Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons

I actually bought this book fueled by Mr Stephen (I have written and sold a million books and movie rights) King's blurb. The description at the back was intriguing and it was a rainy evening, perfect for a cup of hot coffee and a semi intelligent book.
Well, for once(and maybe the last time) I thanked my higher mathematics education, for about 2/3'rds of the book was pure mathematics. Sine waves, and fourier forms and equation struggled with the written word, just as the protagonists wife did. It was a sci fi, fantasy, drama, mind reading rollercoaster rolled with a thick layer of hardly believable mathematics. But he did hold my attention and some of the theories seemed good. The science in the science fiction or rather maths fiction was great, the garnish or religious comparison was reasonable(I even went a step further and compared it with Hinduism- with the same results)
The plot in itself is ok, its a very badly stitched together character driven story, sometimes looking very laboured.A mind reading couple torn apart by death. The man leaving everything and going on a journey that puts him through hell and back, all the while going back to the story of him meeting his wife and his mathematical research into explaining every damn shit on earth. It all holds together -but barely. The ending was not surprising. All in all 5/10

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