Alibopo

5.0 out of 5 stars Great storytelling.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read once that the foundation of Science Fiction was captured in the two words; what if!
I’ve also heard these words used as a therapeutic tool; what if you woke up tomorrow and things had changed, things were better, what would that be like? So, what would that tomorrow be like if you were a very smart 12-year-old girl called Lacy Dawn, and you lived in a rundown farm property in near poverty. In ‘Rarity from the Hollow’, Robert Eggleton has some very surprising answers to that question.

But here’s a few more what ifs to help set the scene; what if Lacy Dawn‘s war traumatised dad spent half his day stoned on weed and regularly beat her and her mother? And what if Lacy Dawn’s best friend Faith had been beaten to death by her abusive father, but was still keeping her company as a spirit that could jump from object to object? And what if, somewhere along the way, Lacy Dawn had learned the magical ability to transport herself telekinetically, skimming across the ground at great speed? And what if Lacy Dawn’s secret friend, DotCom, was a super intelligent shape-shifting alien bio-android who lived in a hidden cave nearby? And what if Dotcom was here on earth for a very specific reason, a reason that probably makes Lacy Dawn the most important person on our planet!

The only way to find out the answer to how things might get better for Lacy Dawn is to read this book. With hints of Heinlein, Kornbluth and Pohl, and the golden age of SF, I found this a gritty, challenging, often too honest, and always entertaining story. No rose-tinted glasses here folks; just great storytelling with challenging adult themes.

Temple Emmet Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars The most enjoyable science fiction novel I have read in several years

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Rarity from the Hollow by Robert Eggleton is the most enjoyable science fiction novel I have read in several years. Who could think of an intergalactic handbook for entrepreneurs? Who could turn a tree-hugger into a paranormal event of death-defying significance? Who could create characters so believable, so funny, so astonishingly human (and not)?

Robert Eggleton, that’s who.

I put this book on my IPhone, and it followed me everywhere for several days. Strangers smiled politely at my unexpected laughter in the men’s room toilet stall. They looked away as I emerged, waving the IPhone at them as if it might explain something significant.

Oddly, the novel explains a great deal that has become significant in our society. Rarity from the Hollow is satire at its best and highest level. It is a psychological thriller, true to traits of mankind (and other species). It is an animal rights dissertation (you will laugh when you understand why I write that). It celebrates the vilest insect on earth (make that Universe).

The characters created by Robert Eggleton will bug your brain long after you smoke, uh, read the final page. Thanks for the laughs, the serious thoughts, the absolute wonder of your mind, Mr. Eggleton. A truly magnificent job.

Awesome Indies Reviews (Gold Medal)

5.0 out of 5 stars Only A Few Things To Mar An Otherwise Perfect Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Lacy Dawn Hickman is a young girl who lives in an isolated community in the Hollow. She is part of a dysfunctional family; Jenny, a mother who has sacrificed her dreams for her family, and Duane, a father suffering from combat-related PTSD. Lacy’s only friend, Faith, was killed by her abusive father, and her spirit now inhabits trees and rocks around Lacy’s house; trees by the way, that Lacy can communicate with. As you might have surmised at this point, Lacy Dawn is a ‘special’ child. She not only talks to trees, but she communicates with her dog, and has a guardian, a naked alien known only as DotCom, whose mission is to guard and guide Lacy to her destiny—saving the universe.

Rarity From the Hollow by Robert Eggleton is a hillbilly version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, only instead of the earth being destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Lacy Dawn must save DotCom’s home planet from in infestation of sentient roaches. At the same time, she must cure her dysfunctional family so that she and her mother no longer have to suffer Duane’s switchings, and no more girls like Faith are bludgeoned to death.

The author has managed to do what I would have thought impossible; taken serious subjects like poverty, ignorance, abuse, and written about them with tongue-in-cheek humor without trivializing them. In fact, the rustic humor and often graphic language employed by Lacy Dawn and her compatriots only serve to highlight their desperate lives, and their essential toughness and resilience.

From the simplistic, almost primitive, art of the cover, to the rough education of the protagonists, Eggleton sucks you into the Hollow, dunks you in the creek, rolls you in the mud, and splays you in the sun to dry off. Tucked between the folds of humor are some profound observations on human nature and modern society that you have to read to appreciate.

There are only a few things to mar an otherwise perfect book. A few places where words are omitted, the fact that characters’ thoughts are not highlighted, and having every character in the Hollow using the term ‘mommy’ rather than the expected ‘ma,’ which was a bit jarring in the early chapters, but by the halfway point was funny. Other than the five or six cases of missing words or typos, it’s a funny book that most sci-fi fans will thoroughly enjoy.