The Long Mars

Terry Pratchett,

Stephen Baxter

Terry Pratchett,

Stephen Baxter

2014 • 361 pages

Ratings37

Average rating3.5

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science fiction comes the dazzling new chapter in the extraordinary and bestselling The Long Earth sequence. 2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request: he needs her help to trace an advanced alien technology which, he believes, will help mankind’'s post-Yellowstone recovery. Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth. For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their 'long childhood' in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear have caused 'normal' human society to turn against the Next, and the authorities, afraid of anything or anyone not deemed 'normal', order that all Next children be imprisoned. Joshua is determined to liberate the children -- and a dramatic showdown over the inhumanity of humans against their own kind seems inevitable.

Want to edit this book?Become a Librarian

Genres

Series

Featured Series

5 primary books

The Long Earth

The Long Earth is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Ray

Enjoyable read but...
But what... Hard to put a finger on what. Possibly theres more than one book here with a central theme ie Stepping, a collection of themed novellas. Theses the extension out into Long Mars of the title.To a lesser degree theres the further exploration of Long Earth . Then theres the Homo Superior theme, seeds of which were planted in earlier books plus the question of evolved other alternatives to life generally.

Plot driven; the central characters just perform to drive the plot. Example - the inventor of the potato driven stepper machine turns up but aside from some antipathy between him and his daughter, which reveals little about either character, hes undrawn. Suggestions of post singularity themes in two characters who again just turn up to help move the plot from A to B.
Not that the plots all that bad kept the pages turning and did link with the plots of the earlier books, so felt like some things were being resolved.
So... too many players all behaving like puppets to the plot which ultimately left it a book I'm not likely to re read other than to clarify a plot thread when reading the next... which I will with some diluted enthusiasm.

View

Tadhg

Had I been reading this, rather than listening to an audiobook, I'm sure I would have lemmed it - though that has been the case for the whole series. It's particularly the case for this one. Whereas very little has happened in the series, as in there has been no clearly defined beginning-middle-end plot, nothing happened in this one. Obviously things happened, but they didn't really have much impact on me.
Whilst I'll probably listen to the audiobook of the next one (I don't know if another has been announced, but I'd be surprised if there isn't another one), I'll not be impatiently waiting for it.

July 20, 2014

If Long War was a misnomer, Long Mars was just bait. it's still a decent book, just should've stuck to the original title & downplayed Mars. The Next was by far the more interesting storyline.

October 17, 2015