The Long Utopia

August 31, 2015
The fourth installment of Baxter and the late Pratchett's ambitious Long Earth saga (after The Long Mars) makes it clear that their imagination and world-building know no limits. In the years since the Yellowstone eruption devastated the original Earth, humans have spread out across the millions of parallel worlds known as the Long Earth, taking advantage of ample resources and near-infinite room. The AI Lobsang has faked his death and now lives a simple life on Earth West 1,217,756 along with his partner, Agnes, and their adopted son. However, that idyllic world hides a bizarre secret: metallic alien bugs have infiltrated from a previously unknown location and are steadily destroying the planet. Lobsang, along with old friends Joshua Valiente and Sally Linsay, must find a way to stop them before the entire Long Earth is imperiled. Despite the epic scope and attention to scientific detail, the authors never lose sight of the human touchâeven if that human is an AI. Even so, the text is infused with an introspective air of loss, undermining the story's ultimate impact. Agents: (for Pratchett) Colin Smythe, Colin Smythe Ltd. (U.K.); (for Baxter) Christpher Schelling, Selectric Artists Literary.

January 1, 2015

In 2012, The Long Earth launched a collaborative series featuring the first new universe created by Discworld visionary Pratchett in over three decades. Now, after two more best-selling works, we've arrived at the years 2045-59, with humans having spread throughout many Earths while continuing to evolve on their original home. As foundering AI Lobsang tries to pass as human, brilliant post-humans called "the Next" deign to fit in among their not-so-smart compatriots and the inhabitants of an alien planet ensnared with a Long Earth world plan human conquest. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Datum Earth grows old, and so, too, do Joshua Valiente and his companions. As more people forge out into the parallel universe of Long Earth, Joshua finds himself unsuited to family life and begins a search for his father, only to discover a startling piece of history about the evolution of natural Steppers. Wily AI Lobsang fakes his own mechanical death and retreats to a distant life to live as a human, husband, and father. But the days are growing steadily shorter on his new world as an alien life force attempts to xenoform the planet, threatening the existence of all who occupy the Long Earth. It's Sally Linsay, now into her sixties but as crafty and rangy as ever, who may have a single, devastating solution. Their trademark world building and questions of morality remain intact, but in this fourth-in-a-series (and first of Pratchett's remaining books to be published posthumously), the co-authors have created a tighter, more focused narrative that moves faster than its predecessors. The explosive cliff-hanger endingalso now something of a trademarkpromises one final return to the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)