I liked The Split very much and thought it could easily have gone mainstream (hey, get yourself an agent). It’s got all the standard sci-fi elements I would normally look for and also suggests that a segment of the population could leave the planet to its own fate and get on perfectly well without the baggage. The story begins with Earth gone wrong and a (mostly) merit-based way off in an ark ship to find something better. Can the species be saved from its own mess? Will they be able to wrench themselves apart from families they’ve left behind. That’s not the theme of the book though, is it? That’s just the prelude. The Mayfly (a massive substitute for the Mayflower) peels off from the ground with so many thousand passengers and soars into outer space. Why though? Any engineer or part-time astrophysicist can tell you it’s so much more practical to shuttle people through the atmosphere and launch your large spaceship from a position it was constructed in beyond the atmosphere. Why design it to fly in air? That’s as maybe, as method 2 is shown here. The theme of the book has been patient until now, pacing up and down in the wings. What emerges in the story of this generational liner and those who inhabit it is the science fiction version of Harry Potter; a school for space cadets! Totally wow, of course. Who wouldn’t want to go there? Just as in Rowling’s alternative school, a mystery about parents unfolds and then there’s intrigue and finally a murder whodunit to solve. This is original, I should emphasise, not influenced any further from JKR, who definitely borrowed from plenty of other sources. There’s a bit of class struggle in this, a motif around your status relating to which floor of the vessel your apartment is located on (humans can’t cope without artificial hierarchies, can they, even when they’re stupid? – there’s no up or down in space). Knowing the Captain also seems to help your position on the deck plan and provides a direct line when you finally expose the conspiracy. Would this system become instantly redundant if they landed on an exo-planet though? I think so. It might be better to spend your time learning how to evaporate and condense water. I haven’t mentioned the aliens though and I really have to do that. There are collected specimens of alien life forms they show the students in school. Some of these creatures escape, as they need to do to show their full colours, but that’s nothing to the presence of the beings that might have followed the humans from Earth, breathing down their necks and skulking in the shadows ever since. The elders and betters have failed, so now it’s all up to the gang of friends (as opposed to the psycho-students who cause problems for them). This is an action and adventure mystery for kids of all ages set on a weird and wondrous spaceship. What could go wrong? One of the better books of the year. ( )