It
is now 2070 and Joshua Valiente realizes that his life is
nearly over. Going into the High Meggers for the last time
he is soon in trouble with only a group of trolls to aid him.
While this is going on a signal has been received from deep
space, a signal that just says Join Us. But who are “Us”
and what will joining them do for humans and the various other
species? Soon the Next are building a vast computer to reveal
the answer…
This book was finished a few months before Terry Pratchett’s
death and is as much a goodbye as The Shepherd’s
Crown was to the Discworld. Looking back this
quintet has had a fairly simple idea at its heart and at times
felt rather drawn out. This final book is no different and
takes its time to set up all the characters and their various
situations before gently ending with a positive finish. As
with the earlier entries in this series you can expect some
of Terry’s trademark wisdom, some interesting SF ideas
(Baxter) and a smidgeon of adventure. I wish there had been
more of the latter in these books which have at their heart
a wonderful idea but if you have read the first four you can
expect more of the same here. I love the idea of there being
a way to access endless unspoiled versions of our planet and
to explore all the possibilities would take a lot more than
five books. As it is we have had stories about meeting aliens,
pioneers, exploration and more highly evolved humans, laced
through with wise observations on many topical subjects. A
marriage of Baxter’s hard SF with Pratchett’s
humorous fantasy was always going to be unusual and worth
a look and this final book manages to bring it all to a rather
neat conclusion.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
The
Long Earth 1
The
Long War 2
The
Long Mars 3
The
Long Utopia 4
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