SPOILERS The Long Earth **Spoilers**

[DaveC]

Hey, guys!

Finally finished The Long Earth today!

Only just now because I got the paperback in spring on its release (the only hardback novel I own is Snuff...), I've been reading consistently but not as much as much as when I worked in projection.

Plus babies take up a lot of time when I'm not working!

I liked the book a lot and can't wait to read The Long War next year!

It came at a good time for me, having just finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy which shares a central conceit. Also I've been watching a lot of Fringe this year and was a big fan of Sliders on TV.

I love parallel/multiple Earth stories and expected this to be similar, like a Marvel What If...?

I was surprised and delighted with the plot, even if many of the previously mentioned archetypes were not wholly original.

Not having read any Baxter before I couldn't recognize his style but I could tell it didn't feel like a proper pTerry book but didnt feel that was bad. I liked the multiple perspectives, the humour and political angles.

I felt the whole thing did feel sketched, though, and could have been longer to develop characters and ideas more, sequel or no.

The story did keep me hooked despite the cliched characters and dialogue (lesbian ass.....).

I loved Lobsang, the trolls and elves and Shi Mi. Wasn't a fan of Sally's story, though, I hope she gets more to do next time.

That's all I've got for now. This thread hs been a great read today.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

Terry Pratchett ‏@terryandrob 15m

The Long Earth is getting a little longer right now...

https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/ ... 44/photo/1

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

And here it is long Earth 3.

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/t ... 0857521743

and from Amazon:The Long Childhood: (Long Earth 3) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (19 Jun 2014)
£18.99 Hardcover

 

[raisindot]

The description makes it sound absolutely awful.

 

[sequi]

Twains don't solve the Long Earth human transport problem

The twains work well for transporting raw goods and natural steppers (who don't get extremely nausea for each step). But normal people still can't get to the high meggers. They have to go on foot, which takes forever, or go through soft spots, which require guides to tell people where they are. If normal people take the twains, wouldn't the rapid steps kill them?

Do the soft spots go everywhere? Are they predictable? They are for Sally, but it's unclear if it's scalable for large numbers of people as regular transit stations. They seem to be more fixed shortcuts that will get you into the neighborhood, and you step the rest of the way from there.

I loved the concept of the Long Earth. The space travel concept has massive implications for Earth. One of the big difficulties for Datum space travel is to get into orbit. If they move a space-worthy construction into the Gap, then step it back to Datum Earth, then they have a way to put a space station or ship into orbit much more cheaply. Even better, they might be able to build a space elevator over Datum Earth, unlocking the Solar System. That gives an expansion outlet to the home-alones as well.

 

[Slantaholic]

The Long Earth, The Long War, The Long Mars, The Long Childhood...

I've only read the first one and was put off by the very short plots. Each Earth had a different concept and they didn't explore much of each Earth either, just concentrated on getting as far away from Datum as possible and enumerating the rest. The elves put me off - then the lack of other Discworld species put me off - what did the hairy singing trolls evolve into before Discworld was built?

Part of my trouble was that I was expecting the Science of Discworld wizards to show up and refer to Many-Earths as the trouser legs of time. I had a feeling that Discworld will be constructed in the Gap, until the Gap showed up in Raising Steam.

Do the other Long Books have any more Discworld worldbuildng plausibility? I would be interested even in Earth politics/logistics and space travel.

 

[Tonyblack]

Hi sequi! I have this feeling that we are seeing the next evolution of mankind - those who are natural steppers and those fated to be stuck on Datum. In The Long War there is talk of how spacecraft could be launched even easier than using a space elevator. I suspect we might see more of that in the next book. The pace of these books is very different that the Discworld books, but I really like that about them.

 

[SpideyGirl]

I'm reading The Long War now

 

[SpideyGirl]

Wow nearly two years later and I've just started The Long Mars! I reads fast