The Long Earth book review

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
Published by HarperCollins Harper on June 19, 2012
Pages: 336
Goodreads

From the back jacket:

NORMALLY, WHEN THERE WAS NOTHING TO DO, HE LISTENED TO THE SILENCE.

The Silence was very faint here. Almost drowned out by the sounds of the mundane world. Did people in this polished building understand how noisy it was? The roar of air conditioners and computer fans, the susurration of many voices heard but not decipherable.... This was the office of the transEarth Institute, an arm of the Black Corporation. The faceless office, all plasterboard and chrome, was dominated by a huge logo, a chesspiece knight. This wasn't Joshua's world. None of it was his world. In fact, when you got right down to it, he didn't have a world; he had all of them.

ALL OF THE LONG EARTH.

From the inside jacket:

The possibilites are endless. Just be careful what you wish for....)

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. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive--some said mad, others allege dangerous--scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through the wreckage, Jansson finds a curious gadget: a box containing some rudimentary wiring, a three-way switch, and...a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humankind views the world forever.

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 the ends of the earth and far beyond. All it takes is a single step....

I love Terry Pratchett, it’s still one of my aims to read all of the Discworld novels, it just hasn’t happened yet. So when I saw this book I thought that it would be a great tide over until I can make the time to read the other series. I am so sorry to say that The Long Earth disappointed me. It was a book that felt so disjointed and even after finishing it I actually have no idea what the hell happened and what the actual point of the story was. So much happened in this story and nothing was ever really explained.

I know that The Long Earth is part of a series however I’m not going to be continuing on with the series purely because I didn’t learn enough about the worlds and the characters to feel as though I was invested in what was happening. I don’t really have any inkling to find out what happens next or where the characters end up. It’s really sad for me when I read the first book in a series and then end up putting it down and never touching it again. It doesn’t sit well with me as a bookworm.

The shining light in this book was the different time periods that were showcased. I particularly enjoyed Private Percy’s story and would have loved for there to have been a little bit more about him and his life running through everything. I thought that the different settlements that were created could have been more developed with well-rounded characters I think if the focus had been on that rather than this seemingly pointless journey through the worlds it would have been a more enjoyable story. I think the different time periods are what saved The Long Earth from being . a 1-star read.

One thing that really confused me was the AI unit in this book, and I couldn’t work out what was going on with it. I found it really hard to visualise him all the way through the book. The descriptions in The Long Earth to be really vague and almost hard to read when it came to him. There was nothing concrete to build description on, and that made reading the book really hard because he plays such a big part of the book.

I wouldn’t recommend The Long Earth I think Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is so much better and definitely worth the time. This series is a no-go for me. I won’t be picking the next one, and will be moving on to other series and hoping for a better experience.

Have you read The Long Earth series? What did you think? Have I missed the point? Let me know in the comments.