Science fiction for children and teenagers

Unwind
by Neil Shusterman



The Knife of Never Letting Go
by Patrick Ness


Starcross
by Philip Reeve



Odin's Son
by Susan Price


The Resistance
by Gemma Malley



The best children's books have always had an element of science fiction. The Narnia books posited the existence of other worlds; Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials plays with the multiverse theory. Science fiction is an excellent stepping-stone between the fantasies of childhood and the responsibilities of adulthood.

Increasingly, the burgeoning young adult or teen fiction genre not preoccupied with chick-lit or tales of deprivation is turning to SF, with dazzling results. Readers of these pages will know how striking I found Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, positing a society in which all children believe themselves hideous until at 16 they get radical plastic surgery to turn them into Pretties. Neal Shusterman is another American writer for 13+, and his novel Unwind goes much farther.

Unwind imagines a society in which parents who get fed up with their children can sign them up, secretly, to be “unwound” at 13: that is, taken away to have every part of them, from eyes to skin, donated to others. The decision to “abort retrospectively” is irrevocable, and when the clever, rebellious Connor discovers his fate, he plots his escape.

This is the kind of rare book that makes the hairs on your neck rise up. It is written with a sense of drama that should get it instantly snapped up for film, and it's satisfyingly unpredictable in that its characters change and realise things about each other in a credible way. Enforced organ donation isn't a new idea, but Unwind has the kind of anger that will appeal to teenagers.

Equally interesting is Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go . The title and under-edited 479 pages made my children flatly refuse even to open it. However, this is a stunning debut and one that takes 100 pages before revealing that it's set on another world rather than the Wild West. The settlers are infected by a disease that affects only men and boys, so they must hear the “noise” of other men's thoughts - and those of animals. Although it ends on a maddening hook for the sequel, this is as compelling as it is original, and terrific for 14+.

For pure, stylish fun, Philip Reeve is hard to beat. I didn't ever get to grips with his bestselling Mortal Engines series, but this new one, which began with Larklight and continues with Starcross is too entertaining to miss. It has the twinkly, lugubrious humour of Le Petit Prince and Edward Gorey and is set in a universe where new planets can be reached by train. Art and his snotty sister Myrtle find that the hotel they are staying at slips back and forth in time. David Wyatt's illustrations match the elegance and brio of a fantastical conceit.

Susan Price's prize-winning Sterkarm trilogy was a savage and romantic time-travelling tale. The last part of her Odin trilogy, Odin's Son , is no less gripping but will probably appeal only to girls of 11+. Affie, the spoilt rich girl who got sold as a Bonder to pay off her father's debts escaped Earth to Mars with the strange girl Odinstoy and the child Gift. Odinstoy sacrificed herself to win the freedom of the remaining Bonders on Mars, and protect her son; but the blond boy has grown into an ugly, mentally handicapped young man. Is he truly the son of Odin, or is his conception even stranger? The answer isn't entirely satisfying but the boldness and inventiveness of Price's imagination is consistently impressive.

The Resistance by Gemma Malley is another well-written dystopian thriller tackling the price of longevity - but only if parents are prepared to let their children die instead Peter and Anna, first encountered in The Declaration, are now legal but continue to fight against adult authority as members of the resistance, infiltrating Peter's grandfather's corporation. There is a dramatic and heartfelt plea for “a real life, full of moments of joy, of anguish, of irritation, of fun”, which is well worth disaffected teenagers of 12+ reading.

But if you prefer your SF less preachy and more life-enhancing, the best is yet to come - the first winner of the Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition, Emily Diamand's Reavers' Ransom, is out in October. Many teenagers like SF because they are looking for new worlds to conquer rather than the dull old one their parents have messed up. Whether they will cope with quite as much spirit and charm as Lilly, as she navigates a Britain half-submerged by global warming, only time will tell: but if you think SF is only about machines battling with split infinitives in distant galaxies, think again.