The Long Earth by Pratchett and Baxter
Jan. 25th, 2013 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroIn the near future, humanity is provided with a marvelous new technology, the “stepper box”. With a flick of a switch, you can travel to millions of parallel worlds with no people but nearly-identical geography. Unlimited resources and infinite space have been opened up on this new frontier. But where did the Long Earth come from, why has it recently opened to mankind, and what is its purpose?
Though there’s a framing story and several main characters, this book is more of a thought experiment than any kind of true narrative. It doesn't really resolve the story, though it does resolve a few of the mysteries. (Though not the philosophical ones most harped on, or really the most dangerous of the concerns in the long run.) It mostly plays out as an interesting commentary on humanity's nature.
I can tell that the original idea behind this was, "What if there were multiple worlds branching from decision points, but those points were on the major geological scale, rather than humanity's tiny slice of Earth's lifespan?" They added in a few limitations on how stepping worked and who/what could or could not step, and built out a series of vignettes from that, then constructed a framing story around them.
It feels tinged with Pratchett-ness, but not properly like one of his books. I would suspect that Pterry had a hand in the plotting and came up with several of the scenes, but Baxter did most of the actual writing. (If nothing else, there wasn't a single proper footnote.)
I think, upon reflection, that this would make a fascinating RPG setting. There are several major threats to humanity (including at least one internal one) that are only moderately addressed during the book; there are a lot of interesting adventure hooks and technological/economic changes that could be built from what we see; and there’s an infinitely-large canvass on which to experiment.
Overall: This is fun, rather reminiscent of Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams to me: Given a certain premise and specific rules within that premise, how does humanity react and how does society change? But expect it to feel more like Rendezvous With Rama than any Discworld novel: It’s an exploration, not a narrative.
Though there’s a framing story and several main characters, this book is more of a thought experiment than any kind of true narrative. It doesn't really resolve the story, though it does resolve a few of the mysteries. (Though not the philosophical ones most harped on, or really the most dangerous of the concerns in the long run.) It mostly plays out as an interesting commentary on humanity's nature.
I can tell that the original idea behind this was, "What if there were multiple worlds branching from decision points, but those points were on the major geological scale, rather than humanity's tiny slice of Earth's lifespan?" They added in a few limitations on how stepping worked and who/what could or could not step, and built out a series of vignettes from that, then constructed a framing story around them.
It feels tinged with Pratchett-ness, but not properly like one of his books. I would suspect that Pterry had a hand in the plotting and came up with several of the scenes, but Baxter did most of the actual writing. (If nothing else, there wasn't a single proper footnote.)
I think, upon reflection, that this would make a fascinating RPG setting. There are several major threats to humanity (including at least one internal one) that are only moderately addressed during the book; there are a lot of interesting adventure hooks and technological/economic changes that could be built from what we see; and there’s an infinitely-large canvass on which to experiment.
Overall: This is fun, rather reminiscent of Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams to me: Given a certain premise and specific rules within that premise, how does humanity react and how does society change? But expect it to feel more like Rendezvous With Rama than any Discworld novel: It’s an exploration, not a narrative.
