Hole in the Sky

I like science fiction; I love horror. I always appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the indigenous culture, and I thoroughly enjoyed Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse series. Yet, I am not certain I liked his latest novel, HOLE IN THE SKY.

Told via after-action reports, diary entries, logs, and such from four different narrators, HOLE IN THE SKY starts with the prediction of alien contact and ends after contact is made. There is the before, filled with excitement as well as anxiety, and then there is the after, which is messy, unclear, and more fantasy than science fiction.

I enjoyed the first half of the book. There is enough mystery and intrigue to pique anyone's interest, even though the military approach to this potential show more first contact is anything but welcoming. I didn't even mind when one of the narrators, who happens to be a Native American living on Osage land in Oklahoma, began to see the ghosts of his ancestors. It certainly seems possible in a story about First Contact, after all.

The second half of the novel is where I struggle. Not only does First Contact delve into some weird, eldritch horrors combining matter and machine, but at least one of the narrators descends into a giddy madness that serves to muddle an already-confusing situation. Given that one narrator is still obtaining help from ghostly ancestors and another may be having a highly detailed and intricate hallucination, you have no real idea what is happening. A few scenes later, and yet a third narrator states he has to shut his mind to what he is seeing because it is too terrible to witness and remain sane. There is an eldritch horror that one can envision, and then there is what Mr. Wilson presents, which is an eldritch horror too vast and powerful for the mind to comprehend. Or else it is all a figment of a delusional scientist. We don't know.

I might have a better understanding of what happens in the second half of HOLE IN THE SKY if I liked any of the narrators. There is only one who is sympathetic, the Native American who uses the wisdom of his ghostly ancestors and the teachings of his grandmother-in-law to guide him and his estranged preteen daughter through the chaos. The others are pompous know-it-alls who take great pains to remind their audience of their brilliance. For three people who are some of the loneliest people you will ever meet, their smug superiority is disconcerting.

HOLE IN THE SKY could have been brilliant, but instead devolved into messy chaos that crossed over into horror without any warning. It might have been better had the narrators been more likable or at least more sympathetic characters, but we will never know. Plus, as soon as Mr. Wilson described the unidentified aerial phenomenon as turtle-shaped, I immediately flashed to the ending of Stephen King's IT, which made me angry all over again at the idea of a giant space turtle/alien. The reminder of what has to be one of the worst endings to an otherwise terrifying story knocked off at least one star for me. I can suspend disbelief for a long time, but even I draw the line at space turtles. show less

This one started out really freaking strong. Honestly, the first three-quarters? An easy 5-star book.

Seriously, this was the best part of Carl Sagan's CONTACT mixed with the first half of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. It was fun, it was intriguing...it was doing a great job of building the suspense.

Unfortunately, it started to unravel toward the end. In came some of Carpenter's THE THING, and a heapin' helpin' of Lovecraftian sensibilities... all of which I could have lived with, but it was the stuff that Wilson set up that I hoped...really freaking hoped...he wouldn't start pulling the threads on.

He didn't pull the thread. He yoinked the entire damn blanket at the end. I guess it was the redemption arc that every book seems to show more absolutely require for a traditional publishing contract these days and, yeah if it's done well, sure, fine. I'll take it.

But when it's handled in a thick, gooey way that screams, "SEE? SEE WHAT I DID THERE?" while at the same time utterly wasting the two best characters, Mikayla and The Man Downstairs, both left dangling with no real closure?

Nope that's an epic fail on the wrap up, folks.

This had so much potential, and it just kinda threw it away for the sappy ending.

Five stars for the first three-quarters. One star for the dumb ending. show less

Billed as a Native sci-fi first contact thriller, it's really a Native cosmic horror novel. Its strength is its readability: This thing was engineered for speed, with short chapters, and a clear (and unchallenging) style. So definitely a page turner. The actual contents were less compelling: the Big Secret was teased for too long, and ended up not being very 'believable' to me. The Native Voice And Content wasn't gratuitous -- in the end the Indigenous people in the novel are People, not cardboard cutouts of Indigenous Virtue or any other stereotype. There _is_ an emotional core to the novel and it does deliver in the end, but it could have been better executed. Overall, a page turner that you'll like if you like this kind of thing.

Told from the viewpoint of a handful of characters, this is a scifi/horror story about timeline-bending aliens, who may just have ties with the ancient ancestors of indigenous peoples in the States.
The premise is great, but the execution is a little shaky. It felt like a lot of the moving parts could have been fleshed out better, and the characters could have been more interesting.

I found this to be a rather different take on the whole "first contact" style of book. Interesting, as it was set on a Native American reservation, and explored their myths and beliefs. Also interesting as it took off in an unusual direction. The book is a dose of hard science fiction and horror. I enjoyed the first half of the book, but the second half I found to be hard to fathom/imagine/enjoy. The characters were, in a word, weird. Other than the father/daughter characters, the others were quite odd.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book to read, in exchange for a fair review.

This book started off reminding me of the 3 Body Problem, with Cherokee people instead of the Chinese. I had high hopes and was really enjoying the story... until the "impact" (about 60% in). After that the novel became very odd, dark, and left me disappointed! Despite the great beginning, "Hole in the Sky" deserves a thumbs down from me 👎

This book takes a journey from modern sci fi to cosmic horror. I generally like the former and love the latter, but the horror ultimately didn't land with me in this case.

Specifically, I'd say the transition between the two was a bit muddled and the threats got pretty repetitive, so the horror never really got off the ground. The scares also should have shown us a lot about who the characters are and what they're about, but that's missing to an almost confusing extent.