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The Long Earth

The Long Earth

Science FictionTime Travel
Pages
400
Published
2012
Language
English

Synopsis

On Step Day, the plans for a simple device go viral on the internet, and millions of people discover they can step sideways into an infinite series of parallel Earths — worlds without humans, stretching in both directions forever. Joshua Valienté is one of the rare natural steppers who need no device. Hired by the Datum Earth corporation run by the AI Lobsang, he embarks on an expedition into the distant reaches of the Long Earth, where no one has ever been. A collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter exploring what it would mean to suddenly have infinity.

Prose complexity
5/10

Vibe

AdventurousThought-ProvokingAtmosphericIntellectual
QuestFirst ContactRoad TripFish Out of Water

Genres

Science Fiction Time Travel Alternate History

Authors

S
Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter (born 13 November 1957 in Liverpool, England) is an English hard science fiction author. He holds a degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a PhD in engineering from Southampton, and taught mathematics, physics and information technology before becoming a full-time writer in 1995. His work includes the Xeelee Sequence, the Manifold trilogy, The Time Ships (a sequel to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine), the Time Odyssey trilogy co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, and the Long Earth se...

T
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves. Pra...

Characters

Joshua ValientéProtagonist

A natural stepper who was born in a parallel Earth — more comfortable alone in the Long Earth than in the crowded Datum.

LobsangSupporting

An AI who claims to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman — the expedition's financier, companion, and most unreliable narrator.

Sally LinsaySupporting

A veteran stepper with her own agenda and a deeper understanding of the Long Earth than Joshua has yet reached.

All characters in The Long Earth

Frequently asked questions

  • Who wrote The Long Earth?

    The Long Earth is a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Baxter is a British science fiction author known for hard science fiction. The two had been friends and discussing the concept for decades before writing the series together.

  • Is The Long Earth part of the Discworld?

    No. The Long Earth is entirely separate from the Discworld — it is a contemporary science fiction novel set on Earth (or rather, many Earths).

  • What is Step Day?

    Step Day is the event at the beginning of the novel when the plans for a 'stepper box' are released anonymously online and millions of people discover they can physically move to parallel Earths. It is the moment that changes everything.

  • Is this hard science fiction or softer?

    The Long Earth is lighter on technical science fiction than Baxter's solo work — it takes the premise of infinite parallel Earths and explores the human and social implications rather than the physics. It reads more like a philosophical adventure than a hard SF novel.

  • How many Long Earth novels are there?

    Five: The Long Earth (2012), The Long War (2013), The Long Mars (2014), The Long Utopia (2015), and The Long Cosmos (2016). All five were co-written by Pratchett and Baxter.

  • Is this book part of a series?

    This is the first installment in a five-book series that continues with The Long War, The Long Mars, The Long Utopia, and The Long Cosmos.

  • What is the origin of the concept behind this series?

    Terry Pratchett originally developed the core idea for this series in the early 1980s as a short story titled The High Meggas, but he set it aside for decades before revisiting it with Stephen Baxter.

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