Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter- The Long War

The Long War

Harper

Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter

2013

Other Terry Pratchett Reviews- Colour of Magic - Light Fantastic - Equal Rites - Mort - Sourcery - Wyrd Sisters - Pyramids - Guards! Guards! - Eric - Moving Pictures - Reaper Man - Witches Abroad - Small Gods - Lords & Ladies - Men At Arms - Soul Music - Interesting Times - Maskerade - Feet of Clay - Hogfather - Jingo - Last Continent - Carpe Jugulum - Fifth Elephant - Truth - Raising Steam - Blink of the Screen - Sky Adaptations  - Video Game 1 - Pratchett Portfolio - Dodger - Long Earth

“Fear generates big profits.’
‘You’re very cynical.’
'Joshua, cynicism is the only reasonable response to the antics of humanity.”

Upon hearing and somehow absorbing the immensely saddening news Terry Pratchett's death, I had the creeping feeling that I'd need to write some sort of personal obituary. The news hit me as hard as the death of a person I'd never met possibly could; I'd grown up alongside Pratchett's words, he influenced my writing, my sense of humour and even my own ways of thinking in inestimable ways, and the thought of a future without him seems cold and alien, to be a tad melodramatic. Still, I haven't been able to write it, at least not yet, simply because I realised that this reviewing odyssey- which started as an attempt to just cover the core Discworld books but has since expanded to include Pratchett's entire bibliography and adaptations- is itself a much larger tribute... even if it might take a while to finish at my speed.

Stephen Baxter

To today's book- after a gap following reading its predecessor, I delved into the second installment in the The Long Earth series. Based on an incomplete Pratchett project named The High Meggas (now published in The Blink of the Screen collection), Pratchett and science-fiction author Stephan Baxter explore the concept of humanity collectively gaining access to infinite parallel universes through a planned series of five. The first mostly dealt with a small group of characters delving further into the depths of this unlimited multiverse, while hinting at further social and philosophical quandaries now facing the human race, who, as far as they know, remain the only truly intelligent species inhabiting these Earths. I enjoyed it, but it could've benefited from a lot of editing for length.

To cut to the chase, I enjoyed The Long Mars to an equal extent as The Long Earth, no more, no less. Obviously it's only going to appeal to people who read the first installment, but it's also only going to appeal to people who enjoyed said installment for what it was- and it's certainly not going to appeal to the many, many Terry Pratchett fans who read The Long Earth because his name was on it and then found it to be too dissimilar to the author's regular, more introspective and humorous style. If you're one of those people, I'd seriously consider reading something else. Oh, and if you don't like science fiction at all, give it up already. To be honest, I don't know for a fact how much input Sir Terry had in writing this book beyond contributing to the plot. I hate to insinuate, but by 2012/13 Pratchett was increasingly ill and somehow incredibly productive, seemingly determined to put as much of his imagination in print as he could before his final day eventually came. While I have no doubt Pratchett constructed the key aspects of the overall plot and characters, I think it's safe to say that Baxter put in the heavy lifting while Pratchett focused his solo novels.

I prefer this French edition

For me that was fine. I'm a long-time fan of science fiction and Baxter's style reminds me of genre luminaries Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. It's descriptive and imaginative, with a wry sense of humility in the face of the power of the unknown. It's far from lyrical, imaginative, or evocative, though it is occasionally witty. None of the characters resonate particularly well beyond the basics; all are essentially boring genre archetypes, though I did find them mostly realistic. As sequels are want to do, the authors add a handful of new figures central to the story, and ostensibly turn the focused aim of The Long Earth into a wider ensemble piece, as various characters play their part in a slow-moving plot.

For over three-hundred pages of this five-hundred plus book, plot progression is delayed for as long as possible in lieu of attempting to establish the new characters and an ominous, foreboding mood. The real meat of the action only kicks in closer to the end, where the plot lurches forward with the inclusion of a new set of antagonists. I won't spoil specific details, but I have to say that with this the entire tone of the series shifts somewhat into a more outrageous, fantastical  science-fiction that I imagine might be the final straw for non-science fiction inclined readers, though it didn't put me off particularly, as at least it gave a solid direction to the meandering plot, assisted by the incredibly dramatic ending.

With three books remaining in the series, The Long War suffers from Two Towers syndrome most of the way through, relying on the readers' interest in world-building for now. It may seem far more relevant eventually depending on how the story continues, but by itself I ultimately found it to be a by-the-numbers affair, just good enough with its prose and imagination to keep me reading. The title of the next book, The Long Mars, promises further sci-fi interest, but I doubt the series will ever be considered more than an interesting curio from a man driven to put his entire imagination to print before his departure, and his capable but unspectacular co-author.

Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter- The Long Earth

The Long Earth

Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter

2012

Other Terry Pratchett Reviews- The Colour of Magic - The Light Fantastic - Equal Rites - Mort - Sourcery - Wyrd Sisters - Pyramids - Guards! Guards! - Eric - Moving Pictures - Reaper Man - Witches Abroad - Small Gods - Lords and Ladies - Men At Arms - Soul Music - Interesting Times - Maskerade - Feet of Clay - Hogfather - Raising Steam - A Blink of the Screen - Sky1 Adaptations- Dodger - The Long Earth (w Stephen Baxter)

“Maybe the only significant difference between a really smart simulation and a human being was the noise they made when you punched them.”

With Sir Terry markedly increasing his output over the past few years, certain releases fell by the wayside for me, the most notable of which was this curious co-authored start to a new science fiction series. The origins of The Long Earth novel and series began more than twenty years ago in an uncompleted Pratchett story entitled The High Meggas, which was included much later in Pratchett's recent collection of short fiction A Blink of the Screen. When I read that collection a year ago that particular story didn't capture my attention because I couldn't get invested in an unfinished concept, though the basic idea itself was interesting. Clearly the process of assembling Blink of the Screen inspired Pratchett to go back to his idea, and he collaborated with respected science fiction author Stephen Baxter (who I've never read anything else by, since I'm not that interested in new sci-fi thanks to the amount of classic stuff I've never read). 

I wasn't expecting too much from this book then, thanks to Pratchett's varied level of quality over the past few years and the fact that this was a venture into a somewhat new genre for him (I say somewhat because I don't believe that sci-fi and fantasy necessarily sit that far away from each other). The plot is essentially a high concept one, in that it all revolves around one single idea taken to Pratchett and Baxter's versions of a logical conclusion. It's all about parallel universes, which obviously isn't an original subject by itself, but is defined well enough with its own set of rules and mysteries that it stood out to me as a well-developed concept. The set-up is thus; a mysterious scientist has discovered a way to travel to parallel dimensions with the aid of very simple home-made machinery, which he posts in certain places on the Internet for children and adolescents to replicate. Suddenly a whole bunch of inquisitive kids create their own 'stepper' boxes, and use them to 'step' away from our Earth to adjacent dimensions.

TP & SB

Obviously this doesn't go unnoticed, as suddenly humanity has to come to terms with the new power to travel through an apparently infinite number of different Earths, none of which contain any human beings or living civilizations, essentially meaning that problems of world hunger or lack of space are a thing of the past; though, crucially, metallic objects can't be taken with you when stepping,  meaning migrating humans have to fight hard to survive and create their own lives in their new homes . The authors jump forward a few decades after establishing this to introduce their main character and set up the plot for this first installment of the series. Main character Joshua Valente is a natural stepper, able to traverse the dimensions without the need of a stepper box, seemingly making him the perfect person to join a mysterious expedition to travel further through the worlds than anyone else has.

Despite establishing its own set of rules, this book is not hard science fiction. It's a science fiction adventure story with more in common with the works of Arthur Conan Doyle than Frank Herbert, for example, and with the pen of Terry Pratchett driving the adventure on I (inevitably, in hindsight) ended up completely loving this book- so much so that it took my just two sittings to finish the whole thing. It's not Pratchett's best work by any means; some of it is clunky (particularly the specific references to famous sci fi novels and films, which felt very forced), probably due to a clash between authors, but the vast majority of it runs very smoothly. It's not a literary classic, it's not even a science fiction classic, but it takes just enough inspiration from genre classics and contains just enough mystery and suspense to hook the reader very early on.

The Long Earth was my favourite piece of light reading for a long time. I found it takes concepts from and pays obvious (but well-mannered) tribute to classics like 2001 and Planet of the Apes, as well as 90's TV standbys Sliders and Quantum Leap a mixes them up well enough to create a fictional universe that offers ample opportunities for sequels. In the time it took for me to buy and read this book Pratchett and Baxter have released the next two installments in the series with another two to come, so I hope the same sense of adventure prevails through them all, so I can praise them when I finish reviewing them in about three hundred years.