Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Long Mars
Long Earth Series #3
Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Doubleday (Transworld UK)
19 June 2014/ ISBN 9780857521743
Science Fiction

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde

 

It is now 2045, and people on Datum Earth are trying to recover from the catastrophic Yellowstone volcano eruption five years earlier. The Long Earth has never been so important, and the lower worlds are filling up fast. The military is keen to mount an expedition to explore the planet Mars on as many worlds as possible, and Sally, her father and an old school astronaut are sent. Meanwhile Maggie is leading another expedition to the farthest worlds and a new race of highly intelligent beings called The Next are possibly about to take over?

I love the idea of the Long Earth, and think that it would be perfect for a TV series. Every episode a new world is explored, and with so many millions of possible scenarios only in the wrong hands would it get boring but this is one book, albeit the third in a series and not even a very fat one. We get a glimpse of a few with their alien life and it almost brings to mind those wonderful old pulp SF novels. Almost, but not quite of course and I think my favorite feature of this book is the various possible scenarios for other Earths and Marses. If the conditions were of such a type, what would the life forms be like? There is more than this to think on, and as in the first two books (also reviewed on this site) political and ethical issues are raised. What could be the fate of a super intelligent race if it evolved? This is more of a surprise in a way than the very obvious topics of The Long War, and this is a better book for many reasons. With Baxter and Pratchett writing you are going to get something that is part fantasy, part SF and this is very true of this series with this book in particular. By turns intimate as we get to know the character more fully and vast in scope as imaginations run riot on planets galore I was left wanting more. An uneven but very readable and highly imaginative series.

Reviews of other titles in this series

The Long Earth
The Long War

 
Reviewed 2014
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