Core world stories

[skip.knox]

Besides Verne's classic, what are the stories about a second world at the core of Earth? I'm aware of the 19thc theories regarding this, and I'm aware of the old RPG game Coreworld. But I don't know of any actual fantasy stories that use this.

Anyone have a reference or twelve?

 

[TheKillerBs]

I don't know if it would be considered fantasy (more like soft sci-fi if I had to guess), but Robin Cook's Abduction has people living in a hollow shell between the earth's crust and mantle.

 

[Butterfly]

Peter V Brett's fantasy Demon Cycle thingees come from the planet's core.

 

[Steerpike]

Edgar Rice Burroughs had a number of Pellucidar stories based on this idea.

 

[skip.knox]

Thanks. I'd forgotten about Pellucidar *blush*. The other two are news; I'll check them out. The Robin Cook one, at least, I recognize as based on one of those goofy 19thc pseudo-science notions. Which are pure gold for me!

 

[RavenOfSummer]

There's a middle grade fantasy/sci-fi series called Artemis Fowl, where faeries live at the center of the earth.

 

[skip.knox]

So, I took my own advice, which I inflict on others readily enough: do your research. Turns out there's quite a tradition of hollow earth tales. Here are some references
Popular Hollow Earth Books
Subterranean fiction - Wikipedia
and for a bit of commentary, with links
Stories of a Hollow Earth

The two that really surprised me were Poe and Casanova.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

The Jewish Talmud mentions a race of people who live under the earth who only live 10yrs., as a legend of some sort. (Not sure exactly where, and the Talmud is 2000+ pages of cryptic writing so good luck finding it.) That's 1500+ yrs. old, which makes the idea much older than Wikipedia says the hollow earth tales are.

 

[skip.knox]

The Talmud got there first on a ton of things. And if it's not there, it's in the Qabbala. I know Jewish mysticism only tangentially. I would need another lifetime to acquaint myself even casually with it.

 

[Dark Squiggle]

I don't think its so much that the Talmud got there first, as that it was written 1500+ years ago, and has been accumulating commentary ever since. It simply has picked up many pieces of now ancient things, and due to its longevity, kept them around long enough for us to see them.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

My second book features a planet that is hollow inside, but no one [as far as I know] lives there, because it is filled with primal energy and the planet's life force.