Emilie and the Hollow World

Written by Martha Wells

Narrated by Channie Waites

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

Taken under the protection of Lady Marlende, Emilie learns that the crew hopes to use the aether currents and an experimental engine, and with the assistance of Lord Engal, journey to the interior of the planet in search of Marlende’s missing father.

With the ship damaged on arrival, they attempt to traverse the strange lands on their quest. But when evidence points to sabotage and they encounter the treacherous Lord Ivers, along with the strange race of the sea-lands, Emilie has to
make some challenging decisions and take daring action if they are ever to reach the surface world again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705048450

Martha Wells

Martha Wells is the author of five previous novels: The Wizard Hunters, the first book of the Fall of Ile-Rien, The Element of Fire, City of Bones, Wheel of the Infinite, and The Death of the Necromancer, which was nominated for the Nebula Award. She lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband.

Reviews for Emilie and the Hollow World

[tanaise-968201 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Took me long enough to read it, but this was oh so very very good. I loved it. Like LOVE, loff, lurve, and all the rest. It was fantastic, and as soon as i finished it i started the next.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic world building and a great main character, even if the story tied up just a touch too neatly. Also, NO romance, yay!

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Emilie and the Hollow World is reminiscent of 1800s stories such as Jules Vern’s but with a distinct Girl’s Own Adventure sort of feel. While running away from home, Emilie ends up stowing away on the wrong ship. She soon finds herself embroiled in a rescue expedition to the center of the world, where strange places and creatures lie in wait.The society Emilie belongs to is reminiscent of Victorian England, giving the novel a steampunk vibe. There’s also magic and wizardry, and it is the currents of magic flowing through the world that propel our cast down to the hollow center and the world within the world. It is here that Martha Wells demonstrates her ample imagination, although the Hollow World does tend to remind me of her Raksura books (without any shapeshifters). Emilie might have been my favorite thing about the novel. She’s got this intrepid spirit and really grows into her own over the course of the story. I also liked that even though the society she comes from is clearly sexist, she wasn’t the only female character among the main cast.Emilie and the Hollow World felt clearly middle grade to me. I didn’t notice Emilie’s age ever being given, but she feels younger than a teenager. More like eleven or twelve. Somewhat perplexingly, I see other reviewers mentioning that her age is given as sixteen. Did I miss this somehow? Emilie really didn’t read as that old.On the downside, it is a very light story. There’s not enough complexities to it to get me excited about it or emotionally invested. I’m not planning on reading the sequel. Still, it was enjoyable enough that I don’t regret reading it. Emilie and the Hollow World is certainly not Wells’s best, but if it’s her worse, it’s a testament to the general quality of her work rather than the failings of this novel.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[violetthedwarf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This review and others can be found on my review blog.

This is a book I would be happy to give a teenager of any gender, with plenty of action and wonderful characters.

Review copy provided for free by Strange Chemistry through Netgalley

I liked this one a lot. It’s a pretty simple adventure story with a lot of action, but it really gets the high score for me from the characters. So often, YA has either very sarcastic, miserable main characters or main characters who are insipid and bland, but Emilie is neither of those things. She is a plucky young woman who opts to remove herself from a situation that is no longer tolerable for her (and she has fairly good reasons to leave, too, that are not completely over the top monstrousness) and who acts with bravery and loyalty throughout an adventure not of her own choosing. However, she isn’t unrealistically hard, she has moments of doubt and fear and grief, but she gets on and does the right thing regardless. I like her a lot.

The writing is pretty simple, but that’s fine. It tells the story well with no confusion, which is the minimum I require from prose. Yet again, this is a book where I’d have liked a little more flair in the writing, but I have no real complaints.

Something I did really enjoy were some little moments of subtle gender equality messages. Most of the stuff isn’t that subtle (Emilie constantly has to prove herself against those who think of her a certain way because she’s female) but there were a few little details that were more subtle that I loved.

A fun book with a decent bit of depth. I hope there will be more in the series.

4 stars.

Emilie and The Hollow World will be published in April.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In the process of stowing away on a steamship to escape her dreadful relatives, sixteen-year-old Emilie unwittingly finds herself part of a dangerous expedition beneath the Earth's crust. The ship she ends up on is not the placid steamer Merry Bell, but the Sovereign, a vessel specially designed to travel aetheric currents beneath the ocean to the inside of the world. Of course, it's never actually made this dangerous journey before . . .I liked a lot of things about this book: the concept, the fast-paced plot, the well-imagined world of the Earth's interior, and the interplay between the steampunk science and the magic necessary to push it a few steps further. I thought the characterization was not as strong as the plot -- the cast of characters was large, and some of the minor characters seemed to run together, but not enough to make this more than a small quibble. I also thought Emilie acted a little young for her age. In fact, until her age was stated, I was picturing her as about 12, and had to mentally re-adjust. But it could just be that I'm used to 16-year-olds (especially in fantasy, where they're likely to be ruling a country or saving the world) who are written as more mature than real-life teens. Again, though, that's a minor issue in comparison to how much I enjoyed this book. I'm looking forward to the sequels. I'd recommend this to fans of Gail Carriger's Finishing School series.

[magycmyste-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I had been looking for fun adventures set in a steampunk-style world for a little while now, and this fit the bill perfectly for me! I was occasionally a little irritated with Emilie at the beginnning, but kind of the way I mind be irritated with anyone that age, and it disappeared quickly. The narration is a little bit rambly, but that's part of the voice and the fun of it, since it's narrated by Emilie (A reviewer on Amazon said that Emilie was sixteen? Honestly, I thought she was twelve or thirteen. I may have forgotten the age, but that might be why I quickly grew much less annoyed with her. She felt more like a plucky kid than a teenager to me).The rest of the cast was memorable as well - I loved Miss Marlende, and Kenar and Rani (the Cirathi were just pretty cool all around). I tore through this book pretty quickly, and it's definitely going on my reread list for when I want a light, fun adventure in this style.

[librarianmaven · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Emilie leaves her aunt and uncle’s oppressive house, she finds herself an accidental stowaway on a ship going to a world inside the earth and has adventures that she never could have dreamed of. Unfortunately, this novel does not live up to its promise of a version of Journey to the Center of the Earth: it mixes an entirely fantasy world with steampunk features, but ultimately doesn’t convince the reader of either. Regrettably, there is just not enough world building for the reader to buy into the world above that Emilie comes from, though the world below has some nice details. Character names are a mix of made-up and English, and this too jars the reader out of the fantasy setting, while the steampunk features mix classic steampunk and more recent technology as we think of it, as well as magic. However, readers with less familiarity with fantasy and steampunk may enjoy the adventure, and advanced middle school readers may enjoy this YA book- despite the fact that the main character is sixteen, there is nothing more inappropriate than her aunt and uncle’s erroneous opinion that she is going to become an actress (with implications of much worse things) like her mother. However, Wells does get points for including a woman scientist, and for critiquing the men who keep women out of science. Additional selection.

[cissa_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Girl's Own Adventure!There are a lot of Boy's Own Adventures. I love seeing examples, but with the girls as the plucky unexpected hero(ine)s.This is a great example of such. It's exciting enough that I think even boys would read it, and Emilie is a nifty and resourceful character.This is not the kind of book that goes in for lots of character development; the other characters are well-described but not especially nuanced- which is appropriate for such a book. Emilie does grow, and learns more about her capabilities and talents as things progress.Add in some fun steampunk-ish elements, a world inside our world, and an elaborately twisty plot, and this was a lot of fun! (I'm an adult, and this is a YA novel.)A minor quibble: Emilie's boots. She lost them when escaping one imprisonment. This was a point. Then, a few chapters later, she had them again. This possession was also pointed out explicitly several times. Then, toward the end, Emilie regretted that her boots had been lost during that first imprisonment! A reader that could do some continuity checking would have been helpful; while this was a really minor detail, it threw me out of the story when the first contradiction occurred.Still! It's a good story set in a world that is intriguing, and I look forward to reading more.Comment

[capnrandm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:allthingsuf.comAn adventure of the purest form, EMILIE AND THE HOLLOW WORLD has stowaways, mysterious lands, foreign strangers, saboteurs, and intrigue, all flavored with just the right amount of magical steampunk technology. Though the pacing was choppy in the first few chapters, alternating between action and large chunks of exposition, once Emilie finds her place on this crew of adventurers and scientists, the story takes off.Reminiscent of GREAT EXPECTATIONS or TREASURE ISLAND, Emilie is an intrepid youngster making her own way through the world. Emilie, however, very quickly takes a central role in the action. Believably or not, this heroine solves mysteries, plans jail breaks, and keeps pace with the adventurous adults around her. As much as I enjoy adventure for it’s own sake, I need some romance or character growth to keep me anchored in a story. Though Emilie is brave and resourceful, she doesn’t change much from the adventurous girl who ran away from home at the book’s opening. And while Emilie is sixteen-years-old, this book reads more like juvenile fiction than YA.Age and romance have little bearing on this story, focusing instead on the politics and personalities of the various crews that collide. This intermixing of competing adults was one of my favorite aspects of the story, if only because it lent some much needed credibility to the way Emilie integrates herself on the ship. Despite face paced adventure, the resolution of the action plot alone wasn’t enough to get me invested in these characters, and that lackluster connection ultimate brought my rating down to 3 bats. EMILIE AND THE HOLLOW WORLD is perfect for younger readers, however, and anyone who can appreciate a good adventure all on it’s own.Sexual Content: None.

[bailschris · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover of this novel is extremely beautiful. It looks so old in the way that it is designed, it reminds me of an old globe that my parents own and the sketches seem to fit in the era as well. It was actually the cover, I'll admit, that first drew me to the book in the first place. I'm the type of person that tries really hard not to judge a book by its cover but I end up doing it all the same. Most of my reviews have some sort of commentary on the covers that each book has. Well, it depends on whether I like it or not. Most covers seem to display some sort of art that depicts a key point of the plot and the reason I like this one is because it not only does just that but it also shows the story as well.Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells is the story of Emilie (of course) as she runs away from her uncle's house in the hopes of finding a way to her cousin who lives in a big city. But nothing goes according to plan as her attempt to sneak aboard a passenger steamer is interrupted and she is forced to find a different ship that will hopefully take her to where she desires to go. Sadly, the ship she finds herself on isn't headed to another city but rather to another world entirely. A world within our world. Magic abounds as she takes this journey through the sea and into a place that no one has ever dared explore before. Well, except one man, Dr. Marlende. Now it is a race against time to find him and escape a world that seems desperate to keep them there forever. Even with their allies, it seems like the odds are stacked against them. Will they be able to rescue everyone? How will they make their great escape? What are they up against? And who seems determined to keep them stranded in a world that is not their own?Emilie is the main character of this story. Her stubborn nature and desire for adventure seems to get her into a lot of trouble while she lives with her uncle. It seems like they are just waiting for her to up and disappear just like her mother did around her age. Determined to not be stuck in a dead end life, she makes arrangements with her cousin, someone who seems to think she can help her find a better life. She acts without thought, rash in everything she does, and that leads to her losing most of the money meant to pay for her passage to where her cousin lived. That then leads to more rash decisions that end up in her diving off of one ship and swimming toward another. She finds herself stuck in a place where her rash decisions have left her without much choice. As the story continues, she seems to gain a handle on her need to act without thinking and becomes a much better planner than she was before. This change definitely was lifesaving for her. I actually love her stubbornness though, especially when during that time period women were definitely not allowed to have opinions or go on adventures. Her stubbornness is an admirable quality, something that a lot more people should have had. I can tell that she has an adventure's heart and I like to think that I have one too. Without it, I think this story would've been a lot more boring.One character that grew on me over the course of the novel was Lady Marlende, who originally came off as a stuck-up princess type. She originally seemed like she wanted nothing to do with the young stowaway and she was solely focused on finding her father. I wasn't sure she even fit in with the story outside of being a little annoying and not worth much notice. But she seemed to grow on me as she allowed Emilie more into her circle of trust. I admire her strength in the face of trouble, how she manages to hold her head high and not look affected, and the way that she carries herself even around men. No suppression will be found while she is around, which I think also encourages Emilie to act the same. I noticed that she is protective of her as the story continues, trying to shield her from the dangers that this strange world holds. This protectiveness causes the two of them to but heads occasionally with neither one completely happy about the outcome. They end up become good friends for each other despite their similarities and their differences. I continue to have mixed feelings about Lord Engal and his involvement in the story. I can't decide whether he was actually a good guy or just a guy who pretended to be decent so that people trusted him. Honestly, I think that some people felt the same way that I do but they had no choice but to trust him since he was their only real hope at finding the missing explorers. As the journey continues, I think he showed that he was a good man, although misguided in his beliefs about women and the usefulness of Kenar in finding those who are missing. Kenar was introduced at the beginning of the story but he never came off as scary or anything outside of normal during his time with Emilie. She even seemed to describe him as attractive in his own non-human way which is more than I can say for most of the male characters in this story. I was kind of disappointed when I found out he was taken by another of his kind. Don't judge me but it would've made an interesting love story. Feel free to ignore my love-sick girlish ramblings. He was a very strong character that had a lot of compassion for Emilie as she struggles to find herself on this journey to a place she's never heard of with people she's never met. He is perhaps the most understanding character in the whole novel and that is what makes him so likable. Now, really I do think Rani is a wonderful woman, perfect for Kenar, and I've come to accept their relationship after the story was completed. But I will still stubbornly keep to my foolish fantasies. Anyway I think she came into the story at the perfect moment, becoming somewhat of a big sister figure for Emilie as she went through the hardest part of her journey. I admire her a lot because she isn't the typical type of woman that you expect to read about which threw me for a loop. She is amazing though and her differences is what makes her such a great character to read about.Lord Ivers kind of seemed like some mysterious bad guy that seemed to scare people just by mentioning his name. To me, he seemed like some invisible nuisance that wasn't worth my time and energy. His story was one that I wish the book would've explored better because I always want to know the bad guy's background more than the good guy's. Bad people have more interesting stories anyway. The Mer People, in particular their Queen, were the bad guys that lived in the Hollow World and definitely caused quite a bit of trouble for the adventurers. I think they were just selfish creatures who wanted others to do their work for them instead of doing it themselves. They had the opportunity to actually be decent people but this dark desire corrupted any hope of being good. The world itself was beautiful but I didn't really get to see much of it and I wish I would've gotten to explore that world better. Overall, I think the story was a pretty good read and an accurate portrayal of how things used to be.