The Long Mars: A Novel

by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter Narrated by Michael Fenton Stevens

Overview

The third novel in legendary author and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and award-winning science fiction writer Stephen Baxter's “Long Earth” series, which Io9 calls “a brilliant science fiction collaboration.”

2040. The Long Earth is in chaos. . . .

The cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption is shutting down civilization. Whole populations flee to the relative safety of myriad stepwise Earths. Sally Linsay, Joshua Valiente, and Lobsang have all been involved in the perilous post-eruption clean-up.

But Joshua faces a crisis close to home. From a long childhood hidden deep in the Long Earth, a new breed of young, super-bright post-humans is emerging-but ""normal"" human society is turning against them, driven by ignorance and fear. For Joshua, caught up in the conflict, a dramatic showdown seems inevitable.

Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman embarks on an incredible journey, leading an expedition to the unexplored limits of the far Long Earth.

And Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father, Willis Linsay, inventor of the original Stepper device. Ever the maverick, he is planning a fantastic voyage of his own-across the Long Mars. But what is his true motivation?

For Joshua, for humankind, for the Long Earth itself-everything is different now. Joshua becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their “long childhood” in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear have caused “normal” human society to turn against the Next. A dramatic showdown seems inevitable. . . .

The complete list of books in the Long Earth series include:

• The Long Earth
• The Long War
• The Long Mars
• The Long Utopia
• The Long Cosmos

Fans of both Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter will not be disappointed with the latest addition to the Long Earth series, filled with adventure, humor, and a touch of dystopian sci-fi.

HarperCollins 2024

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile

Unlike Pratchett’s Discworld saga, this long, descriptive audiobook is a travelogue across 250 million Martian landscapes, with a subplot involving mutations that turn ordinary humans into geniuses. As Michael Stevens narrates in a moderately paced upper-class British accent, the listener soon disappears into the story. He distinguishes between characters using subtle vocal techniques. Sometimes he sounds a little weary, but occasionally there’s a bit of action. The premise is that a simple “trans-dimensional” technique allows one to step into a long series of alternate versions of Mars that exist in alternate solar systems, each increasingly different from ours. This is skilled, low-key science fiction. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

04/28/2014
The third Long Earth installment (after The Long War) sees humanity spreading out across infinite parallel worlds, with several key figures trailblazing in different ways. Commander Maggie Kauffman leads an expedition to catalog hundreds of millions of Earths, many of which prove far stranger and less hospitable than imagined. Sally Linsay is recruited by her father to explore the alternates of the newly-discovered Long Mars in search of intelligent life. Joshua Valiente encounters the emerging Next, a new breed of superintelligent humans raised in Long Earth, whose development is bringing them at odds with baseline humanity. These first two threads offer up fascinating and inventive takes on planetary development, though they fly by at dizzying speeds. The third feels too much like a conventional “us vs. them” plot. Nonetheless, Baxter and Pratchett remain in fine form, their collaboration producing another thoughtful page-turner. (June)

OCTOBER 2014 - AudioFile

Unlike Pratchett’s Discworld saga, this long, descriptive audiobook is a travelogue across 250 million Martian landscapes, with a subplot involving mutations that turn ordinary humans into geniuses. As Michael Stevens narrates in a moderately paced upper-class British accent, the listener soon disappears into the story. He distinguishes between characters using subtle vocal techniques. Sometimes he sounds a little weary, but occasionally there’s a bit of action. The premise is that a simple “trans-dimensional” technique allows one to step into a long series of alternate versions of Mars that exist in alternate solar systems, each increasingly different from ours. This is skilled, low-key science fiction. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173809032
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/17/2014
Series:	Long Earth Series , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged

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