REVIEW: The Hollowing ~ N. D. Hansen-Hill ~ Cerridwen Press Publishing ~Fantasy/Paranormal

Title: The Hollowing
Author: N. D. Hansen-Hill
Website of Author: www.ndhansen-hill.com
Publisher: Cerridwen Press Publishing
Website of Publisher: http://www.cerridwenpress.com
Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal
Publication Date: April 17, 2008
ISBN: 9781419916465
Length: 230 pages
Format: eBook
Reviewer: Lucille P Robinson
http://blog.lucilleperkinsrobinson.com

Hollow - empty space, a small valley or basin.

Hollowing-the action involved when a surface changes so it is more of a valley, a basin or an empty space.

Shawn Walsh has a supernatural power but has no control over it. Having experienced it a couple of times while a young boy and losing his mother in the last experience, success at keeping the power leashed proved easy while in school and college. However, the tragedy of losing the career he'd worked so hard to achieve brought the power to the top once more.

Arnold Farnsworth, the man responsible for Shawn's loss of the career, and his uncle has been using Shawn's family for ages because Shawn's mother and his grandfather both had 'power'. Once, the Farnsworths learned how these individuals could go to different times in the past and the future, they utilized the Walshes for the purpose of bringing back treasures from their
travels to line the pockets of the Farnsworths. With said treasures, the Farnsworths bought up the town in bits and pieces until anyone who lived in Grantham worked for the Farnsworths.

After Shawn lost his engineering career, Farnsworth hired him on as security guard at the old Majestic Mill, a descendent of the Majestic Theater of by-gone days. In the dark hours, Shawn began to smell smoke and hear screams and the next day ended up smelling like he'd been through a real fire. His cousin Dos and friends, Rhys and Jack, exhibited skepticism but it wasn't long before they took on new beliefs. When the 'giant' as the man was labeled threw Shawn out the Mill window almost dead, Rhys and Dos became a little protective. Things went from bad to worse when Dos went to visit Shawn in the hospital and together they ended up on the beach outside Grantham Past. After several similar experiences the two began to learn how
they could remove themselves in a hurry from one time zone to another, but still neither had control of where, or when, they would land.

Most of their visits ended in Grantham Past, looking for a way to keep the intruder from blowing up the Majestic Theater and starting the fire that wiped out most of the actors, dancers and audience. As the story unfolds we learn a lot more about the past of Grantham's wealthy families and the corruption behind the problems apparent in Grantham Present. Shawn and his
friends face death several times before the mystery is solved. However, they each learned that presenting a united front despite their differences is the best policy when facing the enemies.

N. D Hansen-Hill has done a superb job breaking down complex ideas and dishing them out to the reader in bite sized chunks. The Hollowing is a well-written novel involving the modern day conclusions drawn from a long history of paranormal events coupled with the age-old theories of time travel. Here is an old idea presented in a new and spell-binding story that will surely be of interest to fans of any genre. The Hollowing can not claim much romance, but you'll find an explosion of humor, time traveling, murder, arson, and a truck-load of crimes that the filthy rich can lay claim to.

Author Bio:

N. D. Hansen-Hill, a resident of Auckland, New Zealand, began by writing fantasy series, then branched out into science fiction and horror. All her novels are suspenseful, and all bear traces of the paranormal. Two of her books were EPPIE finalists in the fantasy and horror categories, and three others were nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel Award.

Recently, she has been concentrating on single titles, rather than series. With a busy schedule that includes work as a professional artist and designer, N.D. stays in touch with science via university, where she takes classes ranging from anthropology to virology. She is also working toward a graduate diploma in teaching, and intends to teach novel-writing in the near
future.

The author welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.cerridwenpress.com.