The Hollow Earth & Return to the Hollow Earth

The Hollow Earth #1-2

by Rudy Rucker

"The Hollow Earth" is a classic work of American steampunk. In 1836, our seventeen-year-old narrator Mason Reynolds leaves his father's Virginia farm with the black Otha. He befriends the dissolute Edgar Allan Poe, and they fall through a thousand-mile-deep hole in the ice of Antarctica. Within the Hollow Earth, Mason woos and wins Seela, who lives upon a giant flower. At the earth’s the core he finds a sky-surfing tribe known as the black gods—and a cluster of giant, god-like sea cucumbers known as woomo. Mason, Seela, and Poe make their way out through the crust and back to Earth. But due to their time in the strong light of the woomo, their skins are black. And then they encounter Poe’s double... "Return to the Hollow Earth" is Rucker’s second steampunk novel featuring Mason Reynolds. In 1850, Mason and his wife Seela embark upon a perilous trip around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Their ship sinks, but they're saved by a tentacled, flying nautilus—who carries them to meet Edgar Allan Poe. Poe leads them on a return voyage to the Hollow Earth, passing through the throat of a thousand-mile-deep maelstrom at the North Pole. Within the Hollow Earth, they learn that the god-like woomo sea cucumbers mean to send them them on a epic mission across space and time. The initial stage of this mission brings them to modern-day Santa Cruz, California. This 2021 edition supersedes all previous versions of "The Hollow Earth" and "Return to the Hollow Earth."

Genres: Science Fiction

566 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2018

About the author

Rudolf 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.

Reviews

[Brian Lease · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Return Does Not Disappoint

I am so happy I stumbled upon the new edition of Hollow Earth and the sequel. Rucker does not disappoint. The books are a great narrative, a modern Huck Finn with a twisted but strangely endearing Edgar Alan Poe. I am very appreciative that no racist language was used and that there is a modern sensitivity to the issue.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hollow Earth, lots of room for giant ants!

Not to worry, only some of them want to eat people. The really big ones are divinely indifferent to our human biz. A very readable pair of books, buy and enjoy.