SPOILERS The Long Earth **Spoilers**
- Thread starter Tonyblack
- Start date
I think this has to be my favorite Pratchett novel to date. This was such a thought provoking and well written novel that I feel like I did after watching the Matrix for the first time. I usually don't spend much time reviewing or commenting on novels, but The Long Earth was so tantalizing that I had to at least post my appreciation for such an inspiring work. The Elves and Trolls reminded me of some of the stories told by John Keel regarding 'Ultra-Terrestrials'. I found myself trying to 'step' at least a dozen times as I read this story, as well as trying to guess which components were used for the stepper boxes. As a dabbler in electronics and a programmer by profession, this story felt tailor-made for my personality. Lobsang was absolutely perfect. It's who HAL should have been. I would love to see this as a movie as well, so long as they actually stuck to the story for once and did as good of a job as they did on some of his other stories made into movies.
I sure hope Terry finds a way to reincarnate his consciousness to an AI supported system so that we can keep him for the ages, lol.
Thanks for the EXCELLENT novel, Terry!
I sure hope Terry finds a way to reincarnate his consciousness to an AI supported system so that we can keep him for the ages, lol.
Thanks for the EXCELLENT novel, Terry!
I have just read it - been putting it off like a special treat 
I liked it a lot, but it was too short. So many worlds, I wanted to explore them
Even if there will be sequels, I would have preferred they hadn't galloped through the first one quite so fast. Not enough of anything, or anyone. So much scope for world creation. Love the concept.
I liked it a lot, but it was too short. So many worlds, I wanted to explore them
Even if there will be sequels, I would have preferred they hadn't galloped through the first one quite so fast. Not enough of anything, or anyone. So much scope for world creation. Love the concept.
Welcome to the forum Cathy
I think the 'soft places' are echoed in folklore and on Discworld in relation to the Faery Folk or specifically the Elves in Lord and Ladies who come in through places where different world sometimes touch - like the Dancers or the Long Man during circle time in Lords and Ladies and on Lancre Moor where we first see the Nac Mac Feegles come through in Carpe Jugulam?
In more traditional myth, particularly Irish/Celtic there are also such things as 'Moving Days' when the court of the Fay changes location and travels to another part of the world to pester and bewitch other people and even capture them and take them back to their own world like the Elf Queen did with Roland and tried to do with Wentworth
Then there's the 'wormhole' theory in sci-fi like Star Trek and Stargate which seem to work as a short-cut through space-time so similar to how the soft places are described the Long Earth so Sally and Joshua can travel in huge jumps rather than a step at a time as most people do after Step day.
I think the 'soft places' are echoed in folklore and on Discworld in relation to the Faery Folk or specifically the Elves in Lord and Ladies who come in through places where different world sometimes touch - like the Dancers or the Long Man during circle time in Lords and Ladies and on Lancre Moor where we first see the Nac Mac Feegles come through in Carpe Jugulam?
In more traditional myth, particularly Irish/Celtic there are also such things as 'Moving Days' when the court of the Fay changes location and travels to another part of the world to pester and bewitch other people and even capture them and take them back to their own world like the Elf Queen did with Roland and tried to do with Wentworth
Then there's the 'wormhole' theory in sci-fi like Star Trek and Stargate which seem to work as a short-cut through space-time so similar to how the soft places are described the Long Earth so Sally and Joshua can travel in huge jumps rather than a step at a time as most people do after Step day.
It's the information Sally was willing to trade with Lobsang and Joshua in return for them helping the trolls. She could travel around the Long Earths in huge leapfrogs instead of stepping from West 1 - West 1 million etc one world at a time like they'd been doing up to that point. She supposedly could get from Datum to Happy Landings (in the High Meggas) in only 4 steps by sensing a soft place which not only jumped thousands of steps but also moved you geographically.
I think her and Joshua jumped from Happy Landings on the Pacific Coast to somewhere near Denver when they returned after leaving Lobsang with First Person Singular
I think her and Joshua jumped from Happy Landings on the Pacific Coast to somewhere near Denver when they returned after leaving Lobsang with First Person Singular
ah! I don't know which books but the nac mac feegle take a "step" and teleport. Aching Book one for example has them holding Tiffany's hand and taking a "step" into a near identicle world, like the climate in the long earth suddenly changing for whatshisname when he takes his first steps, the world goes from summer (or spring, either way) to winter. Mr Pratchett DID say he wanted to start something with the high meggers but got sidetracked with discworld in a blink of the screen. I r smrt
A couple of comments and a question.
Have you noticed how "politically correct" the book is? A female Archbishop of York, Mr Tallyman (who is clearly black, although it is not stated - remember the Harry Belafonte song "Come Mr Tallyman, tally me banana"), the lesbian police officer. Hardly a shred of the prejudices that bedevil our world.
The authors had a bit of fun. I liked the reference to the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
If the west worlds are our world 50 years ago per step, then coming forward with events happening in a differennt way, then what on earth are the East worlds?
Have you noticed how "politically correct" the book is? A female Archbishop of York, Mr Tallyman (who is clearly black, although it is not stated - remember the Harry Belafonte song "Come Mr Tallyman, tally me banana"), the lesbian police officer. Hardly a shred of the prejudices that bedevil our world.
The authors had a bit of fun. I liked the reference to the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.
If the west worlds are our world 50 years ago per step, then coming forward with events happening in a differennt way, then what on earth are the East worlds?
Terry had a Tree-climbing Octopus in Nation as well
Were the West Worlds 50 years in the past per step? I thought the Long Earths were all syncronised down to date and season, just that they were each random shifts in reality with only Datum as the 'spoiled' Earth where homo sapiens sapiens became the dominant species in the same way that there was only one 'gap' where the planet was non-existent or there was one that didn't have a moon. In that case it didn't matter whether you went East or West as the actual timeline's constant? That was my reading anyway - they didn't need to have past or future Earths as evolution was different on each, which allowed pre-historic species anywhere, otherwise you wouldn't get them until you got into the really High Meggas?
Were the West Worlds 50 years in the past per step? I thought the Long Earths were all syncronised down to date and season, just that they were each random shifts in reality with only Datum as the 'spoiled' Earth where homo sapiens sapiens became the dominant species in the same way that there was only one 'gap' where the planet was non-existent or there was one that didn't have a moon. In that case it didn't matter whether you went East or West as the actual timeline's constant? That was my reading anyway - they didn't need to have past or future Earths as evolution was different on each, which allowed pre-historic species anywhere, otherwise you wouldn't get them until you got into the really High Meggas?
I found the book not so beautiful as I expected it to be, even though I liked it, it's nice. However, if I'd a Stepper, I would defnitely go east - going west sounds to me as going in the wrong direction
Maybe because I have studied a lot of East European languages and some languages of the Near East, but for me, West is the direction of dullness, wereas east is the direction of magic I suppose, though, that if I were born in one of the British Islands, or in Portugal, I would look up at the ocean expecting it to be the direction of magic. But for me - West is America, and America is smth "known", whereas Asia is the land of mystery.
Maybe because I have studied a lot of East European languages and some languages of the Near East, but for me, West is the direction of dullness, wereas east is the direction of magic
I suppose, though, that if I were born in one of the British Islands, or in Portugal, I would look up at the ocean expecting it to be the direction of magic. But for me - West is America, and America is smth "known", whereas Asia is the land of mystery.
I wrote a long draft which got lost somehow. Anyway, I found Long Earth to be disappointing. The book's two main characters "step' or skim over a million worlds, and the plot is just diluted.So many elements are just introduced and not developed at all. We're told at the beginning of the book that Joshua has spent years building stockades like Robinson Crusoe, but are never shown them, or told what happened to his animals when he goes off. So many worlds that are all the same bore the reader as well as Joshua.The main computer/robot character of Lobsang becomes annoying without being affecting. Surviving a trip through vacuum, the (non)relationship of Joshua and Sally. Even a serious theme like a family's choosing to desert a son who can't step with them causes no real angst. The big reveal of what's frightening the trolls, and even a plot ending involving a nuclear explosion have very little tension. It's just a lukewarm book.
Honestly, I think Pratchett's Alzheimer's is catching up with him. He still has more creative ideas than ten other writers put together but now.. he can't carry them out, can't expand or deepen them. This book truly had more of a "tell not show" feel.
Honestly, I think Pratchett's Alzheimer's is catching up with him. He still has more creative ideas than ten other writers put together but now.. he can't carry them out, can't expand or deepen them. This book truly had more of a "tell not show" feel.
Continuing to think about Long Earth. It's amazing how many plot ideas were raised only to be stunted. Usually a collaboration is healthy, but this didn't seem to be. I truly dislike the nuking of Madison because it was plopped out as an "oh, didn't you know?" idea rather than a "My God, we've got to get home in time to stop this" one. And the people who stepped out of skyscrapers--a WTC image--just jarring but still not forwarding the plot.
I dislike the Greens' leaving Rod behind more every time I think of it. I do think they could have tried to get him some medical help so he could step, even if they had to carry him unconscious and go only a short distance. But even more annoying is that it mattered so little to them.
And Lobsang as an intelligent computer to care about? He's a flickering candle compared to the 1000 megawatt MIKE in Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." Now THAT was a real dinkum thinkum. I cry every time I read that book.
I dislike the Greens' leaving Rod behind more every time I think of it. I do think they could have tried to get him some medical help so he could step, even if they had to carry him unconscious and go only a short distance. But even more annoying is that it mattered so little to them.
And Lobsang as an intelligent computer to care about? He's a flickering candle compared to the 1000 megawatt MIKE in Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." Now THAT was a real dinkum thinkum. I cry every time I read that book.
