The Hollow Man

A great premise, but a classic case of a writer trying to do too much! Simmons uses science fiction to explore intriguing concepts like telepathy and the notion of a universal consciousness. I don't know my physics, but he makes it sound like he knows what he's talking about from a mathematical and scientific standpoint. However, it's too easy to get lost and a lot of the time it's not quite...more

A great premise, but a classic case of a writer trying to do too much! Simmons uses science fiction to explore intriguing concepts like telepathy and the notion of a universal consciousness. I don't know my physics, but he makes it sound like he knows what he's talking about from a mathematical and scientific standpoint. However, it's too easy to get lost and a lot of the time it's not quite clear where he's going with the logistics of it all. I finished the book with more 'huh?' questions rather than mulling over the possibilities, as I suspect was his intention. Anyone liking sci-fi that explores issues of consciousness and the human mind would be better off reading Robert Sawyer or Julian May's Galactic Milieu series, which this was vaguely reminiscent of (although neither resort to the horror genre or including flesh-eating psycho killers!!). Sawyer explores the science of such concepts in a way that is much more reader-friendly and accessible than shown by Simmons here.   hide