The Other Valley, the debut novel by Vancouver-based author Scott Alexander Howard is a thought-provoking slice of speculative fiction. It takes place in an isolated town between two valleys: the valley to the west contains the same town 20 years in the past, the valley to the east contains the same town 20 years in the future. The borders are policed by a shadowy organisation called the Conseil, and 16-year-old Odile appears destined to work for them.

But first comes their vetting process, a series of tasks in which Odile must decide how to respond to requests from people who wish to visit one of the other valleys. As it happens, has a knack for this, but she’s seen something she shouldn’t have seen, involving someone she feels strongly about. Moral quandaries ensue.

The Other Valley is divided into two sections; though the second gets off to a slow start, it eventually regains momentum, and is worth sticking with, as the last third of the book is its strongest. The novel’s main strength is its ingenious conceit and the philosophical questions it raises, yet that conceit is also what weighs the book down, as the narrative never matches its potential. The result exists in the middle valley between fine and great.