I read an article in the Culture section of the BBC website recently by Nicholas Barber, which I found myself agreeing to in the most part. I was directed there by a Tweet, but however much I find Twitter a great media tool, the 140 characters simply wasn’t enough space to reply. I found that when asked if Star Wars should have stopped at just one film, I had a few more characters to add.

When Neil Armstrong uttered those immortal words ‘one giant leap for mankind’, did he envisage that within a couple of decades manned exploration of the solar system would all but cease? The passing of the astronaut Eugene Cernan recently made this even more poignant.

I was asked recently whether I believed humanity would become a multi-planetary species. It was a good question, but one I have no doubt to the answer.

A spotlight review of Tusk has "highly recommended" it to all avid readers of the genre. A roller coaster of a science fiction novel and strong debut by Nathan M Hurst.