Here and Beyond by Hal LaCroix (Bloomsbury, £16.99) The only realistic way human beings could colonise planets beyond our solar system is if they spent their lives travelling and committed their children and grandchildren to the same fate, so their descendants might have a chance to reach another habitable world. Writers who have taken this fictional challenge, including Robert A Heinlein and Brian Aldiss, have assumed civilisational breakdowns would result, with the survivors coming to believe their ship is the only world there ever was. The author of this brilliant, character-driven debut novel has taken a more optimistic view. On...