Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Long War

Book Jacket for: The long EarthTerry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter team up to continue the saga they began in The Long Earth with a second book, The Long War.  The second book is just as exciting & engaging as the first was.  As the first book begins an invention is posted on the Internet for anyone to access & use.  The invention is a device that allows people to “step” to alternate Earths and to keep stepping to, eventually, millions and millions of alternate Earths.  These alternate Earths are essentially just Earth where something went a bit differently at some earlier point in history, though on all the worlds covered in the books the things that went wrong went wrong before the arrival of humankind so all these alternate worlds are empty of human life.  From that starting point the novels go on to explore people’s expansion into & exploration of these many worlds.  Both authors have a way of creating engaging characters & telling interesting stories. 

I would recommend the series quite heartily & recommend starting with the first.