Hollow Road

Legends describe the Maer as savage man-beasts haunting the mountains, their bodies and faces covered with hair. Creatures of unimaginable strength, cunning, and cruelty. Bedtime stories to keep children indoors at night. Soldiers’ tales to frighten new recruits.

It is said the Maer once ruled the Silver Hills, but they have long since passed into oblivion.

This is the story of their return.

Carl, Sinnie and Finn, three companions since childhood, are tasked with bringing a friend’s body home for burial. Along the way, they find there is more to the stories than they ever imagined, and the mountains hold threats even darker than the Maer. What they discover on their journey will change the way they see the world forever.

Travel down Hollow Road to find out which legends are true, and which have been twisted.

Title: Hollow Road

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy

Series: The Maer Cycle

Author: Dan Fitzgerald

Paperback: 268 pages

Publication Date: 09/11/2020

Publisher: Independently published

Language: English

AISN: B08HW5W8M9

ISBN-13: 979-8684912474

My Review

Hollow Road is such an ominous title. If you let it linger in your mind for a bit, you could imagine all kinds of ways a story along its path might go. The optimistic reader of adventures I am, I was open to let it take me anywhere.

Opening this novel with a map of the continent of Gheil and its surrounding islands, the story tells of three friends traveling to bring the body of another deceased friend back home. Carl, the main protagonist, is the methodical planner of this journey and Theo’s childhood friend, who’s father asked him to transport his body for the funeral in the family plot in their home village.

A thousand denri for a three-week trip is the reward to be. Maybe not for unfounded reasons, because the journey will be along the treacherous Hollow Road where beasts of unimaginable strengths haunt the area.

Carl enlists two of his friends to split the reward and come with to come along. Finn, who has magical gifts, and Sinnie who is an ace in archery.

Their travels begin in a way that the reader gains a great sense of the characters and the companionship they share as well as a few things to be learned about their pasts. Along campfires, the three of them discuss the myths of lurking dangers in the woods and the legends of the Maer that soon become a reality on their trip. Too close for calling, they encounter a whole group of these dangerously hairy beasts who turn out to be all females and children.

Taking some of the Maer captives, their fates are to be decided by the village council. What they do not know is that there are even greater dangers lurking in the mountains, and before they know it, Carl, Sinnie, and Finn are standing their own trials against the beasts.

There are a great many things about this novel to like and enjoy. The characters include diversity and there is a message that goes with the plot. As well as the flawless writing, it reads effortlessly and has a great flow.

I did enjoy the characters and their backstories and thought them well developed and there were some magical traits and elements that complemented their actions and added some of the fantastical I seek.

Unexpectedly, a lot of the plot didn’t take place on Hollow Road where it started. As a fan of “journeys” in novels, this could have been a bit longer for me, also because I love descriptive scenery and imaginative worlds.

A small snag in the novel for me was that some of the events/characters became so easily agreeable. There wasn’t a real egregious villain which is the stuff I read for and turn the pages. On the other hand, there is mention of an underground library and that certainly peeked my eyes and ears as a reader!

Hollow Road is the first novel in The Maer Cycle with the second novel being The Archive that was just published in December 2020 and it's a very enjoyable read and a great beginning of a series. My thought is that this world and set-up affords many venues to be built upon and each book will be a wonderful addition and expansion.

Definitely recommend it.

I won a signed copy of this novel at a giveaway and my review is honest and voluntary.

Thank you.