1916: the Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No Man's Land gone?
2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive (some said mad, others dangerous) scientist when she finds a curious gadget – a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a…potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world for ever.
And that is an understatement if ever there was one…
The first novel in an exciting new collaboration between Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth transports readers to an infinity of new worlds. All it takes is a single step. . . .
Reviews
“By turns thrillingly expansive, joyously inventive and utterly
engrossing”. SFX magazine
“An absorbing collaborative effort from two SF giants…a marriage made in
fan heaven – Pratchett's warmth and humanity allied to
Baxter's extraordinarily fertile science-fictional
imagination…there's much to enjoy…a charming, absorbing and somehow
spacious piece of imagineering” – Adam Roberts GUARDIAN
“The idea of parallel Earths is one of the most enduring that science
fiction has given us, but rarely has it been explored with quite so much gusto
as in this new novel by two of the giants of British speculative fiction…a
triumph…accessible, fun and thoughtful” – David Barnett
INDEPENDENT
“Literary alchemy…In the hands of Pratchett and Baxter, the possibilites
are almost infinite…a story that revels in big ideas…you can sense the
excitement of the authors as they toy with the labyrinthine possibilities of
their premise, and it's infectious…thrillingly expansive, joyously
inventive and utterly engrossing” SFX
“[Pratchett] succeeds in working seamlessly with Baxter…adding a welcome
shot of fun to the world of science fiction” – SUNDAY TIMES
Author Biography
Author of the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett is one of the UK's most popular – and bestselling – writers. His books have sold over 65 million copies worldwide and been translated in to nearly 40 languages. Awarded an OBE in 1998 and knighted in 2009 for his services to literature, he lives in Wiltshire. Stephen Baxter is one of the UK's most acclaimed writers of science fiction and a multi-award winner. His many books include the classic Xeelee sequence, the Time's Odyssey novels (written with Arthur C. Clarke) and Time Ships, a sequel to H G Wells' The Time Machine. He lives in Northumberland.
