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Stephen Baxter

Terry Pratchett

The Long War (The Long Earth) Hardcover – 20 Jun. 2013

by Stephen Baxter (Author), Terry Pratchett (Author)

1,355 ratings

Book 2 of 5: The Long Earth

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A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth – but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind ... A new ‘America’, called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth – and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...
Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity’s thoughtless exploitation ... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

20 Jun. 2013
Dimensions

16.38 x 3.96 x 24.33 cm
ISBN-10

0857520113
ISBN-13

978-0857520111
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Product description

Book Description

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science fiction comes the sequel to the phenomenal No.1 bestseller The Long Earth...

From the Inside Flap

The Long Earth is open. Humanity now spreads across untold worlds linked by fleets of airships encouraging exploration, trade and culture.

But while mankind may be shaping the Long Earth, the Long Earth is, in turn, shaping mankind - and a collision of crises is looming.

More than a million steps from our original Datum Earth a new America has emerged – a young nation that resents answering to the Datum government.

And the trolls – those graceful, hive-mind humanoids whose song once suffused the Long Earth – are, in the face of man’s inexorable advance, beginning to fall silent . . . and to disappear.

It was Joshua Valiente who, with the omniscient being known as Lobsang, first explored these multiple worlds all those years ago. And it is to Joshua that the Long Earth now turns for help. Because there is the very real threat of war . . .

. . . a war unlike any fought before.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (20 Jun. 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0857520113
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0857520111
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.38 x 3.96 x 24.33 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 57,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 840 in Dystopian
- 1,215 in Science Fiction Space Operas
- 1,429 in Science Fiction Adventure (Books)

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1,355 ratings

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5 star		60%
4 star		19%
3 star		13%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Amazon Customer

This is soooo dull

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2018

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If you like geography books about places that don't exist or are fascinated by new character after new character with endless boring back stories and you are not looking for anything like a story then this is the one for you. It is, however, a quick read as I've found that every time one of the million new folk turn up you can safely skip a few pages while their uninteresting life is spread out before you and you will not have missed a thing. Endless descriptions of people and things that nobody can have any interest in. And don't get me started on the frankly stupid politics that every new place brings a long explanation of... Good lord this is truly dreadful.

11 people found this helpful

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PB

Interesting in places, but the story and characters are weak.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2016

Verified Purchase

I don't normally go for books that come in series, but I made an exception for this one because I enjoyed the first book. I was intrigued by some of the concepts that it introduced and some of the questions that it raised, and I wanted to see how the characters matured further into the timeline.

I was also interested to see how Pratchett and Baxter handled a book with an active conflict, particularly one that involved people capable of jumping between dimensions. Neither author is known for their action stories. So I wondered whether they would approach things from the perspective of a few participants in the conflict between Datum Earth and the colony worlds, or if they would just narrate a conflict from a really wide angle. This is were things started to go a little astray.

Although the title, and the blub inside the cover, suggest that this book is about a military confrontation (Or at least the potential for one), it's actually more along the lines of slow burning political disagreement. With the emphasis being on the word slow.

One side is a 2 dimensional group of farmers and firebrands who seem to be based on American Settlers during the Manifest Destiny" period, with some pilgrim fathers thrown in. The other side is a 1 dimensional totalitarian regime that is an extremely thinly disguised version of a certain real world government during a certain period in our history (Hint, it's not Germany).

Neither party really explains their motives, and none of the characters are particularly likable. Even the villain is just a cardboard cutout of his real world equivalent. He's more annoying than anything else.

Over all, there are too many characters with too little personality, their personal goals are 2 dimensional, and the book keeps jumping between plot threads that are too thin. Reading this book actually feels like trying to watch three different episodes of Startrek at the same time, by channel surfing between them at 5 minute intervals.

A number of the cast are from various minority groups, and this feels extremely forced. It's hammered into us that they are minorities (I'm including female military officers in this as well as racial minorities), yet the fact that they are from a minority is never really integrated into the story. It feels like somebody randomly stuck a pin into a page after the book was 90% complete and said "This character is going to be from X minority group". The character's background has almost no effect on the story. They don't think or act differently, or have any additional insight because of their background.

If done well racial diversity can add a lot to a story. Particularly if one character is able to bring something new or different to the table because of their experiences. Here it feels it was done in order to meet some kind of diversity quota.

The story doesn't flow very well, it meanders all over the place. The multiple story threads that Pratchett usually does so well just feel disconnected here. We're still left with more questions than answers, including many questions that are left over from the first book, but it's almost as if the author has forgotten about them. We're not teased with extra detail or insight, or anything that really grips us. In places it feels more like we're in a philosophy lecture than a science fiction novel.

The ending is weak an unsatisfying, and the last chapter can be summed up as "The obvious idiots realized that they were idiots and went home".

This book has its moments, and there was enough to keep me reading through to the end, but it's only really worth reading for the sake of completeness, not for its individual story.

16 people found this helpful

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Alyssia Cooke

Fascinating ideas but no real story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2020

Verified Purchase

I really struggled with this in honesty. It's well written and a fascinating premise but I had to work really hard to remain engaged and even then, this took me over a week to plough through. I think much of the issue stems from the fact that this book feels like a set-up novel; it doesn't really have a proper narrative of its own, instead it's running on from the first novel and setting up central themes, characters and issues. Narratively speaking, there almost isn't one; it's perhaps 10% narrative, 90% set-up. I have this inclination that the next book will really profit from that, but it made this one a bit of a slog if I'm honest.

Another issue is the sheer amount of perspectives and the way in which you are propelled between worlds and individual stories. It felt like trying to look at the novel through a kaleidoscope and getting so many snapshots that it is impossible to understand the full picture. I think I'd have been happier by far with a fraction of the perspectives and it would have made for far easier reading. It would also perhaps have helped in giving a stronger overarching narrative, rather than snap shot moments before spinning off elsewhere. In essence, one of the biggest issues here is that there is no plot. There are lots of small, unrelated stories playing out, but none of them are large enough to carry the full narrative through. It's more like a cacophony of ideas all stuffed together and it doesn't quite hang together with the precision that I suspect was actually intended.

That said, I quite enjoyed this - it just failed completely to grab me. I am however interested in seeing if my guess about The Long Mars benefiting hugely from this is correct. There are some fantastic ideas here, and there some sections are fascinating; the lack of anything to tie it all together is a huge fallback here though and the ideas alone just don't quite make up for it.

2 people found this helpful

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T. Wilson

Tedious

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 September 2019

Verified Purchase

The first book, The Long Earth, was good. Very different to anything I’d read before - a great social commentary crossed with a world history of possibly why things happened. But this one is sooo t e d i o u s. It’s 590 pages of absolutely nothing except “... they stepped into ...” (OK its not actually 590 pages but it felt like it). I bought all 5 books on an offer, but I really can’t face reading another one.

2 people found this helpful

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Jay R

One of the most uninviting and uninteresting books I have read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2016

Verified Purchase

I too found this second book the be a poor shadow of the first. The first I finished in 2 days. This one however has taken me 3 months to plug through, mostly due to lack of any interest in the outcome. The story meanders all over the place, none of the characters have a particularly interesting or memorable presence and, as well as no central storyline, the subplots don't have any particularly coherent story either. I am in fact around 20 pages from the end, this being fewer than 10 minutes reading for me and I really can't be bothered. I may finish it later just to get it out of the way. I also bought the third book at the same time as the first two. I'm dreading starting it now.

7 people found this helpful

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