Time Travel discussion

Michael J. Sullivan is an author of epic fantasy & science fiction, best known for his debut series, The Riyria Revelations, which has been translated into fourteen languages. In 2012 io9 named him one of the "Most Successful Self-Published Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors".

He has written two series, The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles. The Riyria Revelations is a six book epic fantasy series while the Riyria Chronicles is an ongoing series that centers on the early adventures the two main protagonists of Riyria Revelations.

Sullivan has had three works selected for the Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Fantasy, The Emerald Storm in 2010, Percepliquis in 2012, and The Crown Tower in 2013. Theft of Swords was selected as one of Barnes & Noble's 2011 Best Fantasy Books, shortlisted for the 2013 Audie Award for Fantasy, and also one of Library Journal's 2011 Best SF/Fantasy Books.

The time travel group is honored to have Michael J. Sullivan offer up his latest work for a giveaway to some lucky winner. Mr. Sullivan has departed from the genre of fantasy that he is known, for for his debut sci-fi title Hollow World

The future is coming...for some, sooner than others.

Ellis Rogers is an ordinary man who is about to embark on an extraordinary journey. All his life he has played it safe and done the right thing, but when faced with a terminal illness, he’s willing to take an insane gamble. He’s built a time machine in his garage, and if it works, he’ll face a world that challenges his understanding of what it means to be human, what it takes to love, and the cost of paradise. He could find more than a cure for his illness; he might find what everyone has been searching for since time began…but only if he can survive Hollow World.

Welcome to the future and a new sci-fantasy thriller from the bestselling author of The Riyria Revelations.

One randomly selected winner will receive:
A signed paperback
An ebook
A Hollow World Poster (pictured below)



For a chance to win simply participate by answering the following discussion question:

If you were to travel 2,000 years in the future would you find a world better off or worse off than the one we have now? What might it look like?

This is a fascinating question Michael,

My first thought is changes in geography...or if we finally have mastered space travel would we even being talking about Earth in 2000 years time?

What would buildings look like? They would need to be built to accommodate different atmospheres or able to withstand weather extremes. Under water habitation or more likely under liquid methane habitation.

Evolution of society and laws, what is considered good moral high ground based on 2000 years of slow but moral decay...in the form of modesty, chivalry. Perhaps many bad things have been made great...a cure for cancer...genetic improvements to eliminate disabilities and sickness outright, extremely long life, probably cause new problems we can't even fathom now.

I am guessing people will be taller in the future. This is a question that I love discussing because what if's of the future and technology specifically is fascinating to me.

I'm basing my guesses on the BBC's Timeline of the Far Future. Supposedly, most of our current words will be extinct thanks to rapid language evolution, so I'd assume communication might be an issue beyond speaking with someone well-versed in ancient languages. I would assume that record of our pronunciations would have perished, so even an ancient language expert might not understand my accent. Greenland's ice will all have melted with a result of sea levels being 6 meters higher and the temperature being 46ºF higher than it is now, so I'd definitely want to land closer to one of the poles and mid-continent. I would imagine that there would have been a mass migration of people away from the equator and closer to the poles. It's possible that, because of the heat, homes may be more often built underground in populated areas that are closer to the equator or that already have hot climates. I would hope that farmers would have migrated to places more favorable for their crops rather than letting entire genomes of crops become extinct with the weather. I'm going to guess that Russia will be a dominant force then because of their large amount of land in the far north. China will have taken more arable land by force. Some country will probably have invaded Canada for its valuable land by now. The population of the earth will have leveled out or decreased as a result of war and famine. Perhaps some might have longer lives and live in luxury, but these will be in the minority as the majority of the world lives in poverty. The gulf between rich and poor will be large and drastic.

Hi Michael, Lincoln, and everybody! :-)

It's great to see Hollow World here. I was a beta-reader of this novel, and I have already my signed copy here with me :-) ... So I will not participate in the giveaway to get one.

I can only say - as I told Michael when I first read the novel more than one year ago - that this is one of the best time travel novels I have read in years!

And I advise any sci-fi and time travel lover to read it.

Tough, tough question, and subjective. Would have to guess at the kind of technology that has developed (me?) for better or worse. Population explosion, or control? And what about natural resources? But then again, has our technology solved those problems, especially energy, medicine, and food? Maybe. If so, maybe closer to "paradise" (the need to work for your survival having been nearly eliminated). If not, yikes. That Mars colony might be awfully attractive by then. Just don't know about the gravity thing . . .

Very cool book cover and poster, by the way.

Well, if I were to believe the politicians, and this applies in whichever country you live, it will all be better tomorrow. The natural conclusion from political statements is that 2000 years from now we will be so much better off that we won't recognize ourselves.

But I don't believe the politicians, so I must turn to the novels that I have enjoyed over the years.

For us humans, things will be much worse than they are today.

The ants and apes will be loving it though, for they will rule the world!

Well, after having the temperature drop in Chicago from 80 degrees to 25 degrees in 3 days, I'm going to have to say it'll look a lot like Waterworld. Climate Changed!

I'd be hoping it was better off. Perhaps humans would finally have developed not only technologically, but also psychologically and perhaps psychically. So we'd have buildings built with pure willpower and no materialism. Perhaps they'd need no machines to fly, and instead of school kids would have OBE classes, haha.

Everything would have changed humans turning to autobots corruption in everything computers and cool gadgets everywhere but no humanity no food no water humans eating humans to survive our new earth would be some other planet because this earth would be full, blasts everywhere, the world could revert back to stone age nuclear wars and bombings everywhere... no laws no rules just survival of the fittest no plants no animals all controlled only by a few powerful individuals death and destruction everywhere humans eating own kids(just imagination) food kept in secret laboratories it would be like stone age men in technological age, no books no studies etc.. drastic climate changes in an hour no god prevail no devil only human trying not to extinct..

I Imagine the humans left on earth will have chosen a simple outdoor lifestyle.
The majority of humans who really embrace the technology around us will be on another planet having wild adventures.
Belief in an almighty deity will finally have given way to common sense and science. Humans that choose to share a planet treat the planet and inhabitants with respect.

Let's be optimistic. I'd like to think we'd be smarter. We'd no longer be killing one another over religion or ideology. The air will be clean and the skies a deep blue. We'll have recovered from the disastrous effects of climate change, having had no other choice but to collectively address it. All travel -- temporal, earthly, or interplanetary -- will utilize the non-polluting principles of Dr. Emmett Brown. Nations will be united under a single freely-elected council with a membership of 80% women. HD televisions, streaming devices, digital recorders, sound systems, and holographic viewers will be restricted to no more than one dozen remotes. The Time Travel Group will have welcomed its eight billionth member.

Paul wrote: "Let's be optimistic. ..."

And a million dollars for everyone. And icecream.

Amy wrote: "And a million dollars for everyone. And ice cream."

RIGHT! I forgot about that.

It's kind of like watching the evening news. After so many depressing reports, just a glimpse of good news can really help.

Paul wrote: "It's kind of like watching the evening news. After so many depressing reports, just a glimpse of good news can really help. ..."

And that's why I don't watch the evening news and turn off depressing radio news. Ignore it and it will go away ... or at least not depress an otherwise happy day.

Amy wrote: "Paul wrote: "Let's be optimistic. ..."

And a million dollars for everyone. And icecream."

Sorry to be awkward but i don't like ice cream. the rest sounds good

Ann wrote: "Amy wrote: "Paul wrote: "Let's be optimistic. ..."

And a million dollars for everyone. And icecream."

Sorry to be awkward but i don't like ice cream. the rest sounds good"

You don't actually have to eat the ice cream. I for one will only be taking 2 bites of the ice cream lest my lactose intolerance kick in. ;)

In 2000 years they will fix that...genetics?

Lincoln wrote: "In 2000 years they will fix that...genetics?"

So true. And they'll fix Ann's palate. Except ... I hope we're not having to eat synthetic ice cream by then.

great a world without allergies I can't wait, I may even get to stroke a mammal. however ice cream is just too cold for me

It's a great question to ponder, but impossible to answer. If you went back in time 2000 years and asked any of the world's 250 million people the same question, how could they even imagine the things we take for granted? They couldn't! How could they imagine something so abstract as an automobile, an aircraft, glasses, a mobile phone (any sort of phone), banks, grocery stores, atom bombs or English. In 2000 years, if we still exist, our world will be so unrecognizable, that the only thing we might be familiar with would be the wheel (in some form or another) and the US will still be measuring distance in miles! As far as population goes, no matter how clever we become, I believe mother nature restores balance, and she'll find some way to reduce our numbers despite our best efforts to stop her.

TIME TO DECLARE A WINNER!!

By use of a random number generator the winner is...

**Evelina**

Congratulations you are the winner of a signed paperback a free E-book and a really cool poster.

Please enjoy the read and please leave an honest review of the book when you finish.

Did you use psychic future powers to see the results?

If you would be interested in being featured for a giveaway please contact me.

Thank you all who participated, great answers!

Thank you to our author Michael Sullivan for offering Hollow World for a giveaway!

And the rest of us want to know where we can purchase one of those posters. Well, at least I do.

Good point...after losing a giveaway at least you can go out and buy the book...but in this case can you go out and buy the poster?