Hollow World

Fantasy author Sullivan (the Riyria Revelations series) takes a stab at science fiction, introducing a man who travels through time in hopes of curing his terminal lung cancer. Intending to go 200 years into the future, Ellis Rogers winds up in the year 4078, where a utopic underground civilization has “no war, no discrimination, no disease, no pollution, no violence, no class warfare.” Yet Ellis immediately witnesses a murder, involving him in a scheme that will affect the nature of the entire Hollow World. Well paced and exciting for the first half, the story fluctuates between a crawl and a race in the second half, leaving some questions unanswered. Sullivan’s heavy reliance on contemporary references (including Winnie-the-Pooh, Star Wars, and Lost) is distracting, but his old-fashioned utopian allegory will please readers who share his views on same-sex love (he’s for it) and fascism (he’s against it). (Apr.)