The Long Mars

Long Earth, Book 3

By: Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens

Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The third novel in Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s Long Earth series, which Io9 calls "a brilliant science fiction collaboration".

2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous rescue 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 Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request....

Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth.

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 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....

©2014 Terry and Lyn Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

The follow up of the habitants of the Long Earth

I struggled a bit at the beginning and middle, but towards the end, the events improved. Not as interesting as the first two books but enough to make you want to find out what finally transpired in the last book.

A set of short stories looking for a home

Another Long X book that I felt duty-bound to read (don't start a series you don't intend to finish). I was disappointed to discover that apparently the trilogy became a pentalogy somewhere along the way so there are another two (primarily Baxter?) books coming after this.

I felt that Long Mars suffered from the same problems that the Long War did: a lack of point and bizarre whitewashing of major plot points in favour of endless minutiae. Some things of interest happen, but really the whole book felt like a bunch of somewhat related short stories that had been pinned together with haphazard cameos from stars of the previous books.

I wouldn't read this again and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else.

Expect a long drawn out story

Would you try another book from Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter and/or Michael Fenton Stevens?

I would not buy another story by the late Pratchett if it were written with a co-author.

Would you ever listen to anything by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter again?

Not if it was long and drawn out the way this story went. The character were flatter than pancakes and less than engaging. White the late Pratchett was a fine writer his combination with Baxter was so bad I wanted to forget that I ever listened to this drivle

What didn’t you like about Michael Fenton Stevens’s performance?

It was bland to say the least but then he had little to work with

What character would you cut from The Long Mars?

To be honest I would have cut all of them.

Any additional comments?

Wish I could delete this from my library.

Trite and full of woo

The author shows no understanding of how a person adapts to new situations. If you've ever played portal you'd understand that learning to think in a long earth is not as hard as the author thinks
Also there is a level of unwelcome mysticism posited by otherwise scientific characters.
Also flag planting nationalism feels at odds with the other books
Honestly this ruined the series for me. Death by a thousand small gripes that make the whole series fall apart

That narrator has trouble with accents.

It may be a nitpicky thing but the narrator read the dialogue in an American accent. The accent was very Texan and very distracting. There were times in the book where he would do that same southern drawl Texas accent for someone from Wisconsin followed by a description of the person's voice that was completely different. It was also difficult to tell who was talking sometimes because all the male characters were the same cowboy from east Texas.

I did not get invested in the story or characters at all. The concept is cool. The authors have fine pedigree. But I was unable to finish the book and after 3/4 I just quit listening. I was too distracted by the accents and didn't care what was going to happen.

Story is okay, reader is AWFUL

What disappointed you about The Long Mars?

The reader did not know how to pronounce the word "ensign". It's *not* pronounced "IN-SINE". You'd think a putative professional audiobook reader would know how to pronounce words.

A disappointment

I had two problems with this audiobook.

The first is the book itself. There's no real plot and no character development. Stuff just happens. There are many interesting concepts, including the "long Mars" of the title, but not much is done with them. The ideas are offered, there are hints of mystery in the background, but that's it: no resolutions based on those ideas.

The second is with the reader, Michael Fenton Stevens. He has a great voice, and he can British accents with ease. However, most of the characters in The Long Mars are not British. His American accents sound phony and affected, and it doesn't help that he pronounces words the British way even when he's reading in an American voice. (To be fair, my attempts at a British accent probably sound even more fake to someone from Britain). His Chinese and Russian voices sound similarly over-accented and unrealistic.

The end result is a dull book read by a distracting reader. If you fell so in love with the first book in the series, The Long Earth, that you enjoyed the sequel, The Long War (which I felt had similar issues), then you'll like The Long Mars. Otherwise, I suggest you give this one a miss. Pratchett, Baxter, and Stevens have done better elsewhere.