Terry Pratchett is perhaps better known for his fantasy fiction novels, but in 2012 he joined forces to enter the world of science fiction literature in his multiverse epic, The Long Earth. The duo continued to work together since then to create the follow-up novel, The Long War, which takes Joshua and Lobsang back into the the drawn-out stepwise worlds to face yet more adventure, danger and new discoveries.
The plot is set years after the events of the opening novel as the first creeping steps into the multiverse has turned into a deluge of an exodus on the part of mankind. For the Tibetan motorcycle repairman turned super-computer reincarnate, Lobsang, and natural stepper, Joshua Valienté, the dangers of their past distant exploration are just as apparent now as they were before, but with the mass migration and population explosion that has occurred there are new threats for humanity to contend with.
The original earth, known as Datum Earth in the books, is struggling to keep any semblance of control throughout the long earth, especially with the distant new ‘America colony’, called Valhalla, making movements to shake off the control of the Datum policy makers. With disparate factions butting heads and exploitation on a worlds-wide scale, the stepping trolls are also starting to show signs of disquiet, with atrocities mounting and a growing disenfranchisement starting to seep in between the two sentient beings.
With so much unrest across the multiverse, and fleets of stepping airships travelling between the worlds, Lobsang calls on Joshua, who has since married and settled down, once again to confront the multi-fractured problems and help prevent a worlds war that could threaten all of humanity. Luckily he’ll also have Sally Lindsay and Monica Johannson along for the ride to help him figure out the mess that has started to form and get to grips with some of the more dangerous life forms that have started to make their presence known in the high megas.
The Long War was released on hardback, audiobook and ebook on the 18th June 2013, and it was a good 6 months or so before it became available in paperback, released on the 28th January 2014. The Long Earth first hit the shelved in hardcover on the 19th June 2012, but only came out in paperback on the 9th May 2013. It has also been released on audio, as well as on ebook format. Find out more about the novel with our review.
With Terry Pratchett’s death in 2014, sadly Stephen Baxter will be left to complete the final book in the planned 5 novel series. While The Long Mars and The Long Utopia have already been written and published, the last entry in the series is still to be written. However, we expect that Baxter will have discussed the full storyline with Pratchett prior to his death, so the legacy of this should help to complete the work.
