The Long War
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4.0 • 148 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
The Long War by legendary author and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and award-winning science fiction novelist Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary journey begun in the New York Times bestseller The Long Earth.
War has come to the Long Earth....
Humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by stepping, which Joshua and Lobsang explored a mere decade ago. Now "civilization" flourishes, and fleets of airships link the multiple Earths through exploration, trade, and culture.
Humankind is shaping the Long Earth, but in turn the Long Earth is shaping humankind. A new America that has christened itself "Valhalla" has emerged more than a million steps from the original Datum Earth. And like the American revolutionaries of old, the Valhallans resent being controlled from afar by the Datum government.
In the intervening years, the song of the trolls—graceful, hive-mind humanoids—has suffused the Long Earth. But in the face of humankind's inexorable advance, they are beginning to fall silent . . . and gradually disappear.
Joshua, now married and a father, is summoned by Lobsang. It seems that he alone can confront the perfect storm of crises that threatens to plunge all of the Long Earth into war. A war unlike any that has been waged before...
The full list of books in the Long Earth series include:
The Long EarthThe Long WarThe Long MarsThe Long UtopiaThe Long Cosmos
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The third Long Earth installment (after The Long War) sees humanity spreading out across infinite parallel worlds, with several key figures trailblazing in different ways. Commander Maggie Kauffman leads an expedition to catalog hundreds of millions of Earths, many of which prove far stranger and less hospitable than imagined. Sally Linsay is recruited by her father to explore the alternates of the newly-discovered Long Mars in search of intelligent life. Joshua Valiente encounters the emerging Next, a new breed of superintelligent humans raised in Long Earth, whose development is bringing them at odds with baseline humanity. These first two threads offer up fascinating and inventive takes on planetary development, though they fly by at dizzying speeds. The third feels too much like a conventional "us vs. them" plot. Nonetheless, Baxter and Pratchett remain in fine form, their collaboration producing another thoughtful page-turner.
Customer Reviews
A thoughtful look at ourselves.
This is a sensitive look at what humanity could be if we combined a dose of tolerance with a shot of humor. The background, a potential infinity of earth's spinning off a probability tree, is an interesting thought, but, the story of the people, and how a central authority learns to let go, is a story for our times.
This was not what I was expecting from these two, and the result is a very thoughtful gift. It was good to finish up on Christmas Day.
What happened?
I was reading along and enjoying the book until the last couple of episodes. It lost its direction at that point. The major conflicts of the book simply melted away with no adequate storyline or reason. It was all too pat, an outline that wasn't fleshed out, and a poor outline at that. I expected better.
Baxter fan
I've read most of SB's published work and at least a half dozen from Terry Pratchett. I find Baxter to be original, innovative, and I have enthusiastically endorsed his fiction to others. Mr. Pratchett I enjoy as well, although I'm not as well-read when it comes to his work.
The two "Long Earth" novels left me less than satisfied. Neither book bothers to develop or complete a human story in conjunction with the discovery of a vast multiverse waiting to explored/exploited. The narrative does not maintain a single character as focus to the point where I become vested in that character.
The conclusions to both installments leave me without the vast imaginings for which I so love sci-fi in general, and Baxter in particular.
I am still a fan and look forward to further work, but I'll leave the Long Earth series alone, should another one appear.