The Long Mars
Terry Prachett and Steven Baxter
Review by Richard Saar
Damn, I've done it again! I've bought a book that's in the
middles of a series… I really enjoy book
series; they just give the reader so much more time to develop lasting attachments
to the characters and allows the writer to create new world’s in much more
depth.
So, I always try and start them at book one… not this time though, in what seems to be a
bad habit forming; impulse purchases at airport book concessions with the
pressure of imminent boarding. I only realised the The Long Mars by Terry
Pratchett and Stephen Baxter is actually the third book in The Long Earth series when I sat down at my seat... I guess that's the perils of purchasing
books in a hurry… plan ahead people!
Terry Pratchett, who’s now sadly no longer with us, is an author that
I've been aware of for decades, yet I've never taken the plunge and read one of
his many, many books. They just didn’t seem quite my style. On the other hand,
Stephen Baxter is an author I’m quite familiar with, having read a number of
his books over the years. The combination of these two well-known authors was
something that really sparked my interest.
The Long Mars is based in the not too distant where humanity has discovered
that our Universe is not the only one; the Earth and Universe we live in, is
only one of an infinite number of Universes and Earths.
Revealed in the first two books, a
small percentage of humanity discover the ability to step between the Universes
by themselves. Now anyone can do it with the use of steppers that allow
movement of not only people, but vehicles and goods between universes. When you
step, you stay in geographically the same place and the next Earth over will
differ only very slightly from the one next door… however, go out a million steps from the
Earth and it’s a vastly different place, sometimes completely uninhabitable. This
is the Long Earth.
The one constant is that Humans
seem not to have evolved on any other Earth, so the un-spoilt and empty Earths
a few steps away are a gift for humanity dealing with the environmental
disaster of the Yellowstone super volcano erupting and devastating the original
Earth or Datum Earth as it’s now called.
Phew…did you get all of that?
This would have made more sense to me if I had read the first two books,
however after a little bit of a confusing time in the first 50 pages it all made
sense to me eventually. I’m not saying you must read the
first two books before diving into the Long Mars, I’m just saying it would
help, but the book can stand alone.
So, the titular Long Mars is only
one of the threads of this book. Here we follow the story of Sally Linsay, one
of the main characters in the series who is contacted by her Father for the first
time in many years. Her Father is the man that announced stepping to the world at
large and in this one act ruined Sally’s career as an Astronaut as humanity left
the stars behind to explore the new Earths. Their relationship is not a good
one. He wants Sally to go with him to Mars to start stepping into the long Mars
on the wild theory that on one mars intelligent life must have existed, Sally
being largely redundant as an Astronaut is uniquely qualified to take the trip,
not that she really wants too.
We also follow US Navy Commander Maggie
Kauffman who along with her crew in a highly advanced military airship, is tasked
with going as far from Datum Earth as possible to explore what is out there… millions of steps in fact until there is
something to report. This is actually a fascinating storyline as we discover countless
variations of the Earth and some of them are truly bizarre.
Finally, what feels like the most important
storyline, we follow Joshua Valiente who was born on another Earth when his
mother, a natural stepper, left Earth when she was pregnant. Joshua is also one
of the lead characters of the series. He is trying to uncover and work with humans
who have started to evolve differently from the rest, vastly most intelligent and
with a natural affinity for stepping. Unfortunately, government and military
powers have also discovered these “Next” humans as they call themselves, and believe
they pose a threat. So, Joshua is in race to save them from a war they already knew
was coming and must try to stop both sides from escalating it.
The Long Mars certainly packs a
lot in it, and therein is one of the problems, by necessity the characters get drawn
a bit thin, as we’re switching between story arcs, we never really have time to
get into any one storyline or character too deeply… you sort of just skip along
the surface for the most part. I think that may be by design, it does feel like
the journeys are supposed to be at the fore more than the characters within
them.
Make no mistake the book is very
well written and the world in which we inhabit shows the benefits of a book
series, the authors have lots of time to really develop the universe, I just
wish there was that much care taken on the characters that inhabit the
universe. However, that’s just a small gripe and I don’t want to overstate it
as I genuinely enjoyed the book, it moves fast and holds your interest.
I will definitely be going back to
pick up The Long Earth and The Long War so I can develop a better sense of how
the story started, I’ll just treat them like prequels… hopefully the good kind
like Hugh Howie’s excellent Shift and opposed to Star Wars Ep 1-3!
Source: Bought from a real Book Store
IBR Rating: ★★★★
Recommendation: It’s a unique
take on the multiverse theory with the additions of alien civilizations and super
evolved humans to boot, in fact it’s got everything a good sci-fi book should
have, how can you be disappointed with that!?
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