I read this book in a perfectly sensible length of time (just so you know that I am capable of it!) and I really enjoyed it. The Long Earth
is written by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett both of whom are
amazing science fiction and fantasy writers. Terry Pratchett is the author of (among other things) the Discworld series which I absolutely love. I probably know more about that world and those
characters than is rationally acceptable but I love those books too much
to stop re-reading them (all right, re-re-re-reading them).I actually started out, trying to write something about the Discworld series, but it's proving to be surprisingly difficult - I want to convey the reasons for my addiction to these books without coming across as totally obsessed and crazy - hope it's not too late for that ;)
The The Long Earth is based around the idea "what if anyone could freely and easily travel, step, between uninhabited parallel worlds" and the narrative follows the effects this has on individuals and society - from families who want to settle thousands of earths away to start a new life but have a child who is unable to step, to how religious groups and governments around the world react. From "step-day" things begin to change dramatically, with people travelling 'east' and 'west' in search of a new start, a chance to explore, freedom, new opportunities in short. But with these come new opportunities for people to commit crime, to become prejudiced or to die horribly in unexpected situations just a thoughts distance away from home. The authors have started with this idea and followed it through to all the possibilities, good and bad. All of this is told in an entertaining way through the perspectives of different people but mainly Joshua, a natural stepper who discovered his ability when the stepping device was invented.
I found that together, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter created wonderfully believable characters - they all felt real and solid, and I think this comes from a really good understanding of people. No person is 'good' or 'bad' but instead a subtle combination of traits that come together through the plot to make a well rounded character. Even Lobsang, created as an artificial intelligence, who has proved that he is in fact the reincarnation of a human comes across remarkably so - I personally stopped thinking of him as a computer quite early on and without really realising it.
I quite like books that don't stick solidly to one storyline but zip about a bit - it makes it feel just that bit more real to me, less like I'm looking through a tiny little window at one story, and more like I'm getting to see a wider picture. I thought that was done well in this book - it didn't get annoying as it so often can, and I loved it when peices of other stories slotted into place in the 'main' one. It's almost, but not exactly, like dramatic irony, when you know the back story of a character but another character doesn't. If you don't really like the jump around different stories, the beginning of the book is quite heavy on that, but it does resolve into a main storyline after a while and things begin to drop into place - don't let it put you off.
Another great thing about this book was the rationalisation; in sci-fi, I think it's really easy for a book to get bogged down with a whole load of crazy and irrational things that don't quite make sense. But in this book, I felt like the authors started with this one 'what if' idea, and then just followed the story and the questions, just like the characters. I thought this meant the book progressed really nicely and didn't end up with huge incomprehensible holes in the logic that always frustrate me in science fiction *ehemi'mtalkingtoyoustevenmoffatehem*
I have to say, I didn't dislike much about this book, but I did find the ending a little... odd shall we say - it felt inconclusive and dare I say it, a little rushed. I don't know, a lot of the time when I think that, it's because of the way I read it, so perhaps if I read it again it wouldn't feel like that. Without wanting to give anything away, it's a little hard to say in any more detail what it was that bothered me. This is no bad thing as far as I'm concerned, becuase I'm not sure I can put my finger on it. I think a re-read is definitely in order. There is a sequel, worryingly titled The Long War, which I will read soon - that is, if I ever get any time to do ANYTHING APART FROM WORK! It may be that this continuation completely dispels my uncertainty about the end of this book, but until then, I can say no more.
I would definitely recommend this book to science fiction lovers, and for people who don't read much science fiction, it's a great book to get your teeth into, with great characters. Esentially what I'm saying is, whatever your usual genre (if you have one) this is a great book to read!
