, e.g., Wells. There is a certain homage to Wells in the future conceived of by the Author but it is less a future based on social class and more based on spirituality. I'm not overwhelmed by the literary qualities of this book, but I do think that those who want to divide this into liberal/conservative are doing it a disservice. .

In a note, the author makes reference to "The Time Machine" by HG Wells and the lame explanation of time travel there. This is by way of an apology for his own lame explanation. The point is - time travel is impossible. So, let's get over it and read this novel about time travel anyway.
I find this to be a very engaging novel. Like the time traveler in the Time Machine, Ellis Rogers makes a trip into the future. His motivation is that he has some imminently fatal form of fibrosis and he thinks he might find a cure in the future. So, he leaves his wife and his best friend Warren and rides the plastic milk-crate express into an unknown future, discovering along the way that Warren has been bonking his wife.
What he finds is something like the future of HG Wells - except it is the Eloi that live underground and are very technologically advanced. He doesn't find much sex and there are no Morlocks until someone thinks about inventing them. As a relative caveman from the wild past, Ellis is quite a novelty and becomes heralded for his unique approach to problems. I really cannot go into details without spoiling the book for you. All I can say is it was a good read for me.

I love time travel stories, but as a history buff, usually I read about people going backward in time, not forward. Hollow World is about a man who attempts to go 200 years into the future in hopes that by then, humans will have discovered a cure for his terminal lung disease. He accidentally goes 2000 years into the future, and the world is much different that he could have imagined.

All good sci-fi makes comments on the present society, and this book fits the bill. The author tackles, religion, same-sex marriage, privacy, individuality, global society and more, but in a way that is entertaining and easy to swallow. This isn't a platform where the author preaches his beliefs; he simply presents a potential reality and lets the reader draw conclusions about what is right and wrong. The new Hollow World, a virtual reality dream-scape nestled under the earth's surface, is not without faults, although many aspects of it may seem like utopia.

If you're looking for a fun read that will make you think without being too heavy-handed, this book is for you.

Michael J. Sullivan has a knack for creating incredibly engaging characters whom you come to care about deeply. I honestly thought after reading his truly amazing Ryiria Revelations and Chronicles that he couldn't duplicate the character development of Royce, Hadrian, and Arista in that book. How could he? How could he do that *again*?

Well, he's done it again, this time in a futuristic society of human beings who have engineered gender and even biological sex organs out of their existence. The questions raised by this book about life, human sexuality and relationships, religion, what it means to be a "perfect" society, etc, and many and deep. But the characters Pax and Ellis once again left me feeling as though Michael had written me two new best friends.

I know time-travel tends to be overdone, but it's well done here, with Michael freely admitting that he's not going for hard science fiction. This story was well worth reading, and I highly recommend it to all fans of fantasy and science fiction.

Many of the story elements and plot lines will seem familiar if you are a long time reader of SciFi like I am, but the author has turned them into something new. There is a well imagined world, a smooth story/plot line, interesting characters, and some wry humor, all in all, pretty good Science Fiction.

Granted, I am not a professional literary critic, and certainly not the most critical of readers, when it comes to entertainment, I tend to have a wide open mind like a 5 year old and am probably more easily amused than the average reader, not that this is a bad thing imho. There is a certain value to not being jaded and being able to see the beauty in something new, if you thought "Enemy Mine" was a good movie, or you were like me when I saw "Avatar" for the very first time, and barely breathed or blinked because I was afraid that I might miss something, then you might find this story enjoyable.

both the novel & the 1960 Rod Taylor movie. Ellis has nothing to live for and indeed has been given a terminal diagnosis with 6 months to live. He is in a loveless marriage where is his wife blames him for the suicide of their son almost 20 years ago. Ellis has a way out that most would love, his life's work, a time machine. However, as all time machines must, his has a mishap, a big one. Instead of going 200 years into the future he travels 2,000. Imagine Judah Ben-Hur arriving right about now.

He finds the population underground (driven there by storms that destroyed everything), however the surface of the planet is now a primeval forest.

The people are androgynous and living in a creepy to Ellis and me world considered a utopia by the residents.

Ellis makes friends with Pax and together they investigate a murder and an attempted overthrow.

The author touches on hot button subjects of religion, government, homophobia and sexuality.

This would make a very interesting book club choice.

This was a very interesting book about travel to the future -- mostly because the future is not what the reader -- or the protagonist -- thinks it will be.

Ellis Rogers has nothing to lose. He isn't happy in his marriage and he has a terminal illness. So why not test out the time machine he built in his garage and see if there is a cure 200 years in the future? Except that he arrives 2000 years in the future and life is very different. Ellis meets Pax, who is fascinated by him and takes him into his home. I don't want to say anything about the author's vision of the future because it will be better for readers to experience it themselves.

I didn't love this book but thought the author's vision of the future -- and how someone from our time might fit in -- was interesting. There is a lot in the book to think about in terms of how individuality is such an important part of human psychology and how that might be expressed if nearly everyone looked the same.

What a wonderful book. I was one of the Kickstarters for this book, even though I hadn't ever read any of MJS's stuff! He was (is) an active contributor on /r/fantasy on Reddit, so I wanted to help out. I am amazingly happy I did.

First, the negative. Once the story gets rolling, and the main antagonist is introduced, my biggest complaint is that the story is predictable. However, is being predictable really a bad thing? I think all of my time reading George RR Martin and others has left me *expecting* unpredictable.

The fact is, whether a novel is predictable or not doesn't matter as much as the story being good. And Hollow World is a damn good story. Michael, if you're reading this, just know there are those of us who would LOVE to see more in this universe.

both the novel & the 1960 Rod Taylor movie. Ellis has nothing to live for and indeed has been given a terminal diagnosis with 6 months to live. He is in a loveless marriage where is his wife blames him for the suicide of their son almost 20 years ago. Ellis has a way out that most would love, his life's work, a time machine. However, as all time machines must, his has a mishap, a big one. Instead of going 200 years into the future he travels 2,000. Imagine Judah Ben-Hur arriving right about now.

He finds the population underground (driven there by storms that destroyed everything), however the surface of the planet is now a primeval forest.

The people are androgynous and living in a creepy to Ellis and me world considered a utopia by the residents.

Ellis makes friends with Pax and together they investigate a murder and an attempted overthrow.

The author touches on hot button subjects of religion, government, homophobia and sexuality.

This would make a very interesting book club choice.

This was a very interesting book about travel to the future -- mostly because the future is not what the reader -- or the protagonist -- thinks it will be.

Ellis Rogers has nothing to lose. He isn't happy in his marriage and he has a terminal illness. So why not test out the time machine he built in his garage and see if there is a cure 200 years in the future? Except that he arrives 2000 years in the future and life is very different. Ellis meets Pax, who is fascinated by him and takes him into his home. I don't want to say anything about the author's vision of the future because it will be better for readers to experience it themselves.

I didn't love this book but thought the author's vision of the future -- and how someone from our time might fit in -- was interesting. There is a lot in the book to think about in terms of how individuality is such an important part of human psychology and how that might be expressed if nearly everyone looked the same.

What a wonderful book. I was one of the Kickstarters for this book, even though I hadn't ever read any of MJS's stuff! He was (is) an active contributor on /r/fantasy on Reddit, so I wanted to help out. I am amazingly happy I did.

First, the negative. Once the story gets rolling, and the main antagonist is introduced, my biggest complaint is that the story is predictable. However, is being predictable really a bad thing? I think all of my time reading George RR Martin and others has left me *expecting* unpredictable.

The fact is, whether a novel is predictable or not doesn't matter as much as the story being good. And Hollow World is a damn good story. Michael, if you're reading this, just know there are those of us who would LOVE to see more in this universe.

Hollow World I got in on a KickStarter Campaign that the author started in order to get this book. Here are a couple quick thoughts.

It's defiantly different from anything I've ever read before, tackled some pretty tough moral issues. I liked the way these issues were handled, and the idea of being in a relationship with someone for who they are on the "inside" rather then what they look like, or whether man or woman.
I also noticed something else, no matter how hard they tried to create people who looked alike, they could never take away the individualism of their personalities. For example, Pax had a more delicate personality, whereas the Geomancers had more of a gruff, coal miner personality, even though they looked and sounded exactly alike. As was said in the book, we as humans are as different as snowflakes, even if it's only in our personalities.

Michael J Sullivan is a decent writer. He has some problems with plot transitions and occasionally lapses into awkward dialogue, but he is a good story teller. He creates two believable characters in this novel. Their story is affecting, engaging and occasionally delightful. They represent the high points of this novel.

The other characters are mere props, including the main villain. The author missed a chance to make the villain a real human, someone with complex motives, understandable flaws, or just a characteristic that would allow the reader to have some sympathy for him. This is the heart of my disappointment with Hollow World, and with other Michael J Sullivan stories. The villains are people who hold a particular view of the world. The author disagrees with that view. So much does he disagree with them that he makes them mean, nasty, narrow-minded and murderous creatures. This is otherwise a good story, with some moments of exciting action, genuine emotion, and an uplifting message.

The author wades into contemporary politics, making his villains into a caricature of right wing bible readers. It is difficult to strike a blow for tolerance by demonizing your fellow Americans, but Mr. Sullivan makes a gallant attempt. He assumes that his readers will agree with his prejudices. Like many political partisans, he believes that he is above the narrow minded opposition. Unfortunately for this novel, he is not.

I enjoyed the adventure of this novel, the time travel element and the suspenseful action. The world which the author creates is a beautiful and fascinating one. I wished that he had explored it further. The story devolves into a struggle between two contemporary humans, with the future world as a backdrop for the action, the future humans as mere background. It is a conflict between a liberal and a conservative from present day Michigan., a peaceful, flawed but reasonably likeable liberal and a crafty, violent, destructive right winger. The conservative misunderstands the bible, while quoting it in a, dare I say it, liberal fashion. This is not an entirely one-sided tale, as the author allows the protagonist to muse about the possibility of God. The main character dispatches more than one villain with a gun, so this is not a philippic on handgun violence. Still I was disappointed with the author's parochial world view, and his focus on contemporary politics. It marks the novel with the stain of prejudice, and denies the universality of the human struggle.

Since when is three stars a negative review? Three stars means "it's okay." Five stars I reserve for absolute perfection, and I've given four stars to better books than this one .. so logically it has to be a three. It was OKAY.

There were a lot of interesting ideas, and it had the plot of a good novel; I just wanted the story to be told with a little more artifice. Michael Sullivan has a sort of "folksy" writing style that can be appealing, I guess, but far too often I found him using the narrator to explain things instead of demonstrating them in the story via action & dialogue ... the pacing was choppy ... all too frequently I caught him telling me how I should feel instead of actually *making* me feel it. A five-star writer never explains himself; that's what characters and plot are for. Get this: In the foreword he apologizes for the "implausible" fake science of the time machine. COME ON, man! It's fiction! The time machine could run on methane or centrifugal force or the souls of virgins and I wouldn't even bat an eye. It doesn't have to be "plausible," it just has to be interesting - and internally consistent within the bounds of the imaginary world you're creating.

Speaking of which, I saw a few consistency problems. The highly advanced people of the future explain at one point that they can't bring the dead back to life - but then, later, when it's convenient for the plot it turns out they can. I also wondered why a race that has genetic manipulation figured out to the point that they can erase gender and abolish sexual reproduction has to resort to introducing random variations in new generations of clones in the hopes that a particular trait they want to develop might accidentally manifest. Huh? Wouldn't they pretty much know what every gene in the human genome does by this point? Seems like they could just _engineer_ any trait they want. This really could have used further elaboration to make me believe they had a reason to do this the way they were doing it ... Mr. Sullivan overthinks stuff that doesn't need it, and then just sort of fudges over other stuff that should have been a little more figured-out.

This was an entertaining book, a quick read, and I didn't hate it. But it's only a three star novel. Sorry.

When Michael J. Sullivan contacted me about reviewing his new SF novel Hollow World, I did a double-take. As I'd only been aware of him as a fantasy author, I was surprised that his newest publication would be a time-travelling SF novel. Still, the synopsis sounded fun and some of my favourite bloggers adore Sullivan's writing, so I gladly accepted. And Hollow World wasn't what I'd expected at all. There was an unexpected mystery at the heart of the narrative and an eloquent exploration of the nature of love, which made the time-travel element feel almost accidental.

Hollow World's main character is Ellis Rogers, a man in his late fifties with a somewhat conservative outlook on life, stuck in a marriage that has been deteriorating ever since the suicide of his son, for which Ellis still feels responsible. He's gruff, but certainly not unsympathetic, even if some of his ideas are somewhat out of date. I really liked his development throughout the novel, which is one of self-reflection and discovery, which rather creeps up on him in this strange and alien world he lands in when he reaches the future. I loved how he follows his instincts when judging whether to trust certain of the Hollow-Worlders. It's interesting how the feelings he struggles with in the future are echoes of those he struggled with in his own time. Most of his emotional development is sparked by Pax, an arbiter who is one of the first Hollow World inhabitants he meets. Ellis and Pax form an instant connection, which is difficult for Ellis to classify as a) Pax has no gender and no sex and b) to Ellis Pax is more male than female, and homosexuality is an emotionally charged subject for Ellis. His interpretation of their relationship goes from easy friendship to something more, a fact that freaks him out and simultaneously gives him peace. At the same time, Ellis is still trying to come to terms with leaving behind all he knew in the past, grieving for a wife he hadn't realised he still loved, for his best friend and for the son he lost decades ago. This makes for a heavy emotional mix and I like that Ellis is shown grieving and crying, instead of bottling it all up.

Ellis' main connections in Hollow World are Pax and Alva. Pax is complex and despite looking the same as everyone around him, he is immediately recognizable, not just to Ellis, but to the reader as well. His vox, a house AI who serves as communication device, butler, cook and general secretary, is called Alva and I loved her. She is easily the funniest of all the characters and her sass just made me smile every time she hit the page. Most of the identical Hollow-Worlders felt interchangeable except Yal the cook, Pax's caretaker Vin, and Cha, Pax's doctor friend. The only other Hollow-Worlders that stood out to me were Sol and some of the older Geomancers, which perhaps isn't as surprising as they've been around for so long and hadn't moved as far away from humans such as us when they were born. This is reflected not just in their appearance, but also in their characters and way of speaking. There is a sort of world-weary, wry humour to them that I enjoyed.

Hollow World itself is a fascinating place. Humanity, through the Institute for Species Preservation, or ISP, and the invention of the Three Miracles (almost inexhaustible energy cells, portal technology, and replicator technology,) has created something that is quite close to utopia. This is very much the future as it was often portrayed in the Golden Age; admittedly no jet packs, but there are teleportation devices, replicators, AI butlers, and immortality--peace on earth and an end to war. I do wonder how the very long-lived keep from getting bored, something which Sullivan touches upon, both in the philosophy of the villainous Ren and in the motivations Ellis ascribes to the geomancers, but it's never truly answered. These evolved humans have created an underground paradise, which in Ellis' opinion is close to what Heaven must be like. Of course, utopia is an impossibility and thus it proves here.

The plot is interesting, though the foreshadowing of Ren's true identity was somewhat transparent. I figured it out long before Ellis did. However, there were some interesting twists to the mystery and I really liked the climactic action scene. Sullivan's writing makes for smooth reading and there are a lot fun geek and pop culture references. While slower-paced than most current SF, the pacing of Hollow World is even and well-balanced. While the mystery is resolved and the major story beats have all been played out, there remain plenty of loose threads and unexplored avenues for Sullivan to write more stories about Ellis, Pax, and Hollow World. In fact, in his Afterword Sullivan states he has plenty of ideas for further stories in this setting.

I very much enjoyed the time spent with Hollow World. It was an interesting setting and a touchingly emotional story. Hollow World is a story far more concerned with the social aspects of SF than cold, hard science. If you enjoy social science fiction, Hollow World might just be the ticket for you. Me, I'm hoping that Sullivan will return to Hollow World at some point and we will see more of Ellis and Pax in the future.

This book was provided for review by the author.

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan is a special book. The quality of the book comes from the wonderful story of an average guy going on the adventure of his life, struggling to find what happiness he can still get. A broken soul looking for salvation. The rest didn't matter that much. It felt fulfilling enough to watch Ellis stumble through the new world. New possibilities open up for him in places he'd have never looked before.

The story is about Ellis Rogers, a rather unremarkable man all in all, if you don't take into account that he build a working time machine. Diagnosed with a terminal illness and nothing left to live for, he makes the biggest and most dangerous decision of his life. He builds a time machine and travels to the future to find a cure for his illness, leaving behind a cold marriage and a dead son. Now, I don't like time travelling. Going back and forth, changing the past, present, and future doesn't work for me. Hollow World's theory does. It actually doesn't really matter how the protagonist gets to the future, because only that he does is important, but Michael J. Sullivan's explanation for his time travel works for me. His theory for time travel is very interesting to read.

Ellis arrives at a world that is vastly different than he'd imagined, and different than common scenarios I've read for the future. I liked the author's futuristic vision a lot. It seems plausible and is as such more fearsome than something unlikely. While it does seem like a utopia at first, it is not a world I'd want to live in. It is a paradise that takes important things from the humans, things I'd not readily give up, even for a place such as Hollow World. The oppressive feeling of the world only grows the more you learn about it and its inhabitants. That feeling is enhanced by the guide Ellis meets shortly after arriving in the future. This second character complements the protagonist and the story circles around these two, their relationship, and their investigation. This character grew as dear to me as Ellis and they are one awesome pair for such ordinary people.

The history of the time between Ellis' starting point and his arrival in the future is introduced carefully. The reader's and Ellis' hunger to know what initiated the changes is satisfied with good explanations at the right time. The setting is interesting and contributes to the feeling of reality the story possesses. I could see such a change happen, especially since the triggers that made the change in the world and mankind necessary in Hollow World are real fears we have to face in the present. It connects our reality strongly to the reality of Hollow World. This makes it easy to accept Michael J. Sullivan's vision and put yourself into the shoes of Ellis Rogers.

This story is nearly devoid of any action in the sense of what his Riyria Revelations series features. There is action in it, mostly near the end, but I think this part of the story could have been cut with not much lost. The antagonist and his scheme is the part I thought the least interesting and the only part I didn't like so much. Even with Hollow World at stake, the tension couldn't get close to the tension created through Ellis Rogers alone. The story could have been just an average guy searching for happiness and something to live for. That would have been enough for me, because Ellis is a guy you want to find joy and purpose. A man fighting the cold world all alone. So easy to see yourself as that man too. Sometimes you think Ellis will give up, and I found myself anxiously reading onwards, hoping he'd get up again, that he'd struggle again. That introduced much more tension than the intrigue and the danger looming over Hollow World.

Not to mention that Ellis has to fight with himself. Not literally, of course, but rather that he struggles to accept things his upbringing made him view as wrong. While he leaves a painful past behind, the future is not the safe harbor he'd hoped it'd be. And a broken man doesn't just reassemble himself. Healing takes time, and sometimes the cure comes from places you'd never expect. That is something Ellis has to learn, and his growth throughout the book is beautiful to behold.

The protagonist offers you a seat besides him, to watch the story unfold slowly, and I've taken that seat readily. You'll either do the same, or get lost in the measured pace. It is a book that has the potential to split its readership. I can see people loving it as much as I did, or hating it with the same passion. I want to give you one word of warning though: Don't expect something remotely similar to the Riyria Revelations series. It is not. It doesn't try to be similar, which for this story is a very good choice. It is vastly different and I think it is the greatest book Michael J. Sullivan has written to this day.

What does one say to conclude a review of such a book? I'm not sure I can find the right, the fitting ending, as I wasn't sure I could find the words to describe the feelings the books inspired in me. I enjoyed it tremendously, that is the truth. As was that some things annoyed me. What I can do, what the book deserves, is to ask you to take a look yourself. Buy it when you need something slow, something nice, something to make you feel sad and happy in equal amounts.

Ellis Rogers is brilliant, but trapped in a marriage of stasis, his wife blaming him for his son's suicide and then he is given 6 months to live. He has discovered a way to build a time machine, so with nothing to lose he sets it for 200 years in the future and instead arrives 2,000 years ahead.

The world he finds has gone underground due to devastating storms that destroyed earth's crops and surface- except earth is now a primal forest. The people he finds are sexless beings and all basically with little difference. They live in a beautiful `utopia' which is attractive but at the same time repelling in some aspects.

Ellis is befriended by Pax an arbitrator and there begins a mystery of murder and an attempted takeover by another surprising visitor. There are underlying emotions and conflicts that are explored. The subjects of religion, liberalism and conservatism and homosexuality are touched upon.
Somehow, in some strange way this world grows on a reader, as do the characters.

Anyone who has been reading science fiction for a while, or has ever read some of the classics of the genre, knows that its greatest strength (along with its sister genre, fantasy) is in being able to explore ideas about real life in a setting that divorces itself from all our preconceived notions about those ideas. You can write about robots and explore the intricacies of slavery, or tell the truth about the Vietnam War by writing a book about spaceships and time dilation. This is what classic science fiction has pretty much always done, and done quite well.

But at some point in more recent history, the genre took a turn and people lost sight of that. Writing about the future as a way to examine where humanity's current choices might lead eventually just became about figuring out what cool new stuff we might invent as we got more technologically advanced. The ideas being explored were more scientific than anthropological or psychological. Of course, who better to have these interesting ideas than scientists? And so these brainiacs came up with all sorts of interesting visions for our technological future, and the hard science fiction genre came into favor.

The great loss I have felt from this shift is that with so much focus on science, stories built out of visions of technology rather than humanity, the stories and characters tended to suffer. The novels often seem to me to be excuses to make believe about cool gadgets or scientific theories, rather than telling a compelling story or creating believable and sympathetic characters whose fates matter to the reader.

That brings us to Hollow World, a traditional science-fiction story written by a guy who has really interesting things to say about humanity, and who knows how to tell a story. Sullivan follows in the tradition of Heinlein and Vonnegut, using time travel and a speculative future to explore interesting ideas about people, and tells an interesting story with compelling characters in the process. What would happen if we really achieved world peace, ended hunger, and all those other great dreams that seem so out of reach? Every unique person today craves a place to fit in, but what if the situation were reversed? How does one find fulfillment when there's no such thing as important work to be done? What is love, really, and is there any such thing when everyone's needs are already met?

This is the kind of science fiction novel I love, in every sense. It probably helps that I am both a Christian and a time travel junkie, and both are concepts this book focuses on pretty heavily without getting preachy (I get the sense that Sullivan has thought a lot about God and faith but there's little indication of his own personal beliefs; another success, in my opinion).

I'm glad I Kickstarted this project sight unseen, my expectations were easily surpassed. But I'm terribly sad that the big publishers didn't see a market for this, or more accurately that they might be right. I hope this sells a million copies and shows the industry that people still want stories they can connect to and which get them thinking about our own humanity.

When I got Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a thrill ride that made this book nearly impossible to put down, even when it was time to go to bed. With this story, Sullivan has managed to challenge everything the reader might think he or she knows about life while introducing other ideas that make one think, like time travel and a regimented society where the inhabitants have no gender or any real individuality. The story of Ellis and his desperate attempt to fling himself into the future in order to find a cure for his terminal illness is a fascinating one, and I highly recommend it.

One of the first things that appealed about Hollow World was how easy it was to get into the story. Written in the classic style of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Hollow World produces a modern story just as enjoyable, if not more so, than its predecessor. The main character, Ellis Rodgers, is introduced to the readers while finding out that he has terminal cancer, and instead of tearing up, he starts laughing. The mystery in his story continues from there to the final line, and the discoveries along the way were a real treat.

Ellis Rogers laughs because he had just recently discovered the secret to time travel. In a story that delves into his philosophy on God’s existence and serendipitous involvement in his life, this is the first sign that something special is going on. But, as we follow him home, we see why the notion of being special is so foreign to him. His relationship to his wife of over thirty years has fallen into a depressing routine since their son killed himself. She keeps the television on to avoid silence and he seems to come home only for food, sleep and to work alone in his garage.

As a reader who is almost five years into marriage, this is a great fear, and it really caused me to empathize with Ellis and hope for him to find happiness. As an aside, if you read Greener Grass, the short story he wrote last year that involved a similar time-travel plot, this story is almost completely different and has a much more engaging character in Ellis.

I don’t want to give away what happens next between him and his wife, except for the obvious conclusion that his time-travel device worked. In a genre where science jargon can get out of hand, I think Sullivan did a great job creating believability without slowing the story down. I found Ellis’s research and efforts satisfying on a discovery of science level without wishing for anything to be edited out. This is Sullivan’s style, and one that makes him so consistently readable.

Another aspect of Sullivan’s style, which you may know from his Epic Fantasy series, Riyria Revelations and Riyria Chronicles, is that after he hooks you with his likable characters, he whisks you off into a richly imagined world. How can I share with you this futuristic world without ruining the experience of discovering it? I suppose I’ll just say that this future has wiped out the Y chromosome and created a haven where people are safe from war… or so they think.

The removal of the Y chromosome is important to mention because in this future world that Ellis crashes into, he will be faced with interacting with people without the classification of “he” or “she.” This is another part of the mystery, so I’ll just say that Sullivan uses this to deliver a powerful realization about love.

Now that I think about it, most of the entertaining philosophical questions are hinged on spoilers. Darn it, Sullivan! ;) I’ll ask some of the questions that he does and let you find out how they fit with his characters and the mystery of who plans to destroy Hollow World.

Is the pursuit of God beneficial to our civilization?

Have we pursued God in the right way?

Do we really love our neighbor?

Do we really love our spouse?

If we had the power to force our beliefs on the world, would it be better off? Are we fundamentally similar to tyrants of old, lacking only the power and circumstance to make worldwide changes?

Would we be better off with a device that made whatever we wanted, or a full-time job to pay for the things we want?

Would you like to live forever?

These powerful questions that Sullivan explores about existence, love, and trials make Hollow World one of the deeper and enjoyable stories of 2014. Hollow World is a highly recommended time-travel story and a must read for anyone who loves the nostalgia of their first adventure into the possibilities of past and future.

Review published at Adventures in Scifi Publishing. Review copy provided by Netgalley.

Hollow World is a slice of good old-fashioned science fiction. Sullivan deliberately harkens back H.G. Wells's The Time Machine. Like Wells, Sullivan has crafted a story of time travel that is almost entirely uninterested in the mechanics of time travel. There are no paradoxes, no clever time travel shenanigans. Time travel is merely a means to an end that allows Sullivan to explore what he's really interested in: society and what it means to be human.

The main character, Ellis Rodgers, is a dying man. His marriage is in ruins and he is racked by guilt over his son's suicide for reasons that eventually become apparent. He has also built a working time machine in his garage. His plan is simple—leave his crumbling life behind and travel to the future where a cure might be found. The theory is sound; the time machine works, but Rodgers finds himself in the far future in a seeming utopia called Hollow World. Here there is no death, no disease, no hunger, no want. There hasn't been a crime in centuries. Everyone is genetically engineered. Everyone looks the same. There are no men or women.

It is a familiar set up, but Sullivan cleverly avoids the usual traps. Hollow World would commonly be depicted as a utopia, or more accurately a dystopia with a terrible secret at its heart. Sullivan refreshingly depicts a future society that is neither. It is simply a society like any other, different, but not without its flaws. The problems of modern society have been solved but replaced with others. This observation makes all the world building seem fresh and more realistic. Humans change, societies shift, but we aren't heading towards paradise or hell, just more of the same.

The world building and exploration of the setting are the strongest parts of the novel. The plot is largely predictable and the climax anticlimactic. Rodgers, however, is a well-drawn character. His relationship with Pax, an idiosyncratic denizen of the future, is touching. Their closeness and mutual understanding form the heart of the novel.

Hollow World is a fast paced, well written, and delightful read. Michael J. Sullivan has crafted one of my favorite science fiction novels of the past few years.

**Received copy from NetGalley for review

I've been reading science fiction off and on since 1947, having read the greats like Bradbury, Asimov, etc. and while I can't quite put this in a class with the very best science fiction I've read, it's sure a lot higher up than a lot of the stuff I've read recently. For a time travel book, it's a gem and I thank H. G. Wells for having introduced the concept to literature. This is a book to read and reread. If you like the science fiction genre, this is a must. It makes me glad that I picked up my first copy of Amazing Stories in 1947 and got hooked on the genre.

I call this thinking person Science Fiction. The beginning in Hollow World seems very ordinary. Ellis Rogers, the main character, finds out he is dying and that his wife had an affair with his best friend. He has a time machine and decides to use it to go 200 years into the future. Instead he goes 2000 years into the future. That is where every thing changes. The future and the people are perfect or are they? That is what Ellis must decide for himself. Ellis has to choose between the past (a old friend also travels to the past) and the future. Hollow World takes an entertaining look at many of the issue that face us today and does it in a way that entertains instead of preaches.

The title comes from where everyone lives in this future world. Hollow World is under the surface of the Earth. Sometimes the people go to the grass (the name for the surface) but they do not live there.

The issues addressed in Hollow World are indeed thought provoking. Hollow World is a great book club book. It is one I will recommend to the Science Fiction Book Club for next year. It would provide a lively discussion.

Everything the Riyria books are this book is not. The review by Nancym217 says everything you need to know. I can't imagine why anyone would praise this book. All i can imagine is that those are paid for reviews. One star is too many.

"Hollow World" is not so much a Science Fiction novel as it is a Social Science Fiction novel. For the first third of the book this disappointed me greatly; I am a hard science (Heinlein/Niven/Steele) kinda girl. Our Protagonist, Ellis, constructs a working time machine after finding a math error in a German physics paper published in Annalen der Physik from the 1930s...so far so good. AdP published Einstein and was, at the time, edited by Max Planck (yeah! the Planck's Constant / quantum physics guy). But then, in the midst of this nice plausible-physics good start, we take a two chapter hard left into the details of middle-age angst: loss of youth, loss of love, loss of life, loss of dreams. This "if-only" regret landscape bears far too close a resemblance to real-life to fit comfortably on the page with the wanderlust of, you know, having a working time machine in your garage.

The book begins to pick up in the middle third (which reads as an inverted "Stranger in a Strange Land"). Ellis expected a 200 year jump into the future, but was off by an order of magnitude. The world he finds is vastly different than our world today. This is where I started to love the book. It wasn't that the action picked up (even though it did) nor was it the well-written slaughtering of Ellis's 21st century sacred cows (entertaining as it was). Some of the old world vs new world scenes read like a diatribe against our society (Preachy in a Cameron's "Avatar" sort of way). And I knew it as I read it -but I didn't care because of one brilliant element in this story: Pax (seen on the cover art). Pax is just one of those touchstones of Sullivan's writing: a character I fall in love with and will never forget. Whenever Pax appeared on the page, I ignored predictable plots elements and the stereotypical bad guy. I forgave the lack of hard science in the fiction every time Sullivan gave Pax another paragraph of witty dialog.

The last third of the book has a good, if predictable, arc with some of those neat plot intricacies that Sullivan smoothly weaves into all of his stories - those little details that seem tangential at the time you read them, but actually tack right into major plot points and seamlessly fill the gaps. No dangling threads or unresolved elements. Sullivan's prose reads effortlessly; he just *crafts* a gosh-darn good story.

When all is said and done, I am so very glad I backed this Kickstarter and got to meet Pax. He is a marvelous ambassador for Hollow World. I hope Mr. Sullivan writes in Hollow World again because I desperately want to read the Chronicles of the Geomancers (Yeah, *those* will have to have more science in their fiction).

Hollow World is an interesting mix of religion, values, political and social commentary. Mix Heinlein’s Job with 1984 and The Time Machine and you kind of get an idea of what Hollow World has to offer. Would we know paradise if we lived it? Would man be happy in a world without the motivation of winning and overcoming conflict? Hollow World is both a place and a metaphor for the society living there. The book kept me fully engaged until the end plot wise and had enough tidbits to think about along the way.

Excellent read. I admit that I was a little hesitant to purchase this one. I really enjoyed the Riyria series and I knew this was a departure from that world. Very glad I took a chance. The story, characters and action are great. Due to my schedule I couldn't read it in one sitting and whenever I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to get back to it to find out what was going to happen. New and not at all predictable. I found this work very well crafted throughout and with a really wonderful ending.

Writing 4/5
Imagination 4/5
Plot 4/5
Setting 3.5/5
Characters 4/5

My Overall Enjoyment 4/5

This has received a lot of hype and praise, which it largely lives up to. While not my primary genre, this is a strong science fiction book, complete with time travel 2000 years into the future and a type of hybrid human. Loaded with great pop culture references, the same consistent, solid writing that made The Crown Conspiracy and other Riyria books a pleasure to read, and great characters, science fiction fans can not complain about anything in this book. I have read quite a few science fiction books in the past and this definitely ranks in the upper echelon in terms of quality and fun.

Highly recommended for science fiction fans. Also recommended if you are new to science fiction or even if you don't necessarily consider yourself a fan of the genre, still try this because in terms of story enjoyment and literary value, this is a great book!

In Michael J. Sullivan’s book Hollow World, he tells us what the world might look like in 4013.

Living in modern day Detroit, Ellis Rogers builds a time machine, finds out he has cancer, and takes off to the future to find a cure and escape domestic troubles and a boring life.

Ellis intends to go 200 years forward, but he’s catapulted 2000 years into the future, a slight miscalculation. After two millennia, things have changed, a slight understatement. I don’t want to give away too much because I found this world fascinating and think a reader should discover this “brave new world” for herself.

The kicker is that Ellis stumbles upon someone being murdered in a society that has eliminated murder. So much for getting rid of that pesky Y chromosome!

He meets Pax, who arrives with the doctors and seems to be some kind of counselor or arbitrator. When everyone else believes that Ellis has murdered this Hollow World inhabitant, Pax believes Ellis is innocent. They team up and set out to solve the murder mystery and stumble upon a conspiracy.

Things I Liked:

I haven’t read Sullivan’s other books, although after reading this, I’ll check them out. The pacing in the book was slow, but it felt right. The pace fits and mirrors the society and allows the reader to enjoy this new society. A high adventure, breakneck pace wouldn’t have worked as well.

1. The “old time science fiction” feel to the story. It has echoes of H. G. Wells’The Time Machine.

2. Hollow World raises a number of interesting questions, which stay with reader after the book is finished. I enjoy books that invite readers to think. Hollow World comes close to slipping into preachy a few times but nothing too drastic.

3. The world Sullivan creates is fun to experience and a delight to the five senses.

Things That Went Bump

There are couple of things that were pretty big issues for me because I had trouble suspending my disbelief and several times had to reinsert myself back into the story. Be warned spoilers ahead.

1. I bought into the makeshift time machine when Ellis used it, but when his friend Warren, an uneducated neanderthal type, duplicates the machine and ends up in the same time period, I had trouble accepting this possibility. Even with the explanation that he had help building the machine, my disbelief continued to rear its head. Warren’s appearance seems like a clunky plot device to add conflict to a non-violence society.

2. From the moment Warren shows up in Hollow World, a reader knows from dialogue and actions that he’d had a mental breakdown and has shifted further right than he was before he left our world. He was turned into the worst sort of human we can imagine.

Ellis, an intelligent college educated man, turns completely stupid when interacting with Warren. He questions nothing, even blatant abusive behavior. I had to go to great lengths to overlook this flaw. Being told that Ellis grew up with Warren and that in high school Warren saved Ellis from being beaten up wasn’t enough to make me believe Ellis could be so naive about his friend, especially since Ellis knows Warren betrayed him before their time travel adventures. Ellis seems to have left his brain in his time machine.

Even with Flaws, It Was Engaging

In spite of the two flaws, Hollow World is an engaging story.

I think many readers would be more accepting of the two areas that gave me trouble. I’m more of a stickler for logic and reason in science fiction stories than in fantasy stories. If this book were fantasy instead of science fiction, Ellis could have had a spell put on him to trust his friend in spite of the flagrant clues that Warren is a whack job.

I’m giving Hollow World 4 stars, but I if could I’d give it 3.5 because the two flaws were difficult for me to overcome.

Ellis Rogers, the protagonist of this novel, learns that "Wherever you go, there you are" can apply to time, as well as space. He ends up in a future world which is much different from what he expected. Then just as he is starting to get used to it, he discovers that some of the past has come with him--and it is definitely not good news.

This novel was fun to read. It deals with some serious issues: What could the future be like? How important is individuality? When does friendship become love? When does friendship become dangerous?

Overall, however, it was a little too simply written for my tastes. Some of the motivations of the characters were not clear--Why would they do that? Why would Ellis do that? So, while it was fun to read, it was not as well written as I would have liked.

Michael Sullivan is a skilled writer, but that doesn't mean that everyone is going to like everything he writes.

I enjoyed the story, and unlike other reviewers, i didn't find it preachy or narrow minded. it was an interesting concept, and the entire tale stayed interesting to the end. What kept it from being a five star book was that I wasn't totally swept away by the tale or the characters.

I'd just finished Sullivan's Riyria series when I learned about Hollow World. I love his writing style and thus it was a no brainer to pick up this book despite it being from a genre that I haven't read in years. To say that I was entertained would be quite the understatement; Hollow World is amazing. It presents a believable world with engrossing characters. Highly recommended.

Generally, I don't have many issues with an author using his or her talents to present a particular point of view. I'm convinced it's why many of us lesser talents take the opportunity of online reviewing as a pulpit for our pabulum. It just helps if that intent is clearly delineated from the start and it is conceivable I should have realized the correlatives to Jules Verne would extend well beyond the premise and mechanisms of time travel.

In this instance, I think I was rope-a-doped by the promotional blurbs focus on the author's vision of the future buttressed by the aplomb demonstrated early in the story with the exemplary world building. However, much like the Tiki room exhibit in the Magic Kingdom, once he had me trapped inside and I had a better idea of what was to transpire, I started looking for the emergency exit before all of the sermonizing of a rather parochial social agenda turned me into an automaton.

Just as I thought about the curious enduring friendship between the main character Ellis, and his high school friend nee body guard, Warren, we may feel a sense of indebtedness to individuals we have known for a long time - or a book we started - however to continue that friendship (or reading effort) despite clear indications of widely diversified interests is folly.