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The Hollow Earth #1
The Hollow Earth
This is the second edition of The Hollow Earth, which was replaced in 2018 by a new, third edtion that fits with Rucker's sequel, Return to the Hollow Earth.
In 1836, Mason Algiers Reynolds leaves his family's Virginia farm with his father's slave, a dog, and a mule. Branded a murderer, he finds sanctuary with his hero, Edgar Allan Poe, and together they embark on an extraordinary expedition to the South Pole, and the entrance to the Hollow Earth. It is there, at the center of the world, where strange physics, strange people, and stranger creatures abound, that their bizarre adventures truly begin.
In 1836, Mason Algiers Reynolds leaves his family's Virginia farm with his father's slave, a dog, and a mule. Branded a murderer, he finds sanctuary with his hero, Edgar Allan Poe, and together they embark on an extraordinary expedition to the South Pole, and the entrance to the Hollow Earth. It is there, at the center of the world, where strange physics, strange people, and stranger creatures abound, that their bizarre adventures truly begin.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
About the author
Rudy Rucker
181 books554 followersRudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre. He is best known for his Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which won Philip K. Dick awards. Presently, Rudy Rucker edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 14, 2014
Let’s talk about regrets for a minute…. Okay? Good! We all have regrets, some of them small, some of them huge and some of them have no unit of measurement. I have had all manner of regrets: clothing choices, boyfriend choices, alcohol mixing choices, haircuts…. You get my point.
This book is one of them! I saw it in a local thrift store for $1 and snatched it up, thinking how can I go wrong? Welp, I can AND I did!!
Okay, I’ll let you in on a little secret; I could not care less about author’s spouses, histories or stories. There, I’ve said it, call me a monster if you will…. However, the audacity of Rucker made me have a peruse through Poe’s life history – yes that is Edgar Allan, ladies and gents – just to see how far off the map he was. And I learned stuff, some of it creepy – he did, in fact, marry his 13 year old first cousin Virginia Clemm , some of it unsurprising – he was an alcoholic, temperamental man, and some of it just informative – he worked with an editor named Thomas W. White at the Southern Literary messanger and I have to give Rucker a slow fucking clap….
because, shit man, you know how to use “the google”, bravo. However, after a cursory glance you will discover that Rucker didn’t really do his homework.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Virgina did not, in fact, die at 14 trapped in a wicker box with Edgar, or as Rucker prefers “Eddie”! I’m fairly confident in saying Edgar also did not kill her with opium products OR carry her teeth, wrenched from her corpse, in his pocket like a serial killer…. I mean, maybe he did but I think it would have been mentioned somewhere along the line.
And then the science fiction happens. Dear Rucker, there is a distinct difference between science fiction and fictional science, LEARN IT!!!! Oh the mutha-fucking boredom!!!
I just can’t anymore, this is the worst fucking book I’ve read since The Alchemist, and it’s worth noting that this odorous pile of garbage makes The Alchemist look like a work of genius!!
This book is one of them! I saw it in a local thrift store for $1 and snatched it up, thinking how can I go wrong? Welp, I can AND I did!!
Okay, I’ll let you in on a little secret; I could not care less about author’s spouses, histories or stories. There, I’ve said it, call me a monster if you will…. However, the audacity of Rucker made me have a peruse through Poe’s life history – yes that is Edgar Allan, ladies and gents – just to see how far off the map he was. And I learned stuff, some of it creepy – he did, in fact, marry his 13 year old first cousin Virginia Clemm , some of it unsurprising – he was an alcoholic, temperamental man, and some of it just informative – he worked with an editor named Thomas W. White at the Southern Literary messanger and I have to give Rucker a slow fucking clap….
because, shit man, you know how to use “the google”, bravo. However, after a cursory glance you will discover that Rucker didn’t really do his homework.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Virgina did not, in fact, die at 14 trapped in a wicker box with Edgar, or as Rucker prefers “Eddie”! I’m fairly confident in saying Edgar also did not kill her with opium products OR carry her teeth, wrenched from her corpse, in his pocket like a serial killer…. I mean, maybe he did but I think it would have been mentioned somewhere along the line.
And then the science fiction happens. Dear Rucker, there is a distinct difference between science fiction and fictional science, LEARN IT!!!! Oh the mutha-fucking boredom!!!
I just can’t anymore, this is the worst fucking book I’ve read since The Alchemist, and it’s worth noting that this odorous pile of garbage makes The Alchemist look like a work of genius!!
June 30, 2010
It's a Huckleberry-Finn-steampunk adventure! But it isn't light-hearted fluff. The Hollow Earth: The Narrative of Mason Algiers Reynolds of Virginia may be light-hearted but it is also Southern Gothic sf with racism, rape, drug use and the generally dodgy characters that Rucker loves to fill his fiction with. And add to this historical characters, most especially Edgar Allen Poe and his marriage to Virginia, his thirteen year old cousin.
Like Poe's 1883 Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym which this book is an alternate retelling, Rucker puts the story forward as an manuscript written by another, in this case Mason Algiers Reynolds. Mason, a naive 15 year old Virginian farm boy at the beginning of the novel, who with his companion Otha (his slave) and his dog Arf, manages to get himself in a hell of a lot of trouble as soon as he ventures off his father's farm. On the run, he seeks employment with his favourite author who works at the Southern Literary Messenger.
Here is where Rucker strikes gold because this author, Edgar Allan Poe, better know as Eddie Poe, is not only a great writer. He also a drunk, drug addict, racist kook who is helping a friend outfit his expedition to Antarctica to prove John Cleves Symmes' (dubious even at the time) Hollow Earth theory. Rucker seems to specialize in these odd, disreputable characters who operate at the margins of society, so I take it with a grain of salt of how much of this is the historical Poe and how much of this is just how Rucker sees the world. Anyways it is great fun, a welcome change from the usual Heilien/Stephensonian/Strossian supermen. Rucker's dudes are fuck-ups, sometimes smart, always self-destructive.
Rucker's take on the Hollow Earth benefits from some equally kookie, if far more respected modern science via Einstein, and ends up being far more fantastical than Poe's more symbolic tale. As well, the haunted darkness of Poe's psychology is allowed to air here, in sort of an all-accepting hippie/70s California, 'we're not judging you, man' sort of way. Yeah, that defuses Poe's vexing power, but now we are in Rucker-land. Light up and enjoy dude.
Like Poe's 1883 Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym which this book is an alternate retelling, Rucker puts the story forward as an manuscript written by another, in this case Mason Algiers Reynolds. Mason, a naive 15 year old Virginian farm boy at the beginning of the novel, who with his companion Otha (his slave) and his dog Arf, manages to get himself in a hell of a lot of trouble as soon as he ventures off his father's farm. On the run, he seeks employment with his favourite author who works at the Southern Literary Messenger.
Here is where Rucker strikes gold because this author, Edgar Allan Poe, better know as Eddie Poe, is not only a great writer. He also a drunk, drug addict, racist kook who is helping a friend outfit his expedition to Antarctica to prove John Cleves Symmes' (dubious even at the time) Hollow Earth theory. Rucker seems to specialize in these odd, disreputable characters who operate at the margins of society, so I take it with a grain of salt of how much of this is the historical Poe and how much of this is just how Rucker sees the world. Anyways it is great fun, a welcome change from the usual Heilien/Stephensonian/Strossian supermen. Rucker's dudes are fuck-ups, sometimes smart, always self-destructive.
Rucker's take on the Hollow Earth benefits from some equally kookie, if far more respected modern science via Einstein, and ends up being far more fantastical than Poe's more symbolic tale. As well, the haunted darkness of Poe's psychology is allowed to air here, in sort of an all-accepting hippie/70s California, 'we're not judging you, man' sort of way. Yeah, that defuses Poe's vexing power, but now we are in Rucker-land. Light up and enjoy dude.
April 1, 2014
An odd novel about a journey into the hollow interior of the earth, taken in the 1830s by a Virginian farmboy, a slave from his farm, and Edgar Allan Poe. Well written and frequently entertaining, but uneven and ultimately confusing; Much of the story is taken up by the farmboy narrator's backstory, and Poe doesn't even enter until 80 pages are gone. The adventure in the interior world, and the people and creatures they find there, make for a brief episode. Some clever explanations appear for some of the mysteries of Poe's death (Why was he found wearing another person's clothes, who was 'Reynolds' that he kept calling out for). A nice break from the crime novels I'm always reading, but it felt a little inessential.
March 14, 2021
I have read many books by Rudy Rucker, and even once emailed him and got a pretty cool response (I had run into his email address while researching artificial life on line, in 1994, before there was any world wide web to speak of). I have not gotten around to adding them all to this list, but this one is my favorite. His other books are all wild, fun and smart, but this one is also moving and politically poignant. Or maybe its just that I like E.A. Poe and mirror beings and I miss the Evil Spock from 'Mirror, Mirror'.
September 16, 2012
A fun book of exploration of the nearly-zero gravity world under our feet.
Mason Reynolds has a few misadventures and needs to escape. He meets up with Edgar Allen Poe and is carried along through his misadventures, eventually attempting to balloon over the South Pole in search of the South Pole Hole leading to the vast cavern of the Hollow Earth.
The story is wonderfully unbelievable and the characters wonderfully believable. Watching Mason's racist attitudes -quite liberal for his time but not for ours - change and improve is an enjoyable side plot.
I read this on my Kindle and found the word 'corn' rendered correctly on one page but on the next three it was written 'com'. I did not notice any other OCR related problems.
Mason Reynolds has a few misadventures and needs to escape. He meets up with Edgar Allen Poe and is carried along through his misadventures, eventually attempting to balloon over the South Pole in search of the South Pole Hole leading to the vast cavern of the Hollow Earth.
The story is wonderfully unbelievable and the characters wonderfully believable. Watching Mason's racist attitudes -quite liberal for his time but not for ours - change and improve is an enjoyable side plot.
I read this on my Kindle and found the word 'corn' rendered correctly on one page but on the next three it was written 'com'. I did not notice any other OCR related problems.
November 18, 2008
Lost Worlds adventure of Doyle, Verne, and most of all Poe undercut by Rucker’s weirdness and silly humor, love for physics, and fondness for Harryhausen styled monsters. A tribute to E.A. Poe with references of course to the Narrative of A. Gordon Pym and other Poe tales(“Black Cats”, “William Wilson”, “Berenice”, Cask of Amontillado”) Also pokes fun at Lovecraft, whose ‘At the Mountains of Madness” is yet another sequel/tribute to The Narrative of A Gordon Pym.
June 13, 2009
Mark Twain on acid-excellent!!
January 21, 2010
There are no two ways to put this, Hollow Earth is a bad book. Period. Unlike some of my feelings about a book, whether it's a classic that I couldn't get behind or a plot overshadowed by imagery, this has nothing.
The back of the book leads me to believe I'm going on a light-hearted romp on a whimsical adventure the likes of which Terry Pratchet or Douglas Adams is akin but this book is neither.
We get a slew of characters who are as flat as paper and completely uninteresting. The only slightly interesting character is Edgar Allen Poe. He is interesting only because I was left wondering why Rucker put him in the book at all. He does nothing in the book to further the plot or really assist the characters. Poe is portrayed as a selfish, degenerate, scum - which he could be, I haven't brushed up on my Poe - who does nothing but hold the characters back. So why did you put a famous poet in your book if he does nothing? Maybe you could have written the book in the same vein as him, but you didn't, it really has very little to do with him except random factoids.
The main character is a token Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer type without the charm. He is accompanied by a black slave who talks the talk and is portrayed as being unique by being clever - which he isn't. Rucker says he is, but I haven't seen it yet.
Characters aside, the story is weak. It is a rehash of Journey to the Center of the Earth but less interesting. It's not as dry, I don't think (many a year ago that I read that), but it is still very, very boring.
Maybe the setting is interesting. Not so much. If you have ever read any adventure/exploration book there is nothing new here. There are some big monsters akin to 20,000 leagues but if I wanted a giant squid why wouldn't I just read 20,000 leagues?
The prose is dull and unimaginative and the 'wacky' world they are transported too is interesting in concept but rather boring when we have our stock-characters exploring it like a troupe of bumbling fools who make mistakes that any child would know to avoid.
Sorry, Rucker, this book has no redeeming qualities. It's been done better.
The back of the book leads me to believe I'm going on a light-hearted romp on a whimsical adventure the likes of which Terry Pratchet or Douglas Adams is akin but this book is neither.
We get a slew of characters who are as flat as paper and completely uninteresting. The only slightly interesting character is Edgar Allen Poe. He is interesting only because I was left wondering why Rucker put him in the book at all. He does nothing in the book to further the plot or really assist the characters. Poe is portrayed as a selfish, degenerate, scum - which he could be, I haven't brushed up on my Poe - who does nothing but hold the characters back. So why did you put a famous poet in your book if he does nothing? Maybe you could have written the book in the same vein as him, but you didn't, it really has very little to do with him except random factoids.
The main character is a token Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer type without the charm. He is accompanied by a black slave who talks the talk and is portrayed as being unique by being clever - which he isn't. Rucker says he is, but I haven't seen it yet.
Characters aside, the story is weak. It is a rehash of Journey to the Center of the Earth but less interesting. It's not as dry, I don't think (many a year ago that I read that), but it is still very, very boring.
Maybe the setting is interesting. Not so much. If you have ever read any adventure/exploration book there is nothing new here. There are some big monsters akin to 20,000 leagues but if I wanted a giant squid why wouldn't I just read 20,000 leagues?
The prose is dull and unimaginative and the 'wacky' world they are transported too is interesting in concept but rather boring when we have our stock-characters exploring it like a troupe of bumbling fools who make mistakes that any child would know to avoid.
Sorry, Rucker, this book has no redeeming qualities. It's been done better.
November 12, 2017
A nerdy adventure story about a mid-19th century journal into the hollow Earth. I was expecting to like this a lot less than I did. It was consistently both fun and interesting to read. And for the most part firmly grounded in physics (if not reality), which is sort of amazing considering how weird some of the happenings are. I'd be interested in reading more of both his non-fiction and his fiction.
November 29, 2009
Edgar Allen Poe joins a polar expedition that discovers the entrance to the hollow earth and along the way we get explanations of many of Poe's stories as well as the story behind Poe's bizarre death. Typical Rucker insanity with its own internal logic.
August 27, 2016
Speaking of books that hit ludicrous speed, this is another one. I would like to know the specific intoxicants consumed to hit on this storyline, but I am not sure I want to consume them myself.
May 13, 2022
So I absolutely loved this book ! At first I was a little disappointed about how they entered the hollow earth, I was expecting it to be more related to some other non fiction books that I’ve read but was surprised at how well it it all fit together. Also loved all the characters too. What really threw me though me was the editors note at the end of the book !!?? Hmmm lol. Definitely recommend !
January 3, 2018
Tom Robbins, Phillip K Dick, Douglas Adams, but zanier than the others! I’ve mostly read Dr. Rucker’s math books, though I love his fiction. It was probably my inattentiveness to reading that made this book lag just a bit in the middle, as it’s a really wild ride.
I’m looking forward to reading more!
I’m looking forward to reading more!
July 18, 2014
If you know your nineteenth century history, especially the history of strange ideas from John Cleves Symmes, Jr., you'll find this a pretty interesting read.
June 8, 2018
If this book’s description contains ingredients that hold your attention, you won’t be disappointed. This book is a trip.
June 6, 2022
There's a lot of set up, the pay off is good when you get there but I do wish there was more exploration of the inner world. It's amazing how fast loss occurs and how little it's mourned over. Overall it's imaginative and the role reversal is enriching, even if not all characters engage in this enrichment.
July 15, 2018
Bought this because Rucker. ‘Twas a silly tale, but it was redeemed by the historical tie in. A beach read, but not the best Rucker nor the best acid-dropping fantasy, though there were some elements reminiscent of Niven's Integral Trees.
February 10, 2020
Some of this is very interesting but some parts really drag.
December 20, 2021
Racist. Misogynistic. Had no business being published in the 90s, let alone a new edition in 2006.
February 1, 2024
I'm glad I'm not the only one pissed at wasting my time on this book. UGH
February 13, 2012
Confesso um certo gosto pelo tema da terra oca. As teorias de buracos nos pólos que conduziriam a uma enorme caverna com um sol interior têm um certo fascínio por fugir da normalidade das descobertas científicas. Sabendo que são ideias alucinadas, seduzem-nos pela mesma razão que terras perdidas ou ilhas esquecidas: espaços onde a ciência não desvendou o imaginário, locais onde ainda podemos dizer que aqui há dragões. A teoria da terra oca, ainda hoje defendida por acérrimos defensores (também há quem ainda, contra todas as evidências, defenda que a terra é plana) esteve em voga em meados do século XIX. Influenciou Edgar Allan Poe, que a visita em The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, e os romances de Edgar Rice Burroughs da série Pellucidar. As explorações polares com o seu flagrante falhanço na descoberta de buracos de acesso ao interior cavernoso do planeta enterraram de vez esta curiosa teoria, mantida viva apenas por fanáticos de misticismo agarthianos, raças subterrâneas e total incapacidade de compreender as realidades geológicas. Ideias ilusórias, mas divertidas.
Rudy Rucker, autor marcante pela sua teralogia 'Ware, diverte-se nesta obra com uma reescrita da obra clássica de Poe. Sendo Rucker, podemos esperar descrições bizarras de topografia n-dimensional na percepção espacial. É aí que o livro se torna interessante. Boa parte, narrando as desventuras dos personagens na sua demanda pelo interior, deixa-nos uma desconfortável sensação de desinteresse mitigada por um curioso sub-texto anti-racista. É uma engraçada divagação sobre um tema de sanidade duvidosa, mas longe do melhor deste singular escritor.
Rudy Rucker, autor marcante pela sua teralogia 'Ware, diverte-se nesta obra com uma reescrita da obra clássica de Poe. Sendo Rucker, podemos esperar descrições bizarras de topografia n-dimensional na percepção espacial. É aí que o livro se torna interessante. Boa parte, narrando as desventuras dos personagens na sua demanda pelo interior, deixa-nos uma desconfortável sensação de desinteresse mitigada por um curioso sub-texto anti-racista. É uma engraçada divagação sobre um tema de sanidade duvidosa, mas longe do melhor deste singular escritor.
September 24, 2015
I became obsessed with this book when I was a pre-teenager, and--no offense to Mr. Rucker or pre-teenagers--that's not a compliment. It was one of my first delicious forays into dark fantasy (ooo, it was so *interesting*!), and the foreword? prologue? epilogue? that stated it was a discovered non-fiction account convinced gullible child-me that this stuff really happened. Shortly thereafter, I also became obsessed with Whitley Streiber's "non-fiction" alien abduction accounts; my point being that's where I was when I read and reread it obsessively.
The hollow earth stuff itself wasn't all that engaging, only the idea of it was. In fact, I only really remember the creepy before and afters, particularly when (spoiler coming) Eddie forced the MC to do husbandly duties on his behalf with his child-cousin-wife.
So in conclusion, adult me is smh at kid me, but I'm sure this book isn't as horribly awful as some people say. Then again, I haven't found any desire to reread it.
The hollow earth stuff itself wasn't all that engaging, only the idea of it was. In fact, I only really remember the creepy before and afters, particularly when (spoiler coming) Eddie forced the MC to do husbandly duties on his behalf with his child-cousin-wife.
So in conclusion, adult me is smh at kid me, but I'm sure this book isn't as horribly awful as some people say. Then again, I haven't found any desire to reread it.
June 27, 2011
There's nothing worse than a book that starts out good but gets worse as it goes, because once you're past a certain point you feel kind of obligated to finish it and you just get more and more p----- off until you turn that last, miserable page and can finally throw the g-------- thing into the river, where hopefully a duck will choke on it. As you probably guessed, this is one of those books. The first half - where the main kid meets Edgar Allen Poe and they run a savage burn on this entire town so they can outfit their little adventure - is awesome, but once they actually get to the Hollow Earth it's just a bunch of goofy c---.
More here:
http://www.mrsatanism.com/books/hollowearth.htm
More here:
http://www.mrsatanism.com/books/hollowearth.htm
August 28, 2009
Not my thing. I don't know why not, though. This book has many of the ideas and tropes which I find most attractive, interesting, and entertaining in my reading material. I just didn't like it. I couldn't even get all the way through it. Bitterly disappointed about this I was; it looked so promising.
NOT recommended.
Bleh.
NOT recommended.
Bleh.
Read
December 29, 2008Fun stuff. Found it a little tough at the start - maybe that was just getting used to the writing style. But it soon picks up with an amusing mix of old adventure and new physics. Plus a strange L'Trimm reference?
July 28, 2011
Of all the Rucker I've read, this it the only one that's left me flat. But that has more to do with the fact that I'm not a huge fan of Poe. If he had given H.P. Lovecraft a similar treatment, I probably would have wet my pants!
Want to read
April 15, 2007TTBRMMWTRT. A history of the hollow earth movement - hey, I didn't need to read any further than that.
June 2, 2008
A silly read.
June 16, 2008
DNF. Stupid and tedious.
September 12, 2010
Not really science-fiction; more a historical fiction fantasy. Whatever. It also exhibits a decent social conscious, beyond that it's not all that good.
Three starts may be too much.
Three starts may be too much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews