Hole in the Sky

A gripping thriller—and Native American first contact story—from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen and has worked as a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force.

"Hole in the Sky is mind-bending… indigenous knowledge collides with science fiction in a thrilling page-turner."—Sterlin Harjo, filmmaker and writer, 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 father trying to reconnect with his teenaged daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft and concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker deep in the earth, an American threat forecaster known only as The Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends an urgent message 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. Based on real science and Wilson’s unique background, first contact comes to life through a Native American lens, with adrenaline-charged, stunning results. Hole in the Sky is a propulsive read that asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans' understanding of reality.