The Long War

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth #2

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth - but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth - and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...

Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity's thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.

The Long War is the second book in the already highly acclaimed The Long Earth series written by two authors that are both considered masterminds of in their fields, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Having read books from both authors, I was excited to found out how their dual authorship would work out. It pays off, big time. I haven’t been able to read the first book, The Long Earth though, so my introduction to The Long Earth series is all based on The Long War, book number two in the series.

Probably I am going to mention some things that were introduced in the first book, but with not having read that one, all events are new to me. But even though being ne w to the series I think that I did got enough of the background of what occurred in the first book, be it in the big lines. The first few chapters of the story felt like they recapture the important bits and pieces of The Long Earth and I actually got quite familiar with several concepts in the book and several of the characters and their past and now present relations.

The first thing that left me absolutely stunned was the world to which I was introduced to. The whole concept of The Long Earth series is depicting Datum Earth (currently our planet) together with an infinite amount of parallel Earths that are now accessible for each and everyone by a stepper. Currently the alternate universes span either in the Western or Eastern direction. With each step you take, you venture into a different version of Earth, that doesn’t necessarily is shaped in the same way as Datum Earth. I found this idea behind the book really cool to read about, especially going on the internet doing some reading about this stepping box, very imaginative. And now that since Step Day, the parallel versions have been made accessible, human kind once more ventures forth to explore. I think this is one of the main aspects of The Long War, Datum Earth feels like its being controlled on a tight leash and people aren’t all that pleased by this and are happily giving up their lives to explore for newfound riches.

A second aspect that nicely broadens the scope of the story and neatly coincidences with the premise of it are the amount of different point-of-views that you read bout in The Long War. For started there is one that focuses on the exploration on the new world, which is done by the Chinese in their airships the Zeng He and Liu Yang lef byb Roberta, as they venture ever more East they display a brilliant showcase of all the diversity that is present on these alternate versions of Earth, think of ice ages and dinosaurs but there is much more. Just reading about these different versions was super stuff.

Another character that you follow, who is the main protagonist of the series is Joshua Valiente. After the events of the first book, Joshua has settled in the two Hell-Knows-Where with his wife Hellen and they have a son. Their initial introduction to me was like a small starting family living out on the prairie but soon their lives are a bit stirred by Sally, with who Joshua has a past from the first book. Though the events in the storyline start to unfold more individually for each of them there is a nice connection later on in the story. They both are presented with the fact that the trolls have retreated and cannot be found any long. Next to these Joshua and Sally there is also Lobsang, now his character was pretty cool to read about, he is an AI. Joshua also has a past with him since they pioneered the stepping in the first book. His AI personality isn’t dumb, but quite thought through and on certain occasions quite manipulative. Lobsang also doesn’t stick to just one body but he is able to inhabit multiple and “sync” his thoughts. It feels like that he is a bit like a bird hovering several events that unfold in The Long Earth, but his personality isn’t the often expected nefarious AI. Lastly there is the story of Maggie Kauffman who is charged to visit several different universes of Earth to the west to make “inventory” of how many people have ventured into the unexplored. What was great to see about her storyline is that the subjects that are hidden within this book are partly shown by her actions. All in all the characters were nicely worked out and played great parts into the story itself. They are voiced with some great ways, making jokes and other witty comments. True to Terry Pratchetts style.

There are some deep subjects that are being "discussed"  in The Long War. It tackles for starters  the importance of equality, which is mainly shown by the humans and their relation with the troll. The trolls are sapient beings, important to The Long Earth, they are the workforce, but aren’t tread equally like humans. And this eventually leads them to disappear leaving the different versions of Earth in a bad shape.  Another subject is control; since Datum Earth is still habitable they want to exert their pressure on every other version thereby still having the ultimate control. I was impressed with these and several other deeper subjects that were neatly interwoven into the story , they gave much more depth to the story broadening this already infinite universe.

The bottom line for me is that I have enjoyed The Long War tremendously, even though I must have missed some things by not having read the first book in the series, I think I did get most of it. This series is remnant to both Terry Pratchetts works by introducing some healthy amounts of humor in the mix and Stephen Baxter adds his expertise of science fiction to create a brilliant and stunning universe. The Long War leaves the story on a open ending that combined with the premise of infinite amount of worlds will allow infinite amount of possibilities for follow ups. There are some diverse, witty and funny characters that make a great and impressive appearance. And AI’s always work for me. Not only humans feature in this story, you’ve also got the more classic fantasy races, trolls, elves, kobolds and yes even beagles! It’s all highly imaginative. The Long War is a highly enjoyable and satisfying read that will leave you with a big grin and laughing out loud the majority of the time. If there will be a third book in the series, ill definitely pick that one up.