This honestly didn't live up to the first one for me. I found that the story dragged more in the middle than I wanted. I liked the Long Earth a lot and the multiverse theory they had in place, but this just didn't live up to the same expectations that I had for the first one.

Pratchett and Baxter's second venture into the Long Earth may not quite live up to the epic cerebral spectacle of the first, but nevertheless the word-smithing duo have forged a pleasing-enough story that expands on the fundamentally interesting concept of the series. It's now twenty years since 'Step Day' when humanity at large were given effortless access to an infinite number of parallel Earths, similar to our own but notably absent of other human life. As large numbers of people abandon our Earth, 'Datum Earth', to enjoy the fruits of unlimited resources and boundless frontiers, tensions rise between the pioneers and the established authorities back on 'Datum'. The novel is well-stocked with astute social-political philosophy, but the characters and narrative seem somewhat diluted in relation to the The Long Earth, and at times deviates into uncharacteristic silliness. Nevertheless, another interesting book for those already initiated into the series.

3.5 but mostly it's just because I want the next book now. I flew through this book, but the ending left me ... unsatisfied.

I kind of liked the first one and was intrigued enough to read the follow up but I'm not sure that goodwill is going to last to the next book. I was close to giving this 1 star but felt compelled to stretch to 2 at the last stretch.

Same issues as the first book really - lots of characters, not much plot. Instead, there's a lot of (admittedly, often quite interesting) speculation about the mechanics of such a situation, from the geographical to the political and spiritual. They've clearly had a great time thinking about the potentials and the issues. They just haven't found time to come up with a compelling plot to fit it all in.

The introduction of the Beagles didn't really make any difference to anything, just serving as a distraction/filler; the anti-American feeling is stronger; the slightly out of place humour of the first seems to have been dropped and I struggled to place TP anywhere in the writing. A disappointment with some glimmers of interest.

If this is a trilogy, with the definite and absolute promise of there not being an ongoing series, then for completeness, I might read the final book. If not, if there's even a hint they might keep it going, then I might bale out here. That should sum it up.

...still disappointing.

Nothing compelled me to keep reading until the action picked up in the last couple chapters. I don't really feel as though I know or care about any of the characters, even after reading about most of them in the previous book. The concept of the Long Earth is interesting, and the things that happen because of it in these books are also interesting, but I just don't have any interest in the characters. That's why it took me so long to finish this book.

A great continuation of the series.

The Long War is the second book in the series written by sir Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. The story is based quite a few years after the first tome. Joshua is now a middle aged man and has his own family - wife and a son. Stepping is a new way of life and people are busy with colonizing countless of Long Earths.

It starts with a big stomp, the scene where we can see cruelty of humans experimenting on defenceless, kind-hearted trolls. And after that and the title I was expecting some great plot and terrible conflict tearing apart all the Long Earths. And I got disappointed yet again.

After the initial scene the pace goes down and we go back to the narrating style of the first book. Loads of slow movements, echoes of the worlds events and looming threats, but nothing really pressing. Again we meet Sally Linsay who hasn’t changed a bit for all the years that have passed (she even has the same famous coat with a thousand pockets) and wants to take Joshua for another journey to help the fast changing world. But he is a family man now and is not so keen for adventures as he used to be. And that’s more or less what this book is about. He resist a little bit but finally decide to let his bold side take over and pack up his family and go back the long way to Datum Earth.

What I miss in this book the most is some decent plot. Again we have few sets of main characters beside Joshua and Sally and I really had to focus to remember who is who and what are they currently doing. What irritated me the most was that when there was some actual action which get me interested the chapter was over. I had to read another hundred pages about other characters to finally find out that events have moved forward a few weeks already with just a few sentences of summary. Honestly I hated that. It has such a great potential! And all we get is ‘oh yes, it was very delicate and dangerous situation, but here we are for a month now and everything turns out just fine!’ But what has happened during that time?! That would be so interesting!

But! The world itself that authors created is really amazing. A do love the trolls - a native species who inhabited the Long Earth. People are treating them as little more intelligent then animals, but they are so much more! They are sapient and kind and so cute! There are also some new species inhabiting the vastness of earths and its worth reading just to meet them!

I also loved the idea the Chinese expedition had. They actually started reshaping the neighbouring earths to get the optimal environment for different farming types. They also came back to the philosophies of old times, which didn’t work because of not enough space/too much population etc. It was very fascinating what people could come up with if they got so incredibly reach recourses and space.

My favourite part of the book was the adventures of Captain Maggie Kauffman and her crew. It was really bunch of short stories about people who lived on distant earths. But it was interesting and fun and she was my favourite character in this book.

The ending of the book again leave us with the big bang, but at this moment I’m not planning to read the next book very soon. I think I need some time to miss the Long Earth and its wonders to appreciate it more.

To sum it up, I wasn’t thrilled with this book. The idea is fascinating, yes, the world is amazing but it’s missing the spark. I love all the Discworld novellas and was very disappointed there is not much of this brilliant humour in this series. It’s an average book with compelling idea, but don’t expect to get hooked by it.