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

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[compulsory 15 word review that I have never been required to provide before, including 5 days ago when i left my last star-only review. WTF audible? we don't always have time to provide a full review and just want to feed the algorithm a simple star rating to influence our recommendations.]

A Slow Story

If you’ve listened to books by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter before, how does this one compare?

I love both Pratchett (I've read all of Discworld) and I've enjoyed Baxter. I also really enjoyed The Long Earth. But at book three in this series, the story seems to slow down. At points I wished I was reading rather than listening so that I could scan ahead for plot movement. The novel stays within the world, but it didn't follow through on it's promise to expand it - literally into another world.

More good story from this team

If you're considering this one, you've read the other two already. No? Go read The Long Earth--now.

The Long Mars was as enjoyable and interesting as the two books that came before it. I always feel a series of connections to my own life, starting with the setting in Madison (sort of) where I used to live. I love that the authors talk about specific locations and connect their world to mine.

I had a little more trouble than usual following the timeline in this one, but I think I was distracted, maybe. I kept confusing which ship we were following on which trip. However, it didn't seem to matter much and I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Disappointing

Any additional comments?

The Long Mars is the third book in the Long Earth series, but while during my listen to the Long Earth (and the Long war) I was completely engaged in the book, the long mars fails to provide the same excitement.

The Long Earth basically blew my mind, the concept of endless earths out there, just waiting to be conquer by humanity is a new and exiting idea which kept me at the edge of my sit, the long war has introduced the idea of other sentient beings out there, again with a somewhat new and interesting spin on evolution and our basic understanding of intelligence.

This last book however seemed to do nothing more than to repeat these ideas with no real purpose, the only truly new idea was that of the Next which didn't really develop enough to hold it's own. Additionally the plot seems somewhat erratic making it a little hard to focus on which expedition is being followed at any given time.

The expedition to mars which really is the main plot of this book seems irrelevant in light of the long earth, and the explanation given for it's importance just doesn't seem right.

So while I loved the first and second books I was slightly bored with this one.

Great Book!

This is a great story, and has an excellent narrator. I can't wait for book 4 in the series.

Good Story Poor Performance

The narrators attempts at accents, particularly American and Russian, are bad. Really, really bad. Distractingly so.

Completed the series, but no satisfactory ending

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

if you got through the first two books, it's worth the listen to complete the series. The performance really hampered the story. The narrator is British, and is struggling to pull off an American accent. Characters sound mostly the same, pronunciation is British, and all words that end in an "a" sound turn into "er", so you get a lot of "Joshu-er"s and "ide-er"s. The story was lackluster as well, too many "deus en la machina" plot holes.

Would you be willing to try another one of Michael Fenton Stevens’s performances?

Never. His performance would drive me away from titles read by him.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no.

A pretty ho-hum plodding narrative

This series has never been a page-turner. It is more of a plodding story documenting various storylines which converge to a degree of the Long Earth universe. There are definitely some interested exploration themes here, but nothing that is edge-of-your-seat. There appears to be no major driving plot but rather episodes in a far longer arc exploring this new world paradigm. It's not a bad series, but if you are looking for a thriller that drives hard to a conclusion, you will be disappointed.

less action more philosophy

I enjoyed this continuation of the Long Earth series. This book does lean more into science and philosophy, bringing in some rather uncomfortable for the humanity questions. I like the narrator also. not sure why the complaints about his accents. I am Russian and his Russian accents are not any worse than usual.

Good and Solid but not Great

For me this book is good and solid but not great. I like the Disc World books a lot more. It is interesting that his other collaboration Good Omens sparkles with energy and humor and looks a lot like his own novels. The Long books don't have that quality. They are good books. I like and will listen to them again but they don't share the radiance of Pratchett's own books.

A clever bit of humor is the characters make a lot of Star Trek jokes, then at a key moment the authors borrow the story in The Wrath of Khan and turn it in to the plot of the novel. The Star Trek jokes look to me like the authors winking at the audience to let us know that it was intentional, yes, they knew it they were borrowing from among the best of the original Star Trek story lines.