(The Long Earth 4)

The Long Utopia

Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter join forces in this seminal sci-fi series. 
Long Earth is series of parallel worlds that are similar to Earth, which can be reached by using an inexpensive device called a "Stepper". The closer worlds are almost identical to our Earth but the further you get the more they differ. They all share one similarity: humans have never existed there, at least not as we know them . . .

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science-fiction comes the fourth in the phenomenal The Long Earth series

There's plenty of fun to be had from this . . . a hymn to the joys of unfettered world-building . . . but if the pace of plotting is gentle, the restless inventiveness more than compensates.

Rich in an awe-inspiring sense of wonder, with mind-boggling concepts thrown out like sparks from a Catherine wheel.

A triumph . . . brings fresh and exciting concepts to an SF staple (paralell worlds) while keeping credible human characters at their heart . . . as testament both to the diversity of Sir Terry Pratchett's writing, and the skill of Stephen Baxter's, The Long Earth series deserves a place on the bookshelves of hardcore SF fans and general readers alike.

The Long Earth novels are beautifully visual and wittily imagined . . . The Long Utopia . . . serves to remind us just how bewitching and rich this series is, how beautiful is its writing, and vivid its imagination.

There's the sense of two enviably talented writers having fun as they play in an infinite fictional universe.

Terry Pratchett (Author) 
Terry Pratchett was the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. In all, he was the author of over fifty bestselling books which have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood for services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any. 
 
www.terrypratchettbooks.com 
 
Stephen Baxter (Author) 
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’s The Time Machine, a Doctor Who novel, The Wheel of Ice, and most recently the epic, far-future novels Proxima and Ultima. He lives in Northumberland.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER 
 
'Rich in an awe-inspiring sense of wonder' Independent 
'A hymn to the joys of unfettered world-building' Guardian 
 
2045-2059. After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. 
 
Now an elderly and cantankerous A.I., Lobsang lives in disguise with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world. He’s convinced they’re leading a normal life in New Springfield – they even adopt a child – but it seems they have been guided there for a reason. As rumours of strange sightings and hauntings proliferate, it becomes clear that something is very awry with this particular world. 
 
Millions of steps away, Joshua is on a personal journey of discovery: learning about the father he never knew and a secret family history. But then he receives a summons from New Springfield. Lobsang now understands the enormity of what’s taking place beneath the surface of his earth – a threat to all the worlds of the Long Earth. 
 
To counter this threat will require the combined efforts of humankind, machine and the super-intelligent Next. And some must make the ultimate sacrifice . . . 
 
____________________ 
 
The Long Utopia is the fourth in the Long Earth series. 
 
'The Long Earth series deserves a place on the bookshelves of hardcore SF fans and general readers alike' Independent on Sunday

(Long Earth 3)

The Long Mars

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science-fiction comes the dazzling second chapter in the extraordinary and bestselling Long Earth sequence.

Here they come again, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, skipping along their quantum string of planets like giddy schoolboys - and what a joy it is to have them back . . . it's a thrilling and ceaselessly entertaining ride.

Imaginative, sense-of-wonder SF at its best . . . thrilling stuff from the masters.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER 
 
'Imaginative, sense-of-wonder at its best . . . thrilling stuff from the masters' Independent on Sunday 
'A thrilling and ceaselessly entertaining ride' SFX 
 
2040-2045: In the years after a cataclysmic eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee to myriad Long Earth worlds. 
 
Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But he is not what he seems. 
 
For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their 'long childhood' in a hidden community located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing 'normal' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown seems inevitable . . . 
___________________ 
 
The Long Mars is the third in the Long Earth series.

(Long Earth 2)

The Long War

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science-fiction comes the sequel to the phenomenal No.1 bestseller The Long Earth...

THE BESTSELLING SEQUEL TO THE PHENOMENAL THE LONG EARTH 
 
'An absorbing collaborative effort from the two giants of SF' Guardian 
 
A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. 
 
Mankind is shaping the Long Earth – but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind ... A new ‘America’, called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, and it is growing restless . . . 
 
Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity’s thoughtless exploitation . . . 
 
And a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before. 
____________________ 
 
The Long War is the second in the Long Earth series.

Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice

From master of science fiction Stephen Baxter, a thrilling adventure featuring the Second Doctor.

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’s The Time Machine, a Doctor Who novel, The Wheel of Ice, and most recently the epic, far-future novels Proxima and Ultima. He lives in Northumberland.

The Wheel. A ring of ice and steel around a moon of Saturn, and home to a mining colony supplying Earth. It’s a bad place to grow up. 
 
The colony has been plagued by problems and there are stories of mysterious creatures glimpsed aboard the Wheel. Many of the younger workers refuse to go down the warren-like mines anymore. And then young Phee Laws, surfing Saturn’s rings, saves an enigmatic blue box from destruction. 
 
Aboard the Wheel, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves caught in a mystery that goes right back to the creation of the solar system. A mystery that could kill them all.

(Long Earth 1)

The Long Earth

The Long Earth is the first novel in an astonishing, mind-bending new series by the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science fiction.

By turns thrillingly expansive, joyously inventive and utterly engrossing *****.

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

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

***** 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

[Pratchett] succeeds in working seamlessly with Baxter...adding a welcome shot of fun to the world of science fiction

Wonderfully rich fantasy, full of ingenuity, humour and some rather deep thoughts

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 
 
'A triumph' Independent 
'Literary alchemy' SFX 
 
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... 
 
____________________ 
 
This is the first novel in the Long Earth series. 
 
'The Long Earth series deserves a place on the bookshelves of hardcore SF fans and general readers alike' Independent on Sunday

Terry Pratchett

Stephen Baxter

Inspired . . . something of the poetry and visionary wildness of an author such as Jeff VanderMeer . . . enthralling and thought-provoking in equal measure.

Intricately described . . . gently immersive . . . Baxter's scientific grounding will make you dwell once more on that chilling quantum idea that to exist is to be observed . . . if you've been following the series from the beginning, this last chapter will make you cry, all on its own.

One of the unexpected delights of the later Pratchett career . . . a novel that comes across as a love letter to science fiction itself, one suffused with a Clarke-like optimism about the future. Baxter, you'd guess, is saluting two old friends here.

A fine and fitting testament to the work of one of our greatest and much-missed writing legends, and a reminder that in the likes of Stephen Baxter, British science fiction remains in safe-hands.

THE EXTRAORDINARY FINAL INSTALMENT OF THE BESTSELLING LONG EARTH SERIES 
 
'Intricately described . . . gently immersive' Guardian 
'Enthralling and thought-provoking in equal measure' Daily Mail 
'A love letter to science-fiction itself' SFX 
 
2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth, the new Next post-human society continues to evolve. 
 
For Joshua Valienté, now in his late sixties, it is time to take one last solo journey into the High Meggers: an adventure that turns into a disaster. Alone and facing death, his only hope of salvation lies with a group of trolls. But as Joshua confronts his mortality, the Long Earth receives a signal from the stars. A signal that is picked up by radio astronomers but also in more abstract ways – by the trolls and by the Great Traversers. Its message is simple but its implications are enormous: 
 
JOIN US. 
 
The super-smart Next realise that the Message contains instructions on how to develop an immense artificial intelligence but to build it they have to seek help from throughout the industrious worlds of mankind. Bit by bit, byte by byte, they assemble a computer the size of a continent – a device that will alter the Long Earth’s place within the cosmos and reveal the ultimate, life-affirming goal of those who sent the Message. Its impact will be felt by and resonate with all – mankind and other species, young and old, communities and individuals – who inhabit the Long Earths… 
 
___________________ 
 
The Long Cosmos is the fifth and final novel in the Long Earth series. 
 
'The Long Earth series deserves a place on the bookshelves of hardcore SF fans and general readers alike' Independent on Sunday

Stephen Baxter

Praise for The Long Cosmos

Inspired . . . something of the poetry and visionary wildness of an author such as Jeff VanderMeer . . . enthralling and thought-provoking in equal measure.

Intricately described . . . gently immersive . . . Baxter's scientific grounding will make you dwell once more on that chilling quantum idea that to exist is to be observed . . . if you've been following the series ...

One of the unexpected delights of the later Pratchett career . . . a novel that comes across as a love letter to science fiction itself, one suffused with a Clarke-like optimism about the future. Baxter, you'd guess ...

Inspired . . . something of the poetry and visionary wildness of an author such as Jeff VanderMeer . . . enthralling and thought-provoking in equal measure.

Intricately described . . . gently immersive . . . Baxter's scientific grounding will make you dwell once more on that chilling quantum idea that to exist is to be observed . . . if you've been following the series ...

One of the unexpected delights of the later Pratchett career . . . a novel that comes across as a love letter to science fiction itself, one suffused with a Clarke-like optimism about the future. Baxter, you'd guess ...

Inspired . . . something of the poetry and visionary wildness of an author such as Jeff VanderMeer . . . enthralling and thought-provoking in equal measure.

Intricately described . . . gently immersive . . . Baxter's scientific grounding will make you dwell once more on that chilling quantum idea that to exist is to be observed . . . if you've been following the series ...

One of the unexpected delights of the later Pratchett career . . . a novel that comes across as a love letter to science fiction itself, one suffused with a Clarke-like optimism about the future. Baxter, you'd guess ...

Books by Stephen Baxter

Series by Stephen Baxter

Long Earth

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter