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.