Indiana Jones and The Hollow Earth

[Lord Excalibur]

Here you can discuss the book by Max McCoy named: Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth. The best book by McCoy it is.

The Story for those which haven't read it:

It's early 1934 and Indiana Jones gets a mysterious pocket by the late Professor Evelyn. Suddenly Indy gets hunted by the Nazi Rudolf Reingold and his Gestapo agents. The pocket has a piece from the Ultima Thule, the Hollow Earth. The mystical place where a new world is. From New York to Kansas, from Princeton to the Arctic here comes the most mystical adventure Indy ever discovered...

[Junior Jones]

I haven't read it in a while, but from your synopsis I remember it as one of the better Indy novels.

Sadly, I often get it confused with Indiana Jones and the Interior World, which is the worst of the Indy novels.

[Indy_Jones88]

Hi, I,ve only read the dance of the giants which was really good. and i just ordered the rest of the books by rob mcgregor and micheal kiaden off of ebey. Which books would u recommend and which r not worth reading???

[Lord Excalibur]

This is indeed worth reading, it's the best Indy book.

[Junior Jones]

Originally posted by Indy_Jones88
Which books would u recommend and which r not worth reading???

Since this is the Hollow Earth thread, let's start this discussion in another thread.

[Indy_Jones88]

k srry im new at this lol.

[Strider]

I have heard praise of the Hollow Earth before. I haven't read it and my Library doesn't have it, should I buy it?

[Junior Jones]

I would recommend it. In fact, buy all of Max McCoy's books. If you can still find them.

[Shipwreck]

You can also check out Max's website at www.maxmccoy.com allowing you to keep up with his latest works.

You can also read my interview with him here:
http://www.theraider.net/features/interviews/interview_maxmccoy.php

[Strider]

Thanks for the info bub. :)

[Tennessee R]

I have 3 Indy books, Hollow Earth is probably my favorite.
I have heard a lot about Sky Pirates being the worst Indy book.

I have
Hollow Earth. R. McGreggor
Mystery of the Sphinx. R. McGreggor
Peril at Delphi.

[Tennessee R]

Indy Jones 88:

I started a Thread about this.
It was one of my first posts, if not my very first post.

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?threadid=5757

Favorite Indy Books

[VP]

HE is my favorite Indy book. I also have Genesis Deluge, and have read Unicorn's Legacy. UL was the worst one.

[Redwall]

I enjoyed Hollow Earth, but not as much as Genesis Deluge or Secret of the Sphinx. Not sure why, maybe because the whole "Hollow Earth" idea itself is so hard to believe. (though the climax, as I recall it, was awesome)

[Canyon]

I absolutely love The Hollow Earth, but then again I love all of Max McCoy's Indy books. ;)

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?threadid=5871

[Strider]

Max McCoy said in an interview that he captured Indy's character the best in Hollow Earth.

[Seven]

Before any of you read "Hollow Earth" for the first time, I suggest you read McCoy's other Indy books that take place before it. Namely "The Philosopher's Stone" and "The Dinosaur Eggs". Lets just say that there are certain characer developmens that happen in "Hollow Earth" that would make much more sense if you read the previous books. If you can't get both, go for "The Philosopher's Stone" first.

[Indyologist]

I just wanted to say here that while Ulla is strong and attractive, I think she's a nasty, cold-hearted person that I would never want to be friends with. I enjoyed how she gave Indy a hard time, but I could never, ever see her as a love interest for Indy. I mean where's the love in her? Of course it would never happen because she says herself that "she is not attactive to men."

[Peacock's-Eye]

Just finished McCoy's third Indy adventure: "The Hollow Earth".

Wow! These just get better volume by volume. Very few missteps here.

My only major criticism is that these books were clearly penned & edited in haste. McCoy has a bad habit of describing action is the past tense, and also describing action as 'beginning' to happen. 'Inday began to punch the Nazi', 'So & So began to make coffee'. I think that if McCoy were given more time, he would have smoothed those bumps out. He also used the word 'rather' as a qualifier about two hundred times - that should have been caught in the editorial stage too. As with his other entries, the ending is very rushed, and far too many side characters are introduced. Also, Indy's "voice" fades in and out. The beginning and end are strong - but the middle finds Indy talking like another character entirely.

But those are minor criticisms!

This is a truly fun, imaginative, Indy adventure! Strong characters include Ulla Tornaes - a fiery, intelligent, bisexual scientist/adventurer; Indy's likable pilot buddy Clarence; the young radio operator Sparks & the Beserker/hunter Gunnar, who speaks no English and clothes himself in bearskin! Belloq makes a comic-villain appearance as well.

Like the other McCoy books, lots of obscure history factors in here, with several surprising historical cameos, which I won't spoil for you. I'm a sucker for stories that take place underground, and for hollow earth mythology. McCoy doesn't disappoint here - he's picked the most interesting concepts and fit them together perfectly. This books also wraps up Indy's relationship with Alecia Dunst, and gets Indy within grabbing distance of the Crystal Skull* (I won't spoil what happens!).

This entry marks a huge improvement in Max's climaxes. This really feels like an Indy movie ending! The supernatural/otherworldly aspect works brilliantly - I was reminded of C.S. Lewis's "That Hideous Strength".

I give this one five Indys!
INDIANA JONES & THE HOLLOW EARTH
:whip: :whip: :whip: :whip: :whip:



*Not the same Skull that's in the movie!

[Dust McAlan]

::WARNING! SPOILERS AHOY!::



In my recent fervor for all things Indiana Jones, I picked up Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth. Having read Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone helped me understand this book immensely; if you haven't read Stone, I suggest you do so rather than reading this atrocity. An calling Hollow Earth an atrocity is a complement: had it not started out strong, this would have been a complete waste of time.

The setup is thus: Indiana Jones can't seem to recall for the life of him exactly what happened during an adventure in the Arctic, where it seemed that he would surely die. He decides to recall what he knows to try and piece it together. When we begin, Indy is at home researching Coronado's Cross and where it might be located, when a mysterious stranger arrives, wounded an in need of Indy's services. He gives Indy a box with a strange piece of crystal and a journal, speaking of interior worlds and expeditions to the North Pole. Indy is pretty confused and unwilling to believe the old man, but takes the box in his charge before the old man dies. However, Nazi agents were following the old man (in fact, they'd ran him over before he came to Indy) and are now on Indy's trail, in search of the old man's journal.

This is where the book actually succeeds as a story: we get the delivery of mysterious package, we get Indy heading off to deliver the old man's body to a particular grave on his honor, and Nazis in pursuit. The main villain, Reingold, manages to get the journal after much trial and error, and indeed with some exciting moments. One that stood out for me was Indy and Reingold facing off, guns pointing at each other, as Indy warns Reingold not to shoot because the barrel of his gun is loaded with snow and will explode. Is Indy bluffing or isn't he? The author, Max McCoy, doesn't actually say, but that's what makes the tension work: we don't really know if Indy is bluffing the Nazi, meaning that the trigger could still be pulled and our hero could die. Of course, this doesn't happen, and our villain escapes, only to plague Indy at his next stop, before finally stealing the journal. The journal itself is a fascinating recount of the old man's expedition to the Arctic, and the wonderous things he's seen. At which point Indy resolves to get the journal back, in order to---

Oh, wait, no. He doesn't. He doesn't go after the journal. Our hero, Indiana Jones, who knows and realizes that there is some kind of power of archaeological significance that the Nazis are after, can't be bothered to track down the journal and discover the truth behind it. His childhood obsession, the Cross of Coronado, is what he's after. Or, at least, that's what I was led to believe when we hit the asinine sequence set in New Mexico.

The book, once we hit page 92, bogs itself down in absolutely unnesscessary details and events. In fact, the next one hundred pages could have been torn out and we would have had a better novel. I didn't care that Indy wanted Coronado's Cross---what about the journal? What about the mysterious message on the Thule stone that the old man used as a grave marker? What are the Nazis truly after? Well, Dr. Jones didn't seem to care; he was after his golden cross.

In New Mexico, there's a strange jumble of events: a local legend about a man named John Seven Oaks, Indy crawling forever through a strange labyrinth of caves, discovering a pile of gold (of which he takes some, for whatever reason, I don't know), leaving, getting saved from a flash flood by Dr. Ulla Tornaes, then encountering a Grizzly Adams type who threatens them until John Seven Oaks appears and saves them, then Ulla punches Seven Oaks, and we go to...New Orleans? To do what?

To give the gold to Rene Belloq in exchange for information on the whereabouts of the Crystal Skull from Philosopher's Stone. Read that again. Indy does a deal with BELLOQ before pissing Belloq off, at which point they agree to a duel in a cemetary with single shot pistols.

It was at this point that I realized that something was missing, so I searched for Indiana Jones novels online, and discovered that there was a book BETWEEN Philosopher's Stone and Hollow Earth that's necessary for understanding Hollow Earth. And while there had been references to Philosopher's Stone in the novel already, I didn't know that you needed to read the other works, or Hollow Earth wouldn't make sense. This is where Max McCoy nosedives from average writer to absolute pretension: he assumes you read his other novels in this series, and drops this information in here to continue that subplot. Look, had I never read Philosopher's Stone, and I'd read Hollow Earth on its own merits, I would have been really pissed off. An Indiana Jones adventure ought to be able to stand on its own without you needing to have read/seen the prior adventures. Raiders does this, Temple of Doom does this, and to an extent Crusade does this as well. Kingdom not so much, but this isn't about Kingdom. This is about Hollow Earth, which seriously fails in this regard.

McCoy builds up a lot of excitement in the first 90 pages. In fact, I was ready for another classic adventure along the lines of Philosopher's Stone when the story detours into New Mexico and New Orleans, where we learn that Indy wasn't obsessed over Coronado's Cross at all (despite earlier insinuations) but about the Crystal Skull, so that he can put it back and be with Alecia Dunstain, heroine of Philosopher's Stone, thus lifting the curse around it. He also set up an interesting villain with Reingold, but Reingold disappears on page 70 and doesn't reappear until page 220. That one hundred and fifty pages of no villain. That's pretty boring. And the sequence with Belloq and the duel was absolutely insulting. We're stopping the adventure for Indiana Jones to have a duel with Belloq, a person he wouldn't do a deal with in the first place, let alone engage in honorable combat. There's stuff to do, adventure to have, and we're stopping to have a duel. Give me a break. By the time we finally reach the government outpost where Indy is hooking up with the G-Men to chase down the Nazis and figure out what's going on with them, we've swerved around the main plot so severely that I had to go back and re-read the opening to remember what the novel was even about.

The coincidences abound after this. Alecia just happens to be with the Nazis in the Arctic. The waterproof canister containing the Crystal Skull just happens to be in the Arctic, and the Nazis just happen to be after THAT as well as the power of Ultima Thule. Indy just happens to be going after the Skull, the Nazis, Aleica, AND Ultima Thule. It's like McCoy realized that nothing had happened for a hundred pages, and throws it all together in a poorly conceived mixmash that culminates in the biggest "WTF?" I've seen/read in an Indiana Jones adventure. Really, the final puzzle is beyond cryptic, entering into foggy subtext land, and Sparks, the resident tech wiz, tries to piece it together. It's essentially a game of rainbow rocks, and what order they go in. Sparks, for all his eagerness, doesn't fit as being the one to unlock the final puzzle, because he's a mathematician, and arranging rainbow rocks doesn't scream PHD in Physics to me. It just didn't make sense, and neither did the standard "horrifc supernatural event" that Indy is known for. It just doesn't work.

After reading this novel, I can say that without a doubt, Max McCoy is a one-hit wonder when it comes to Indiana Jones. Philosopher's Stone was chessy adventure goodness, while this is simply a mess. Some might call it unfair to compare Stone to Hollow Earth so often in this review, but Hollow Earth only works when you recall the events of Philosopher's Stone and, I'm assuming, Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs. I was interesting in reading the latter, but upon realization that you MUST read Philosopher's Stone first, and after the horrible execution of Hollow Earth, I'm going to stay away from the remainder of McCoy's novels. I have yet to read anything by Rob Macgregor, who now intrigues me, and as such I'll check out one of his.

Do yourself a favor: skip this. There's a line at which a good fan should say "Hell, no. I'm not just going to buy ANYTHING Indy." This is that line.

Final score: 4/10

[Quickening]

I haven't read Hollow Earth yet but Ive read all the Macgregor novels bar Peril at Delphi and you definately need to read them in order. You don't need to have read the previous books in order to understand the stories (as seems to be the case here), but it will certainly help.

[OhioJones]

Hollow Earth was my first Indy novel. I have read it twice in my life and I remember it being my favorite.

[Peacock's-Eye]

Yeah, this sort of "licensed fiction" is usually unreadable garbage spooled out for kids & people who have difficulty reading (not that there's anything shameful about a person who has a reading impairment still reading, no matter what it is). Point - this stuff is usually disposable.

That McCoy actually went through alot of trouble to do reams of research and write well, hikes the worth of what should be BBQ-pit fodder and definitely means something. That's why I rate these on a IJ book scale, not against normal stand alone novels.

But a nice thorough review. Sorry you didn't enjoy it more!

[YouNeverKnow]

Just bought most of the books and I'm hoping I like them a bit more than reviews like this make me think I will. :(

In other news, I'm currently involved with the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series and not only are they great reads, the story fills out SPECTACULARLY and I'm honestly on the edge of my seat waiting for the resolution of all this.

[Dust McAlan]

Just bought most of the books and I'm hoping I like them a bit more than reviews like this make me think I will. :(

In other news, I'm currently involved with the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series and not only are they great reads, the story fills out SPECTACULARLY and I'm honestly on the edge of my seat waiting for the resolution of all this.
Be not afraid. Philosopher's Stone is fun (but cheesy) and White Witch (from what I remember) is also good. Hollow Earth might just be the only bad novel out of McCoy's four he wrote. I'm not willing to completely write off Dinosaur Eggs, which supposedly recalls the darkness of Temple of Doom, but one can never say.

The Indy series delights some and turns off others. As a writer and fan, Hollow Earth just doesn't cut it for me. But other novels may uncover hidden delights.

[Attila the Professor]

Hmm...I have fond memories of Hollow Earth, but it's been <I>years</I>, so perhaps I should revisit it.

The defense I might try to put together for it though looks something like this, in the broad outline:

A)Each of the three authors spends a good deal of time constructing pieces that link their six, two, or four books together. MacGregor has a mythology that Indy realizes happens to link them all along with recurrent characters, Caidin has a couple of recurrent characters and a preoccupation with aviation, and McCoy largely has the Crystal Skull narrative which goes through the four books. A pulp novelist is afforded that possibility, and it's certainly possible that he could have done a better job of providing interest for those who hadn't read the previous books, but it was designed to be a work in a series.

B)I liked the vaguely languid, slapdash tone of the sequences set in the Southwest and the Old Southwest; I think that's probably why Hollow Earth stands as my favorite of the twelve novels. It was something of an structural experiment, perhaps, which never struck me at the time, almost like a comically slow rendition of the Temple of Doom formula in which Indy isn't quite master of his own fate, bouncing to and from places he didn't originally intend to go. Also, I'd buy his making a deal with Belloq; McCoy renders Indy as rather smitten with Alecia, and it's not as though it would be the first time we'd seen Indy make an unsavory deal, as he did with Lao Che. He'd probably figure that any info he'd get from Belloq would be the real deal, even if he's something of a snake.

Like I said though, you've read it far more recently than I have, so the details are on your side, conceivably.

[Peacock's-Eye]

The problem with the middle section of H.E. is that McCoy has the sequence backwards. Since he mentions John Seven Oaks first, you know the guy is going to turn up. If McCoy had put the encounter first, and a possible explanation after, the effect would have been far stronger.

[Dust McAlan]

The problem with the middle section of H.E. is that McCoy has the sequence backwards. Since he mentions John Seven Oaks first, you know the guy is going to turn up. If McCoy had put the encounter first, and a possible explanation after, the effect would have been far stronger.
Oh yes. It was very telegraphed ahead of time.

My main gripe with Indy's excursion to New Mexico was it totally derailed the tension built up to that point. I thought "The journal's stolen! How's he going to get it back?" Then I turn the page and realize "Wha---he's not going after it? What gives?" The main plot of Ultima Thule took backseat to the subplot for a hundred pages, which doesn't make sense if you want to keep your readers hooked. It obviously worked on some level if you all enjoyed it, and more power to you, but I couldn't grasp why he'd ignore all that build up and set up to go off and enjoy the subplot, which really shouldn't have been there in the first place.

The point of Indiana Jones is thus: it's a complete adventure no matter what. Carrying over that search for the Crystal Skull over four novels is strange, and detracts from the main plots. If you can't resolve that particular adventure in one novel (like I felt he had with Philosopher's Stone) then don't do it at all. There's just too much trying to happen in Hollow Earth.

[Zealot]

I'm sorry, but this is one of the worst books I have ever red, and believe me, I red a lot of books. I just how to get this out of my chest!

Spoiler alert!

Ok, so let’s start from the beginning shall we? The beginning is actually rather good, an old man showing at Indy’s doorstep giving him a little wooden box and his journal. Even the chase scene on the train station with Reingold is interesting, although their conversation inside the train is dull.
Indy is supposed to be a smart man and yet he doesn’t find anything suspicious about Reingold picking up his suitcase “by mistake”.

So finally we arrive at the scene when Indy is burried alive. When he finally manages to get out of the coffin, instead of immediately head for the hotel (or the police station) he just continues to talk, out in the cold, in his underwear with Baldwin’s niece, gravedigger and Lincoln Ellsworth. And they aren’t surpised by Indy’s burrial at all (or if they are, their surprise lasts very short).
Indy finally heads for the hotel, and then goes to a restaurant for a lunch. From the window he witnesses a bank robbery. Some ganster starts shooting everywhere and Indy ducks beneath the table, together with the waitress, who, in turns decides to kiss a complete stranger while bullets are flying over their heads. Was this really necessary Mr. McCoy?
Then Indy goes all pissed off and cocky, so he jumps out the window, walks to the gangester, completely unarmed, of course and punches him in the face, ending the robbery. Bravo, Dr. Jones! Bravo! And all this just to steal the journal from Indy. There wasn’t any other way?

After that, the story takes a complete twist and stops focusing on the wooden box and Hollow Earth but instead focuses on Indy going to New Mexico to find some gold so he can pay for an information to locate a Crystall Skull which in turn can heal his girlfriend Alecia…or something like that. I’ve heard that Hollow Earth is actually a sequel to Philosopher’ Stone, and since I haven’t read the latter, then maybe this is why he is going to New Mexico but I still think that Mr. McCoy could have explained this a little better.
Speaking to locals, Indy founds out about a crazy Indian boy John Seven Oaks running around killing people. He then goes to this whole underground complex to finally find the gold he is looking for. And then he is saved by the worst character ever in the history of literature: Ulla Tornaes.
Ulla is incredibly cold and dettached, masculine, stubborn and everything is a joke for her. She laughs at the face of death. Literally. She is basically a ticking time bomb. She doesn’t care about her fate or the fate of others.
We can clearly see that when a guy threatens her and Indy with a rifle if they don’t give them the gold, both Indy and Ulla are making jokes on his account. And instead of shooting them, that guy just keeps talking and talking and talking. Pretty soon we found out his entire biography. And then, hold and behold, who appears out of nowhere to save our heroes? Of course! John Seven Oaks! Isn’t the world a small place or what?
After that, our heroes manage to arrive at New Orleans. So Ulla and Indy are walking on a crowded street and suddenly, some thugs kidnap Ulla. Indy follows them, kicks their asses with his whip and save Ulla. My only question is – why? Why was this important to the story? The answer: it wasn’t. It is a complete waste of ink and paper.
And once arriving at a hotel, Ulla, of course, reacts as if nothing happened. As if she was already kidnapped a million times in her life.
Finally, Indy meets Belloq. Belloq offends Indy and Indy challenges him to a duel. And just so Ulla isn’t completely useless, she goes out and buys them guns. How sweet of her!
So that’s it. They just decided to duel. Out of clear blue sky. Like they are planning fishing or something. It’s all just one big JOKE to them. All of them: Indy, Belloq, Ulla. They just don’t care if they die. They don’t realize, at any moment, the gravity of situation, its consequences, and its results. No. Let’s duel to a death. Ok! See ya tomorrow at 6 o clock. Oh, and bring some doughnuts. I’m always hungry in the morning. Jesus Christ.
And finally, Indy ends up in Arctic, searching for this Crystall Skull. He, Ulla and a boy genius Sparks eventually got lost. But we all know how Arctic is a heavily populated area, right? So no surprise that they stumble upon a fat old hunter named Gunnar.
So…to make long story short, Ulla gots shot (yay!) but survives (meh…), the bad guy dies, Indy saves the world and bla bla. The usual ending.

Rarely a book made me so sick to actually close it and stop reading it. :down:
I red The Dance of Giants who also isn’t a masterpiece but it’s way better than this garbage. If people say Hollow Earth is the best Indy novel, I really don’t want to read the rest, which is a pity, as I was planning to collect them.

End rant

[metalinvader]

http://raven.theraider.net/showthread.php?t=6062&highlight=hollow+earth

Check out this link.A whole thread dedicated to Hollow Earth.

As for me,I enjoyed the book.

[emtiem]

It's the only one of novels I read because of the decent reviews it got on here. My reaction was much as yours: the story veers off in bizarre cul de sacs and feels nothing like an Indy adventure. There's no flow, urgency, pace or wit. I'll give these books one more chance and then I won't bother again.

[oliverjones18]

you made some good points but I still liked the book

[ResidentAlien]

It's the only one of novels I read because of the decent reviews it got on here. My reaction was much as yours: the story veers off in bizarre cul de sacs and feels nothing like an Indy adventure. There's no flow, urgency, pace or wit. I'll give these books one more chance and then I won't bother again.


Philosopher's Stone is where it is.

[indyclone25]

i thought it was pretty good not the best book in the series but passable .

[Peru1936]

I don't think any of the Indy novels are particularly good. The comics (for the most part) are far better written and more enjoyable. There are a few stinkers in the comics too, but they appeal more to my Indy sensibilities than the novels do.

[emtiem]

Philosopher's Stone is where it is.

Yeah, that's one of the two I recently bought: I'm hoping to enjoy it! :)

A shame Staff of Kings wasn't released: playing the game that seemed to be a very good Indy plot (I was oddly heartened by the dropping-the-piano sequence: not too uptight and happy to have a laugh, like an Indy film). Perhaps not exactly breaking new ground, but it had the right flavour which Hollow Earth certainly didn't.

[Joosse]

From the max McCoy novels this was the one I liked second best. Dinosaur Eggs being my favorite, even though I hadn't excpected that, as the title scared me off.

The problem with Hollow Earth is that large parts of it don't make any sense if you haven't read Philosopher's Stone and Dinosaur Eggs first...

[indy34]

edit:Woops I'm tired I thought we were talking about interior world

[Joosse]

That could happen to the best of us. The titles do sound very similar... :)

[indyfan85]

I'm about 95% through this one and I think its incredible. Really nailed Indiana Jones character and remarks, the adventures just pull me in. It seems to be pretty well written all things considered. The subject matter is perfect for Indy and he travels to allot of places so there is allot of variety in this book. Recommended to any Indy fan.

[Joosse]

I would certainly agree with that, indyfan85.

But I am actually curious? Did you read Philosopher's Stone and Dinosaur Eggs before this one? I am curious if that affects one's enjoyment of the book... :)

[indyfan85]

I actually didn't but I just ordered the philosophers stone last night and I'm looking forward to reading what I missed out on.

[IndyBr]

The problem with Hollow Earth is that large parts of it don't make any sense if you haven't read Philosopher's Stone and Dinosaur Eggs first...

Yes, indeed.
I read this one before Philosopher's Stone ( I was in a hurry when i found the novels, didn't knew they were related, so I just picked the ones with the most interesting titles), and it was very confusing.
Now, I have all the novel, and now I understand the parts of the book that were related to the other ones.
It's a nice read, very good. The character is great here, McCoy does an excelent job in writing Indy.
And the "Indianapolis Jones" is very funny. :D

And Dinosaur Eggs is also one my favorites.