Indiana Jones and The Hollow Earth

Quickening

New member
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.
 

Peacock's-Eye

New member
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

New member
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

New member
YouNeverKnow said:
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

Moderator
Staff member
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

New member
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

New member
Peacock's-Eye said:
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

New member
Hollow Earth sucks!

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. (n)
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
 

emtiem

Well-known member
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.
 
emtiem said:
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.
 

Peru1936

New member
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

Well-known member
ResidentAlien said:
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

New member
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...
 

indyfan85

New member
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.
 
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