Hollow World

Author’s Note About Time Travel Technology

Time travel as described in this novel isn’t possible. It’s important to mention this up front. I’m not saying, “Don’t try this at home.” I’m simply clarifying that this is as much a work of fantasy as it is science fiction—but, then again, most science fiction has a dash of fantasy thrown in, that artificial what if spark that ignites the chain reaction that propels everything forward.

In the classic The Time Machine, H. G. Wells’s high-tech explanation for how his device was able to skip through years was: “Now I want you to clearly understand that this lever, being pressed over, sends the machine gliding into the future, and this other reverses the motion.” That’s pretty much the extent of his hard science. Of course his story, while named The Time Machine, really wasn’t so much about the machine or the science behind it, but rather speculations on the future of mankind.

So is Hollow World.

The Time Machine was first published in Britain in 1895. Apparently, back then, you could get away with stating that pressing a lever resulted in doing something otherwise known as impossible. Of course back then, they didn’t have the Internet. The average reader today knows that you can’t travel faster than the speed of light, or through a black hole. This education may be due more to the success of science fiction entertainment such as Star Trek than to high school teachers, but here we are. The modern-day reader is better educated and demands plausibility.

To this end I did research into time-travel theory, and I drew inspiration from a handful of sources, most notably Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time by renowned astrophysicist J. Richard Gott. Mr. Gott provided a plausible explanation for how a stationary object could move significantly forward in time by overcoming the g-force restriction of linear travel by moving interdimensionally. This is theoretically possible if you could put yourself in the near-center of a black hole while maintaining a defensive shell using electrostatic repulsions of like charges. That’s the theory, but as I said, time travel of the sort required for this story isn’t possible—at least not in an urban garage. I fudged the math—a lot. I aimed for a dramatic blend of façade, plausibility, and smoke-and-mirrors illusion so that if you don’t look too closely, you can almost imagine it working.

Like H. G. Wells’s tale, Hollow World really isn’t about time travel any more than reality television shows are documentaries. I hope you won’t allow a little creative license to get in the way of enjoying the ride. I felt providing a good reading experience superseded an adherence to strict probability. Hollow World isn’t a story about the science of time travel.

So, what is this story about?

Read on—a world awaits.