Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)David Standish has produced one of the most entertaining nonfiction works you're likely to find. It chronicles the history of the idea that the Earth is hollow from the time of Edmond Halley to the present. Standish redeems Halley's reputation, explaining that Halley proposed the idea to explain anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field. Things get weirder from there as Standish dives into the inexplicable belief of John Cleves Symmes that openings into the Earth exist at the poles. Probably the best chapter is the one on Cyrus Teed and Koreshanity, a religion that teaches that the Earth is hollow and we live on its inner surface. The book goes downhill after that, presenting nothing but summaries of sci-fi novels with a few conspiracy theories thrown in.
The book is too breezy. The style is fun, but Standish's personal asides and sarcastic humor, at first entertaining, become irritating by the end. The sketchy finale, in which Standish mentions some modern religious beliefs about the hollow Earth, collapses into an obnoxious joke.
When Standish steps away from his subject, he not only gets personal but commits errors; his characterization of all thought before the Enlightenment as "dreamy romanticism" is hardly accurate.
Besides containing too much of David Standish, Hollow Earth contains too little...well, hollow Earth. His tantalizing introduction mentions a number of societies and religions that have posited fascinating things under the Earth's surface, but he never discusses most of them. Starting with Halley was a mistake; Standish soon has nothing to do but summarize novels. Perhaps he starts too late because everything before Halley can be dismissed as "dreamy romanticism."
For those with a serious interest in science fiction, this book is a great introduction to the origins of the hollow Earth idea and gives decent, if opinionated, descriptions of its appearance in the genre. As an entertaining book, it's also quite good. If, however, you're looking for detailed info on religious legends of subterranean realms or modern conspiracy theories, look elsewhere.
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