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A review by amynbell
Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan
5.0
Once I saw the promotional poster for this book, I knew immediately that this was a world I wanted to go to even if it is a future world accessible only by fictional time travel. And it turned out to be a world that I was sad to leave at book’s end, along with the adorable Pax and his bowler hat.
This is the story of a man named Ellis who abandons everyone he’s ever known to take a one-way trip to the future. He sees the future as an escape from the life of the present, and perhaps the future holds a cure for his terminal illness. What he discovers is a Ray-Bradbury-esque world full of beauty and wonder. Climate change has pushed humans underground, but the 3 Miracles have brought heaven to this underground utopia. Immortality is a reality and nobody wants for anything. In a world where nobody has to work, many seek leisure in art, resulting of a world where you might take a shower in an indoor waterfall or port to an Ansel Adams photo location for a picnic.
When Ellis first lands in the future, he finds himself immediately drawn into a friendship with Pax who himself is an odd person out among his peers. “The two of them just sort of clicked, like old friends who’d just met. Friends-at-first-sight, if there was such a thing.” It’s through this friendship and the adventures that he has with Pax that Ellis is finally able to find redemption from the mistakes of his past. The friendship between Ellis and Pax is worth everything that Ellis left behind. I love how Pax accepts Ellis as he is: “Your skin sags, and has all those great creases, like a beloved knapsack that has been taken everywhere and shows evidence of every mile.”
This is a book that, at the surface looks like a straightforward time travel story, but its true strength is that it hits on several topics of depth. What is love beyond sex? Why do people need each other? What makes us human? What makes us unique? What are people truly striving for within religion? What do people long for? What is the point of life? Is there ever a justification for murder? How far do you have to go to forgive yourself? What barriers are worth breaking down for love?
I keep finding books that become new favorites that I think everyone should read, and this falls in that category. It has a gorgeous setting, features time travel and a post-apocalyptic world, has well-developed characters, has a plot that is tightly woven, and is full of nuggets of wisdom. But I think this is the first time I’ve recognized my own personality in someone else’s writing.
“Oh dear, if I wrote a book, I’d do that,” I kept saying to myself as I finished reading the introductory justifications at the beginning of the ebook version of the novel, the author’s book review, and the book’s afterward. They all go into the details of how the novel came about and various reasons for this and that. The book information the author provided on GoodReads was so thorough that I didn’t have to do any work other than copying and pasting it into the initial informational post for our book club. I also recognized my own personality in the way that the author portrays both sides of an issue with equal aplomb, equally able to sympathize with both sides of very different opinions and making me wonder whether he believes this that or nothing. The author says that “One truth doesn’t refute another. Truth doesn’t lie in the object, but in how we see it.” In other words, two people can have completely different opinions and yet they can both be ‘right’.” Ren is Hollow World’s Hitler, yet the author has him use life’s wisdom and an almost empathizable logic for his dastardly plans of upsetting utopia. Ren says that “Life is all about conflict. The pursuit of happiness—that’s life, not the achievement. It’s all about the journey…” Then Ellis says that “As twisted as Ren was, I understood him—even sympathized, because part of me was Ren.” I knew what the author was saying because part of me was Ellis and part of me was Ren as well. I don’t mean that I could sympathize with a Hitler-wanna-be, but that I understand the madness behind his logic, albeit a faulty logic. I don’t think I’ve ever looked up an author’s birthday before. But when you recognize your own idiosyncrasies, musings, and aphorisms in someone else’s writings, you just have to. And it turns out that the author is a Virgo with my same birth week, a personality type that seemingly thrives on justification, explanation, and seeing both sides of a point (among other things).
I’m not usually a fan of fantasy, but I might be convinced to try one of the author’s other works which are all fantasy because Hollow World is such a work of art. But I’m hoping more strongly that some of the forthcoming novels the author mentions at the end of this book are sequels set in Hollow World. I need to dance with Pax in the rain again and explore more of the depths of this world of the future.
This is the story of a man named Ellis who abandons everyone he’s ever known to take a one-way trip to the future. He sees the future as an escape from the life of the present, and perhaps the future holds a cure for his terminal illness. What he discovers is a Ray-Bradbury-esque world full of beauty and wonder. Climate change has pushed humans underground, but the 3 Miracles have brought heaven to this underground utopia. Immortality is a reality and nobody wants for anything. In a world where nobody has to work, many seek leisure in art, resulting of a world where you might take a shower in an indoor waterfall or port to an Ansel Adams photo location for a picnic.
When Ellis first lands in the future, he finds himself immediately drawn into a friendship with Pax who himself is an odd person out among his peers. “The two of them just sort of clicked, like old friends who’d just met. Friends-at-first-sight, if there was such a thing.” It’s through this friendship and the adventures that he has with Pax that Ellis is finally able to find redemption from the mistakes of his past. The friendship between Ellis and Pax is worth everything that Ellis left behind. I love how Pax accepts Ellis as he is: “Your skin sags, and has all those great creases, like a beloved knapsack that has been taken everywhere and shows evidence of every mile.”
This is a book that, at the surface looks like a straightforward time travel story, but its true strength is that it hits on several topics of depth. What is love beyond sex? Why do people need each other? What makes us human? What makes us unique? What are people truly striving for within religion? What do people long for? What is the point of life? Is there ever a justification for murder? How far do you have to go to forgive yourself? What barriers are worth breaking down for love?
I keep finding books that become new favorites that I think everyone should read, and this falls in that category. It has a gorgeous setting, features time travel and a post-apocalyptic world, has well-developed characters, has a plot that is tightly woven, and is full of nuggets of wisdom. But I think this is the first time I’ve recognized my own personality in someone else’s writing.
“Oh dear, if I wrote a book, I’d do that,” I kept saying to myself as I finished reading the introductory justifications at the beginning of the ebook version of the novel, the author’s book review, and the book’s afterward. They all go into the details of how the novel came about and various reasons for this and that. The book information the author provided on GoodReads was so thorough that I didn’t have to do any work other than copying and pasting it into the initial informational post for our book club. I also recognized my own personality in the way that the author portrays both sides of an issue with equal aplomb, equally able to sympathize with both sides of very different opinions and making me wonder whether he believes this that or nothing. The author says that “One truth doesn’t refute another. Truth doesn’t lie in the object, but in how we see it.” In other words, two people can have completely different opinions and yet they can both be ‘right’.” Ren is Hollow World’s Hitler, yet the author has him use life’s wisdom and an almost empathizable logic for his dastardly plans of upsetting utopia. Ren says that “Life is all about conflict. The pursuit of happiness—that’s life, not the achievement. It’s all about the journey…” Then Ellis says that “As twisted as Ren was, I understood him—even sympathized, because part of me was Ren.” I knew what the author was saying because part of me was Ellis and part of me was Ren as well. I don’t mean that I could sympathize with a Hitler-wanna-be, but that I understand the madness behind his logic, albeit a faulty logic. I don’t think I’ve ever looked up an author’s birthday before. But when you recognize your own idiosyncrasies, musings, and aphorisms in someone else’s writings, you just have to. And it turns out that the author is a Virgo with my same birth week, a personality type that seemingly thrives on justification, explanation, and seeing both sides of a point (among other things).
I’m not usually a fan of fantasy, but I might be convinced to try one of the author’s other works which are all fantasy because Hollow World is such a work of art. But I’m hoping more strongly that some of the forthcoming novels the author mentions at the end of this book are sequels set in Hollow World. I need to dance with Pax in the rain again and explore more of the depths of this world of the future.