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The Long Earth

The astonishing, mind-bending number one bestseller

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The Long Earth

By: Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens
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1916: the Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No Man's Land gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive - some said mad, others dangerous - scientist when she finds a curious gadget: a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a...potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world for ever.

And that's an understatement if ever there was one...

The Long Earth is the first novel in an exciting new collaboration between the creator of Discworld Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter

 Adventure Classics Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Thought-Provoking Funny
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Critic reviews

By turns thrillingly expansive, joyously inventive and utterly engrossing *****.
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For an author that we're so familiar with to come up with something so utterly fresh, complete and compelling is rather spine tingling.



Superbly executed Sci-Fi with the classic Pratchett integrity of story driving our characters and our interest.



Excellent job by Michael Fenton Stevens who brings a wealth of characters off the page.



Please be warned, this is the first part of a series and does not resolve the plot-lines at the end of the book.

Wow

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As a dedicated Terry Pratchett fan, and an occasional Stephen Baxter reader, this was my most eagerly anticipated collaboration of the year, and though it didn't quite live up to the ridiculous heights I'd built it up to in my fevered fantasies, The Long Earth was still an enjoyable and thought-provoking exploration of a new world. The Long Earth itself seemed to be the main character of the book, and this was its main weakness; the authors enjoyed the world they had created, but spent a bit too long exploring it at the expense of plot and tension. The cast of characters were strong and interesting and were brought to life wonderfully by the narration of Michael Fenton Stevens which was utterly perfect! But still I was left hoping that this was the first in a series of books, because it felt like an introduction and not a complete contained novel.

An introduction? Hopefully ...

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An interesting concept and universe but the story arc is slow and ends too abrubtly

Imaginative But Unsatisfying

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The beginning of this book is excellent. The idea of the Long Earth is introduced and it's clear that it opens all sorts of exciting possibilities. Good SF is a thought experiment and this feels like there's going to be plenty to explore. The middle, whilst exploring some of the possibilities, is too much of "and then the next day they did the same..." The end, though, is going along and then it like that. There's an action sequence, a pause, and Audible Hopes You Have Enjoyed This Program. This is not a complete book. It's not the first part of a trilogy. It's more the first third of a book. It's a really good idea not terribly well executed.

Exciting start, meh middle, what!?! end

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The Pratchett influence is clear, and the humour feels like some of his earlier works. This is my first exposure to Baxter, so I cannot yet recognise his influence in this. It is engaging, and the world that emerges naturally from the rules set down at the beginning is worth exploring.

Humour and humanity

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