Hollow
Ash is a living legend in a dying world.
In the year 2119, she is one of the few withered survivors of the Palsy, the plague that killed the world nearly a century ago. In “The Hollow,” or the devastated real world, only one thing distracts from the wait for the wheelchair, then the grave: “The Hallow,” an immersive virtual combat simulator that seems more viscerally alive than real life.
The Hallow is run by android Clerics who treat it like a sacrament of their oddly formal religion. In the Hallow, Ash is a phenom, the best player on the best team. In the real world, she’s risking her health climbing stairs.
In the year 2020, Jo has her whole life ahead of her, but only darkness behind. She woke from a coma nine months ago as a blank slate. Now she has a job at a preschool, a perfect boyfriend, a kind therapist, and crushing social anxiety.
Though everyone is trying to help her, Jo is running. She is running from jumbled memories that stalk her in her dreams, and from a very real killer hunting her on the streets of Chicago.
But nothing is as it seems: nothing, no one, no why, no when.
A surprisingly tender love story at the heart of a wry, reality-bending, kinetic action thriller. From the author of Out of the Black.
For readers of John Scalzi, Larry Correia, and Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas.
Newly revised 2026 edition.
In the year 2119, she is one of the few withered survivors of the Palsy, the plague that killed the world nearly a century ago. In “The Hollow,” or the devastated real world, only one thing distracts from the wait for the wheelchair, then the grave: “The Hallow,” an immersive virtual combat simulator that seems more viscerally alive than real life.
The Hallow is run by android Clerics who treat it like a sacrament of their oddly formal religion. In the Hallow, Ash is a phenom, the best player on the best team. In the real world, she’s risking her health climbing stairs.
In the year 2020, Jo has her whole life ahead of her, but only darkness behind. She woke from a coma nine months ago as a blank slate. Now she has a job at a preschool, a perfect boyfriend, a kind therapist, and crushing social anxiety.
Though everyone is trying to help her, Jo is running. She is running from jumbled memories that stalk her in her dreams, and from a very real killer hunting her on the streets of Chicago.
But nothing is as it seems: nothing, no one, no why, no when.
A surprisingly tender love story at the heart of a wry, reality-bending, kinetic action thriller. From the author of Out of the Black.
For readers of John Scalzi, Larry Correia, and Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas.
Newly revised 2026 edition.