I quite enjoyed this second installment of The Long Earth. I appreciated how The Long War was resolved (no spoilers here!), and look forward to resuming this journey in future installments.

The absolute audacity of governments to just say, "The land mass that would be United States or England or Russia if we were on Datum Earth is ours on all the stepwise earths," boils my piss. I didn't like this book as much as the first even though the writing is just as good if not better. The problem is that the first book evokes a lot of cosy Wonderland/Narnia/Wind in the Door feelings for me whereas this book deals with a lot of the problems that arise when a billion compatible planets become available to anyone that wants one. It's too much like real life.

I'm still looking forward to the next one.

great book

While I enjoyed the Long Earth I found this sequel disappointing. So many characters with little depth and I was struggling to find any connection between them. The climax as kinda anticlimactic and the book only got interesting in the last chapter to me.

This is a much better entry in The Long Earth series than its predecessor, as here the characters feel slightly less mechanical, and more self-motivated. There are still areas where the plot feels a bit forced, but the world feels much more lived-in, and there are some fun new characters/entities that may be worth the wait. If you gave the first book a try, but felt that it fell flat, this may be well worth the second chance.

Like its prequel, The Long War is a slow burn. It builds the story slowly (and seemingly haphazardly, if you haven't read Pratchett's multi-plotted Discworld series). However, the end of the journey is well worth the wait. TLW picks up several years after The Long Earth leaves off, and Joshua Valiente is in a very different place in his life. However, he once again finds himself embroiled in one of Lobsang's schemes to untangle the web of consequences created by mankind's discovery of the stepwise worlds.

Almost the entire cast of the last book returns along with some new characters who add more depth to an already multilayered story. The hodgepodge comes off beautifully overall, although we don't get much as much insight in Joshua and Sally as I would have liked. But TLW offers a much better picture of what it might mean to politics, faith, and our individual sense of importance and security to suddenly discover that neither our universe, nor or place in it as sentient beings, is unique. While several questions from TLE are resolved, the final act throws a curveball that nicely sets the stage for another installment.


I highly recommend this book. It's a wonderfully thoughful and witty take on the parallel worlds trope with enough science to feel grounded, but not so much that the characters stop being the most compelling part of the story.

Sequel to The Long Earth.

Many of the Earth Easts and Wests have been settled, humanity leaving Datum Earth in floods to settle the unspoiled wilderness. The governments left behind aren't too pleased with these settlers, and neither are the stay-behind population. Seizing assets and high taxes aren't endearing the Datum government to the far-flung human towns, driving many to grow independent. A new city named Valhalla, for example, might replace Datum as a hub of technology.

Some of the human travelers are showing a callous disregard for the trolls, and Datum governments are sending out large airships, ostensibly to help unite their far flung colonies. There is only so far that the trolls and the settlers can be pushed, however, before a war begins.

Another complex interwoven tale, with Steppers uniting layers of near identical worlds--and the occasional Joker. Humanity is changing to adapt to the possibilities, and it seems like they will need to change more. The new personalities created by these changes are interesting to read about, and there will hopefully be more in the future.

I enjoyed it. It has kernels of Pratchett's storytelling and characters, and a hard sci-fi plot by both writers.

Continuing to be interesting on concept, but poor on story. Interesting (and sometimes funny) little stories all strung together to make one (not-so-smoothly & kind of fuzzy) interlocking bigger picture.