But the decisions that Bella must make as captain – whether to try and get her crew back to Earth or to give them a new home on Janus – destroy this friendship at its core and we witness a damaging and really quite heartbreaking tug of war between these women. Bella Lind is the captain of the Rockhopper and Svetlana Barseghian is her chief engineer as well as being Bella’s closest friend and confidante. The pursuit of Janus is only one part of the novel.

And once it has Rockhopper in its wake there is very little the crew can do to escape. Of course, it soon transpires that Janus is no natural moon. But when they are told that Janus, one of Saturn’s moons, has escaped orbit and has set a course for a distant star system, the Rockhopper is the closest vessel with any hope of catching up with the rogue moon, if only for a few days, before returning to Earth with some kind of explanation for this phenomenon. The crew of the Rockhopper mines comets, in other words they ‘push ice’. I shouldn’t be surprised because Pushing Ice has it all – a fascinating premise and story, believable science and spaceships, awe inspiring locations and happenings, intriguing personalities and relationships, and unforgettable aliens, including the most unforgettable aliens I have yet to encounter in fiction. And thank heavens because it turned out to be an absolute stonker and a reading highlight of the year. Pushing Ice is a novel I’ve been intending to read for quite a while and after snapping up a signed copy from Forbidden Planet there seemed little reason to resist any longer.

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds