"Daniel H. Wilson's newest techno-thriller Hole in the Sky, which was voted one of Scientific American's best fiction books of 2025, examines the tropes of alien invasion through a new lens: What if the extraterrestrials landed not on the White House lawn or in a farmer's back fields but instead in part of the Cherokee Nation's reservation in Oklahoma? Wilson explores how a modern military, as well as Native and non-Native civilians, might react to such a twist on a familiar tale."
"I write what I know. I know a lot about robotics. I was a scientist, and I have done some threat forecasting for the U.S. government. So I've intersected with some military types. And then I grew up in the Cherokee Nation, so that's the people that I know. I found that these three different facets of my life all have different postures toward the unknown, right?"
An extraterrestrial first contact occurs on part of the Cherokee Nation reservation in Oklahoma, shifting a familiar invasion scenario into Indigenous territory. The situation contrasts military impulses to destroy with scientific impulses to understand and highlights a Native orientation that can be more comfortable with the unknown. Expertise in robotics, scientific practice, and threat forecasting shapes depictions of technological and tactical responses. The material also emphasizes Native science that was once indistinguishable from magic and uses real scientific knowledge to ground speculative ideas. The setting subverts expectations and examines how diverse civilian and military actors might respond.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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