Leszek Ciesielski

As an anthology, it's impossible to grade, really. Some of the stories are incredibly good, some, eh, not that much. It's a very good view back, to the beginnings of Cyberpunk.

I've enjoyed it. Dragon riders, reasonably thought out battles. And a not-quite-regency era romance. Yeah, it's cheesy and happy. It also (at least the first book) doesn't explore much behind the ridiculously class-obsessed setting, which for a recent book is a let down. It's also ridiculously francophobic and painting a horror-like image of Napoleon, which (as a Polish person) makes it somewhat hard to cheer for the protagonists.

There's very little Pratchett in this book, unfortunately. It's based on his 30-year old short story, but it feels like Terry had practically no input in growing it into a book. It's really underdeveloped.If you're looking for an interesting read on parallel worlds, go check out [b:The Family Trade 17861 The Family Trade (The Merchant Princes, #1) Charles Stross https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408262924l/17861.SY75.jpg 930587] by [a:Charles Stross 8794 Charles Stross https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1355510574p2/8794.jpg] (and frankly, Long Earth reads like a fanfic rewrite of parts of this one).

Prescient. Hard to put it another way. Published in 2019, and not extrapolating that far, Radicalized hits hard. Even though the novellas each end somewhat optimistically, it is hard to not be moved by them. And they're really, really uncomfortably close to reality. Glimpses of the fall of the american empire.