Skip to content

The Long War

The Long War

Science FictionAlternate History
Pages
528
Published
2013
Language
English

Synopsis

The Long Earth has been open for a decade. Millions have left Datum Earth to settle new worlds. Now the distant settlers are developing their own culture, their own values, and their own grievances — and the relationship between the new settlements and Datum Earth is beginning to fracture. Meanwhile, Joshua Valienté is drawn into events involving the trolls: a native Long Earth species whose mass migration threatens the entire settlement project. The second novel in the Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

Prose complexity
5/10

Vibe

AdventurousTenseThought-ProvokingIntellectual
QuestSurvivalFirst Contact

Genres

Science Fiction Alternate History Political Thriller

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 decade on from Step Day, drawn back into Long Earth events he had hoped to leave to others.

LobsangSupporting

Still present, still inscrutable, still with his own long-horizon agenda.

Roberta GoldingSupporting

A superintelligent young woman whose abilities and ambitions will shape the political direction of the series.

All characters in The Long War

Frequently asked questions

  • Does The Long War conclude the series?

    The Long War is the second book in The Long Earth series. The narrative continues beyond this volume, exploring further developments in the parallel Earths.

  • Do I need to read The Long Earth first?

    Yes. The Long War is a direct sequel and requires the events and world-building of The Long Earth.

  • How does this book connect to Terry Pratchett's other works?

    The Long War is part of a science fiction series co-authored by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, representing a significant departure from Pratchett's well-known Discworld fantasy novels. It explores hard science fiction concepts rather than the satirical fantasy he is primarily known for.

  • What is the Long War?

    The 'war' is primarily political and cultural — tensions between Datum Earth's governments and the increasingly independent Long Earth settlements, rather than a conventional military conflict. Though there are violent confrontations.

  • What is the troll situation in this novel?

    The trolls are a native Long Earth species — intelligent, communal, and non-violent — who are undergoing a mass migration that disrupts the human settlement project. Their situation becomes one of the novel's central ethical questions.

Read all 1 reviews