Book Review: The Long Earth – Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

‘The Long Earth’ has been written by two of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. So there was absolutely no chance that I wasn’t going to read it!

Before I read the ‘The Long Earth‘, I wondered how their two styles of writing were going to mix. Terry specialises in fantasy humour, whilst Stephen excels at complex sci-fi. Both of the writers however are geniuses when it comes to weaving together complex and intriguing story lines, but I just couldn’t imagine how they would fuse their writing together.

Well it turns out, they did a pretty job and the result was a gentle, flowing adventure. However it didn’t have the ‘punch’, the ‘oomph’ that I feel separately the authors could of achieved on their own.. Don’t get me wrong, Terry’s humour was there to see, and Stephen’s sci-fi know-how flowed forth from the pages, but it just… was a weakened reading experience. So whilst it was a great read, I realise now, I would loved to have seen their individual takes on this story.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t pick up this book, and devour the excellent writing. Like any book from Terry and Stephen, I was eager to know what came next, and they wrapped up the ending superbly. Wait I am writing about the ending, when I’ve not even given you an overview of the storyline!

Okay let’s look at this from two different angles, the sci-fi and the characters, and I will begin with the science fiction aspect. Imagine living on an Earth, which wasn’t the only Earth, and in fact there are parallel Earths, but only one it seems where humanity arose.

Now imagine humanity discovering the existence of these Earths, and the ramifications, and dangers awaiting. This book mainly follows a handful of characters both on the their originating Earth and ‘stepping’ to other versions, and how the existence of the parallel Earths impacts the life’s of these characters. However the book was just as interesting reading about the different Earths, as it was reading about the characters.

I as I mentioned earlier in the review, I just wish there had been more oomph! A good read nonetheless.