Hole in the Sky
A Novel
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3.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A Native American first contact story and gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse
"Thrilling and personal... an important addition to the landscape of science fiction."—Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising
"Hole in the Sky is mind-bending… indigenous knowledge collides with science fiction in a thrilling page-turner."—Sterlin Harjo, filmmaker and writer of Reservation Dogs
On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.”
Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson’s unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans’ understanding of reality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilson (Robopocalypse) draws on his Cherokee heritage to meld Native American and scientific knowledge into a stunning phantasmagoric first contact tale. When an encounter with deep-space Voyager crafts triggers an alien probe to race toward Earth, a long-dormant alien mechanism on the planet awakens and begins to bring its dreams to life, alerting a handful of sensitive people to its existence. Gavin Clark, chasing UFO reports, links up with NASA scientist Mikayla Johnson, who deciphers the alien probe signal as a series of human voices shrieking. Meanwhile oil field worker Jim Hardgray, while trying to reunite with his estranged daughter, Tawny, begins to see visions of his Cherokee ancestors and to wonder if the burial mound near his single-wide trailer is as charged with spirits as his mother-in-law warned. Wilson neatly entangles the most modern tech, like quantum computers that accurately foretell the future, with ancient beliefs that retain enough power to motivate contemporary folks. Like the best X-Files episodes, this story uses the alien character to bring out the human elements in vivid detail. It's a masterful feat.
