A Hole in the Sky, by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday)
A Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson combines elements of thriller, horror, and first-contact science fiction. Something’s out there…it’s made contact with Voyager 1, out in the heliopause, the boundary where the interstellar medium and solar wind pressures balance each other…and a mysterious, infallible US intelligence predictive device issues a warning: “First contact imminent.” These are not cute, friendly aliens, nor are they hostile killers (a la Predator). The incoming object is able to warp time, space, and reality itself. Meanwhile, in the heartland of America, a Cherokee single father and his teen daughter rediscover ancient legends of powers protecting their people and the planet.
This book was a quintessential page-turner, a tale that kept
me up way too late. While I don’t appreciate shock and gore for their own sake,
I found these elements so well integrated into the story that the book would
have seemed pallid without them. I enjoyed the characters, especially Jim
Hardgray, the Cherokee whose viewpoint—from his indigenous beliefs to his
position outside the super-secret military intelligence apparatus—enriches the
story beyond its otherwise claustrophobic paranoia. For most of the book, I
loved astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson, an autistic genius whose
noise-canceling communication headphones morph from enabling her to manage
sensory overload to melding with her brain. My only quibble with the book is
her descent into delusions and then outright insanity. I appreciate seeing a
character with autism portrayed as strong and competent, but it seemed too easy
to show how her different perceptions transformed her into an extension and,
hence, a pawn of the weird extra-terrestrial entity.
All in all, this fast-paced book engaged me with characters
I cared about and an unrelenting buildup of Things Going Wrong. The author is a
citizen of the Cherokee Nation, as well as a former threat forecaster for the
US Air Force.
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