Review: The Long Earth

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I've had a somewhat disappointing run of books lately, "The Book of Phoenix" mostly excepted, but I am glad to say that "The Long Earth" was definitely not a disappointment! This is one of a few books that make me wish I was still working at a bookstore, because I wouldn't have known this existed if I hadn't obsessively reorganized our sci-fi/fantasy section. The author combination is what first intrigued me - Stephen Baxter, who is well-known for his science fiction and his collaborations with Isaac Asimov (though I must admit this is the first thing of his I've read) partnering with Terry Pratchett, known for absurdly comical fantasy novels and his collaboration with Neil Gaiman? Really? It was unexpected - but it worked.

"The Long Earth" has a pretty simple premise: there are a large number of other Earths, and suddenly (almost) everyone on Earth has access to them. Most of the closely-clustered ones are similar to each other, but there is variation especially as you go "farther" from our Earth. (The Earths are kind of superlocated on each other... but maybe not? Nobody quite understands how this works yet.) There's a lot of Pratchett's trademark humor that lies subtly in the background and the dialogue. It's definitely tempered with the more serious setting and story, but there are a few characters where it really comes out (Lobsang, the computer program who claims to be a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman is the shining example).

The characters - even and especially the idiosyncratic Lobsang - are solidly constructed and very much serve to move the story forward, although some can get a little flat and many seem to be variations on the "sturdy Englishman who just wants order and stability and his tea, thank you very much" trope (see: any character Martin Freeman has ever played). But only occasionally, and hardly to the detriment of the story because in a world where literally any variation on Earth is possible, that kind of down-to-Earthyness (pun intended) is necessary. And to say that the characters move the story isn't saying they're slaves to it; their interactions are delightful and the plot movement rises naturally from those interactions.

And the plot. The plot! It drags occasionally toward the middle as there is some time spent sightseeing and revealing just how much (and how little) these other Earths differ from our own, but again, these parts are both useful to the plot in small ways and very pleasant to read. And while I found myself wondering what could possibly make this journey worth it - what could be that interesting without being overdone - I was wholly satisfied and excited at what lay at the end of their journey.

Highly recommend to anyone who likes stories of the fantastical. It crosses the borders of sci-fi and fantasy and tells one heck of a good story in the process. The only downside is that now I'm gonna have to read the rest, and I already have a lot of books on my to-read list.

View all my reviews