Hole in the Sky [Library Binding]

Split into four parts amongst the four young protagonists, this is a story about the end of the old world, and the birth of the new. The bulk of the narration in this tale is given to Ceej. Living with his sister and his uncle just beside the Grand Canyon, Ceej gets occasional visits from his friend Tim and his father. The book is occasionally interrupted by small passages from "A Recent History of the Human Race" (copyright 2038) which helpfully explains how the plague started and how life after its appearance has adjusted. This conceit is great and saves the narrators from explaining details that they themselves wouldn't be discussing anyway. When Ceej's uncle and Tim's father decide to take a trip to a nearby dam so as to avoid a natural disaster, it's up to our intrepid heroes to try and save them. A band of survivors of the flu (which renders anyone who's lived through it hairless and slightly altered) called the Kinka are a dangerous and violent cult that threaten our heroes actions at every turn.

The plot that I have just described is a really good one. There's a lot of well thought out details involved and I was delighted to find myself really enjoying it. Up until we meet the Hopi girl. Suddenly the book swerves from science fiction into fantasy. Ceej and Tim run across Bella, a girl in the woods who's been surviving on her own with little effort. Bella, and bear with me here, is searching for the Sipapuni a (and I'm quoting the book's jacket on this one), "mystical portal that the Hopi believe leads to another world". Fine. But I found the character of Bella stereotypical and needless. She could have been an excellent foil for the other characters. Instead, she's rendered two-dimensional. Bella has lived much of her life as any normal kid. Yet when we meet her in the story she seems incapable of conjunctions. While most of the characters speak without affectation, Bella has a halting overly formal speech that just rubs me the wrong way. On top of that she's a guide to the Sipapuni, a master of healing, has a way with animals, and speaks regularly with her grandfather (deceased). You just want to ask Hautman why he decided to write such a stiff caricature of a Native American. Why didn't he let Bella be a realistic person? Why is she placed in that long tradition of stereotypical "wise Indian" parts that have been around as long as "The Last of the Mohicans"? I found Hautman's choice to display Bella in this way offensive and needless. But hey. That's just me.

Apart from Bella, the writing falters when our characters start concentrating on the mystical Sipapuni; a land without disease. Hautman starts to grow lazy with his writing. Harryette, Ceej's sister, is a deaf mute and a survivor of the disease. Hautman makes numerous references to the fact that Harryette can't hear things going on. Fast forward to the end of the story where Harryette twice miraculously recovers her hearing. Is this a miracle of desert life? No, it's Hautman forgetting that he wrote Harryette to be deaf. Hence Harryette, "Faintly, in the distance", heard Bella cough. Later when Harryette and Tim are climbing down a steep crevice, "A few minutes later I heard his voice". Sloppy writing, heck. Sloppy editing. Who could've missed these flaws? On top of that we've the suddenly fantasy element of the Sipapuni, standing at odds with the wonderfully science-fictionist feel of the rest of the book.

The finale of this story is open-ended, which is fine. It does certainly stare you in the face and seem to scream "SEQUEL!!!" in your ear, but oh well. That was the author's choice, and as it is it stands fine on its own. People reading this book may certainly be inclined to read its continuation so as to learn more about the characters. On the whole, it's a fun book. I just wish it could have been rewritten a little to avoid mistakes, stereotypes, and shifts in genre. But if you're looking for a great tale of future woe, you could not do much better than this story.