The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The first book in the series which also gave its name to it.

The remaining four.

I am nearing the end of the fifth and final book. It's a long read as is long the narrative, literally.

I picked up the set and vowed to read them all because of Sir Terry, of course. Being a big fan of his Discworld universe I wanted to check out his final opus.

The premise is quite simple and ingenious. You can step between the worlds. With a help of a gadget or, so called natural steppers, consciously willing it. What you step to is another Earth, slightly different and without humans polluting it. And another, and another, Millions of Earths.

Can you imagine the implications of it? You can step away from your current reality in a blink of an eye. You can run, you can hide, can you survive?

Can civilization as we know it on our Earth survive this? Can countries and nations survive? What about technology, ethics, finance, economy, ...?

It is an intriguing read with several parallel plots spanned through millions of Earths and decades of time. Not to mention the Long Mars which is within reach and easily accessible since there is a Gap in this necklace of Earths. One Earth is missing and you can start your spaceship to Mars there without needing to climb the Earth's gravity well.

Are there other civilizations, aliens, native sentient species on the Long Earth?

Are these rhetorical questions?

100 pages to the end ...

I'll share my thoughts about the series when I turn the last page of this stepwise journey.

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Better and better
:ervin :lemark

#2023 21/20