Such is our insatiable wonderment at the ever more extraordinary possibilities that science fiction can offer us that we forget that, if extra-terrestrial life exists, it may be not too dissimilar to our own. After all, if we are talking about other carbon-based life forms, it is not such a great leap to imagine that alien beings have developed along paths recognisable to humans, both physically and in terms of thought processes.

These are the sorts of beings that Peter Apps describes in his first novel, The Long Way Round. In the two alien worlds that his protagonists visit, the inhabitants, while very different from humans, share the same range of needs, motivations, fears, reasoning processes, shortcomings and strong points as their Earthling guests. In contrast to many intergalactic forays, these encounters involve mutual understanding, exchanging knowledge with one another, acceptance, respect and assistance.

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