It has been a busy start to the school year and I haven't had a lot of time for reading. However, I'm quite pleased with my first book of year 33. I was introduced to Terry Pratchett a little late, in college, and so didn't fall in love with his Discworld series to quite the degree that so many of my peers did. I have, however, always appreciated Pratchett's sense of word play and character development even if I got frustrated with his plot pacing. Stephen Baxter I am not so familiar with. I suspect though that I would greatly enjoy his writing.
I had a teacher once who felt that collaborative novel were a publishing gimmick. He said that usually all the work was done by one author, usually the less known one, and that the well-known author was attributed simply to get the lesser-known author's name out there. I can see his point and I don't doubt that this happens. However, in the case of two well known authors collaborating on the piece, I think it can be a beneficial thing.
In this specific case, I think Long Earth benefited from the collaboration. I saw all the character development and rich use of language that I expect out of Pratchett but without the slow plot and the tendency to play with language to the point of being irritating which I can only expect was due to Baxter.
The premise is half sci-fi and half fantasy. One day, plans for a mysterious device hit the web and in short order young people disappear into a parallel earth. Except that there isn't just one parallel earth. It turns out that there is a whole continuum of these parallels. Soon everyone is stepping into these parallel earthswith the aide of these easy to make devices and recreating the days of the frontier. Only this mass migration has far reaching effects. The economy is predictably compromised and humanity is split into three groups. Those who can step with the aide of a device, those who can't, and natural "steppers"(those who need no device.)
It's not long before the sheer mystery of the phenomena launches the most famous of the natural steppers, Joshua, and a Tibetan motorcycle repairman reincarnated into a high-tech gel based computer, Lobsang, into an exploratory mission funded by the monolithic and slightly sinister Black Corporation.
The characters are interesting but several readers posted reviews saying they found some of the secondary characters' motivations unbelievable. I didn't find them unbelievable. I did find them alien but the opening of an infinite frontier of land and resources would cause some interesting behavior. People are complex and I think Pratchett & Baxter did a good job of depicting a range of responses. Long Earth has also received some criticism for failing to develop on its themes. I, however, suspect that this was always envisioned as a series and that the themes will be developed over successive novels. Since The Long War is scheduled for release January 2014, I guess I'll get a chance to test my theory.
