A Hole in the Sky by Peter F. Hamilton

Published by Angry Robot on January 20, 2026

A Hole in the Sky isn’t expressly marketed as Young Adult fiction, but it has all the hallmarks. The plot is linear and simple. The story’s moral messages (primarily, “be better than the people you dislike”) are equally simple. Only a few characters are significant, and most characters of significance are in their teens. The heroine isn’t a virgin (her teenage hormones are raging) but, notwithstanding her crush on a young man from another village, the story steers away from sexual encounters. The absence of swearing or colorful language — a young man named Frazier says “oh my dayz” instead of dropping an F-bomb — also seems to pitch the tone toward a younger audience. Frazier is both a nerd and a virgin, the kind of character who appeals to (and often describes) young sf fans.

A generation ship called Daedalus is on its way to a new home. The ship originally intended to colonize the planet Kianira but the voyagers found a life form there that had the potential to evolve sentience. In defiance of Stephen Miller’s assertion that strong people are entitled to destroy weaker aliens simply because they can, the surprisingly ethical passengers decided to leave the planet in peace as they set course for their second choice.

Some passengers, apparently not wishing to prolong the voyage, rebelled. They smashed the medical machinery and food processors in the hope of forcing the ship to turn around. The rebels failed — or so the passengers have been taught — because the captain somehow merged with the ship’s AI (assuming the title of “Electric Captain,” another clue that this is YA fiction) and charted a course to the second-choice planet.

The passengers originally lived in hundred-story condo towers, but the ship has vast acres of farmland. The Electric Captain taught the passengers to farm the soil and raise chickens. They built cabins and villages. A canal that runs through the ship acts as a highway for animal-towed barges that transport people from one village to another. Adopting the Electric Captain’s new social order in the absence of food machines, the passengers agreed that new births should be limited while all passengers should be recycled at age 65 to preserve resources. Passengers who don’t follow those rules are branded as “cheaters” and punished by being recycled.

The protagonist is Hazel. She has all the insecurities that afflict teenagers but demonstrates the moxie and resilience that the reader expects from a YA heroine. Just before she is about to be recycled, a cheater tells Hazel that the swirl they see in the sky is caused by an air leak. If it isn’t repaired, they’ll all die from lack of oxygen in a couple of years. Hazel is inclined to believe the cheater because she’s been getting headaches, but the village elders put their faith in the Electric Captain to protect them.

Hazel’s brother Frazier becomes partially paralyzed when he falls from a tree. The village is about to recycle him when Hazel snatches him away. They make their way to a condo tower, where they learn the truth about the rebellion and the ship’s current predicament. Naturally, Hazel decides to do something about it. Battles and heroic journeys ensue.

I can’t condemn a novel for being pitched to a younger audience — some YA novels are quite good, even for older readers — but I found little about A Hole in the Sky to admire. Despite a sprinkling of action scenes, the plot is relatively dull, as are the characters. The story is predictable and the science fiction elements are unremarkable.

Peter Hamilton apparently intends to milk the story’s content for a trilogy. There’s barely enough here for one novel. I won’t be reading the next books and I can’t recommend the novel to sf fans who enjoy the reasonably sophisticated space operas that Hamilton usually produces. I can give the novel a mild recommendation for YA fans and for sf fans who haven’t yet reached puberty. I might also recommend it to parents of young nerds who are looking for clean, uncontroversial reading material that their kids might enjoy.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS