Resistance: A Hole in the Sky [Mass Market Paperback]

William C. Dietz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 2, 2011

The official prequel to the blockbuster videogame Resistance 3

America. July 1953.
 
In this official prequel to Resistance 3, prospects are not looking up for planet Earth or Lieutenant Joseph Capelli. With the Chimera invasion in full swing, America has crumbled under the fierce alien juggernaut, its defenses overrun, millions dead, the rest left to fend for themselves. Many try to avoid the alien virus that turns humans into Chimeran killing machines.

Capelli may be a pariah to the army for killing hero Nathan Hale, but he is still a patriot fighting to save the country and its citizens. However, some soldiers are ready to shoot him on sight—not to mention that Hale’s beautiful sister has every reason in the world to want him stone dead. But Capelli’s used to being in dangerous situations and taking crazy risks. And the next move he intends to make is pure suicide.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; Original edition (August 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345508432
• ISBN-13: 978-0345508430
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William C. Dietz is the bestselling author of Resistance: The Gathering Storm, HALO: The Flood, and Hitman: Enemy Within, plus thirty other science fiction novels, some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, served as a medic with the navy and the Marine Corps, and graduated from the University of Washington. Dietz worked as a surgical technician, news writer, college instructor, television producer, and director of public relations for an international telephone company prior to embarking on a full-time writing career.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey; Original edition (August 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345508432
• ISBN-13: 978-0345508430
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really good filler for between game timelines January 3, 2013

By Leighonkindle

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a big fan of the franchise and Dietz manages to fill in the gaps of the game world timelines with well written stories. I loved every minute of this book. It was exciting and action packed with believable solid characters that tie in seamlessly with the games.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Teriffic June 19, 2012

By GJN

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really liked this book. It is post appocalyptic but done by someone who knows a bit about military tactics so its not a computer game come to life where the heros bullets work but the bad guys dont. Good characterisations. Some plot reveals and a lot of action and interest. The good guys dont win all the fights.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting sci fi alien-fighting action June 5, 2012

By ILovemyhubbySD

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This was a real page-turner with vivid action and dynamic storyline. Good entertainment, although I wish humanity would band together against such a powerful threat. Just goes to show the darkest elements of society will continually try to exert authority over other people, even in the face of total annihilation. The aliens have technology on their side, but the good humans band together using basic real weapons and wits to survive and win epic battles.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Coming of the Chimera February 19, 2013

By Arthur W. Jordin

Format:Mass Market Paperback

A Hole in the Sky (2011) is the second SF novel in the Resistance series, following The Gathering Storm. In the previous volume, Hale was leading a scouting party in South Dakota. His family lived on a ranch nearby before the Chimera came.

The team observed three Chimeran Attack Drones on Highway 123. Then a phalanx of Steelheads appeared in the snow, followed by three Maulers carrying huge packs. After the last stink disappeared into the snow storm, Hale pulled his team off the hill to return to base.

About forty-five minutes from the VTOL landing zone, a Burrower popped out of the ground and unloaded Hybrids. An Attack Drone also hit the tail of his formation. Hale took out the drone, but lost one man to Bullseye projectiles.

Hale and his team fled the area with Howlers chasing them. They wounded the leading Chimera and ran. Then the VTOL strafed the Howlers and loaded the survivors.

In this novel, Joseph Capelli was a SRPA Sentinel until he killed Nathan Hale. Now he is a freelance runner. He and his dog Rowdy deliver packages and letters for money or goods.

Marvin Kawecki is a Captain in the US Army. He thinks Capelli murdered Hale.

Thomas Voss is President of the United States. He had assumed the office after McCullen and his cabinet died in a VTOL crash.

Fyodor Malikow is a Russian, who had fled Europe as the Chimera broke out of Russia. He developed the serum used by the Sentinels and the new Hale vaccine.

Susan Farley had been an inmate within a Colorado State prison before the Chimera came. Now she is an involuntary worker in the Lucky Buckle Mine....

Alvin Locke was a car dealer before the Chimera came. He has been hiding near Glenwood Springs.

In this story, the Chimera has occupied the Empire State Building and is using it as their headquarters in North America. Voss has come to New York City to destroy the building. Kawecki is leading the trooper guarding the President. Unfortunately, the humans are driven out of the tower.

Capelli is eating at the Deep Home Saloon and Pleasure Emporium in Burlington, Colorado. He pays with an unopened bottle of aspirin and tips with a tube of lipstick. He is drinking his second beer when a man comes over to hire his services.

Locke wants him to take him to Haven, Oklahoma. Capelli usually doesn't deliver livestock, but the price is right. He and Locke leave the Saloon just as the Chimera come. They have to fight Chimeras on their way out the back.

They stay the night is a church and start for Goodland in the morning. They eat lunch under a bridge. Then Capelli notices a group jogging down the road.

Capelli figures the five men are after Locke's gold. He asks Locke how many people how many people had seen the gold. Locke says only two.

Capelli sends Locke over the next rise to start a cookfire. Then he ambushes the pursuers. He takes down the leader and another man before they hit the dirt and start after him.

After disposing of the humans, Capelli discovers Chimeras coming down the road. They had probably been following the five humans, so Capelli gathers Locke and starts running. Locke is not is good shape and the effort wears him down.

This tale takes Capelli to Haven. Then Kawecki show up there. Meanwhile, the citizens of Haven find themselves being annexed by another town.

The Chimera keeps on coming. The next installment in this sequence has not yet been announced on Amazon.

Highly recommended for Dietz fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of armed conflict, underground movements, and desperate situations. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin Read more ›

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My son loves this book December 3, 2012

By The Law

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I apologize as I am late in writing this review. I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my son last year because it was on his wish list. I received a HUGE thank you! My son lives out of state so I really can't share the pros and cons of this book but when I visited him earlier this year I received another thank you so it must be good.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific alternate historical thriller August 16, 2011

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Mass Market Paperback

In 1948, the alien Chimera landed in Russia. A year later Europe is overrun. By 1952, 160 million Americans are dead with survivors living underground. In July 1953, the President of the United States, former Undersecretary of Agriculture, Tom Voss and a small unit are in New York. They need to take out a tower that cools down the atmosphere enabling the ruthless adversaries to acclimate and escort Russian expatriate Dr. Maliken to a safe house as he has created a vaccine against the Chimera toxin that either kills humans or turns them into monsters.

In Deep Home, Colorado, Alvin Locke hires former Army Lieutenant turned runner Joseph Capelli to escort him to his sister's home in Haven, Oklahoma. Considered a traitor for assassinating hero Nathan Hale, Capelli believes he did the right thing as his mentor was turning. However, Hale is inside his mind making Capelli believe he is a head case. Capelli, his dog Rowdy and Locke begin a suicidal journey in which the chimera, their human monsters and humans are lethal.

In the Lucky Buckle Mine, Colorado, inmate 26301 has a plan to rescue other convicts trapped inside a cave in. Her overseer Boss Cooper takes her to the top gun vicious Brewster who tells Inmate Susan Farley to see him after she finishes her rescue mission. Farley plans to kill him and escape.

The novelization prequel to the Resistancetm 3 videogame is a terrific alternate historical thriller that obviously ties to the game, but reads like an independent novel with three major subplots. Besides the clever post-apocalyptic landscape filled with destruction, there is romance that brings hope. Loaded with action, game fans and other readers will relish the Resistance.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a very good book September 5, 2011

By Filbert

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Read the book on ebook, and it was somewhat of an improvement over "The Gathering Storm", but it is not without flaws. There are some problems I had with:

1. Dialogue starts to get cheesy, especially between Joe Capelli and Susan. Most especially in having Chameleons attacking their wedding!
2. The product detail on the book doesn't really match up to what happened in the story, telling that Capelli is going to be hunted down for killing Nathan Hale, the hero in the original two games, but never happened aside from some characters who are mad at Capelli for what he did and didnt actually do anything to hunt him down.
3. The use of having real weapons and products in the story set in an alternate history made me believe that the author is making a product placement (aside the book itself being a tied-in to Resistance 3).
4. The murderous circus family is really out of place.
5. The human antagonists overshadow the Chimera as the bigger threat.
6. The story doesn't really tell what exactly had happened at the end of Resistance 2 ex. The planet and wormhole depicted in R3. And what confuses me is the title of the book "A Hole in the Sky"; it doesn't really fit into the story as it gave me the impression it would talk about the wormhole.

The reason I had purchased it was because of seeing what exactly happened after R2, but unfortunately doesn't really explain it just like in the last novel.

Recently, I had given this book for three stars, but I have change my mind. This book isn't worthy to be call a book for it being written by Dietz after reading his track record with "Halo: The Flood" and what he did with "Mass Effect: Deception" were unforgivable.... If there were some reason Insomniac hired that guy, I bet everything it was because of monetary value over content. Read more ›