The Long War

The Long Earth, Book 2

By: Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter follows the adventures and travails of heroes Joshua Valiente and Lobsang in an exciting continuation of the extraordinary science-fiction journey begun in their New York Times best seller The Long Earth.

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by "stepping". A new "America" - Valhalla - is emerging more than a million steps from Datum - our Earth. Thanks to a bountiful environment, the Valhallan society mirrors the core values and behaviors of colonial America. And Valhalla is growing restless under the controlling long arm of the Datum government.

Soon Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a building crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any humankind has waged before.

©2013 Terry and Lyn Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (P)2013 HarperCollinsPublishers

Not a lot of war, but a long one

If you could sum up The Long War in three words, what would they be?

Out of mythology

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Long War?

So many cool scenes, but not one that stole the show.

Have you listened to any of Michael Fenton Stevens’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Another strong performance by Michael F. Stevens. His return to the Long Earth was well done.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I couldn't stop listening, I devoured this book as quickly as life would allow.

Any additional comments?

The exploration of the varied denizens of the Long Earth kept the Long War engaging all the way through. Everything made a kind of sense, from an alien perspective.

great book! pretty good performance

the story is of course wonderful. the narrator does an atrocious american accent and I don't care for the gruff voices he does. picking Brit to read a book with mostly American characters was an interesting choice.

Great Sequel

Enjoyed the sequel. I listened on a long trip. it was perfect to pass the time. I believe even appropriate for teen listeners.

Amazing story

Got pretty dusty at the end,
but well worth it.

Fifteen unique words, four score & seven years blah bla blae

Great story, uninspired performance.

The story itself is interesting and got my attention enough to get me to continue through to the second book. BUT, the narration is just this side of horrible. It's not the voice or the characters, it's the truly terrible American accents that he portrays. Two or three of them sound like a character from South Park.

An ok second book

Not enough focus on a single storyline to keep things flowing. It jumped a bit too much between new characters that we didn't have enough time to connect with and therefore felt like they were taking away from the main story of Joshua and Sally.

quite enjoyable

While it is not the Discworld, it is very much fun. Very memorable characters and a very cool premise.

Anti climactic ending

I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan and I've been struggling to get into the characters since the first book. The end of this one just felt like a let down.

Lost Interest

It’s a pretty bad sign when you lose interest in a book with an hour left before the end. I just can’t be bothered to finish it. An infinite number of worlds to explore and it seems like we’re stuck on the least interesting ones.

Excellent Sequel

If you're considering reading this, you've probably already read The Long Earth. These books are quite different from Pratchett's well-known Discworld Series. The Long Earth books aren't satirical or funny in the same way as Discworld, but the ideas and possibilities of the world are fascinating and well-developed.

I actually liked The Long War better than The Long Earth. I read the former and listened to the latter. The narrator is good, but I think the breadth of the story also does well with the kind of long-time concentration I can engage in while listening for hours at a time as opposed to reading in shorter spurts.

As for the narrator, there were a few pronunciations that seemed odd to me, a resident of Washington state who just returned from Yellowstone. Baxter pronounces the word geysers, like Old Faithful, as geezers, which makes me think of an old man. He also says "Ranee-a" when the reference is Mt Ranier. Weird, but hardly problematic for a listener.

I suspect there will be more in the Long Earth series and I look forward to more.