The Long Mars
2014 • 361 pages
Ratings29
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings29
Average rating3.4
The third novel in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s “Long Earth” series, which Io9 calls “a brilliant science fiction collaboration.” 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 rescue 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. . . . 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. A dramatic showdown seems inevitable. . . .
Featured Series
5 primary booksThe Long Earth is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
Reviews with the most likes.
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.
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.
