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. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive - some say mad, others alleged dangerous - scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through the wreckage, Jansson find a curious gadget: a box containing some rudimentary wiring, a three-way switch, and a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humankind views the world forever. The "stepper" enables a person using it to step sideways into another America, another wherever that person happened to be, another Earth. And if the person using it keeps on stepping, they keep on entering even more Earths. This is the Long Earth. And the further away a stepper travels, the stranger - and sometimes more dangerous - the Earths become.
The Long Earth Series
Embark on an expansive journey across dimensions as humanity discovers the secret to stepping into parallel worlds. This science fiction saga explores the profound implications of infinite exploration and the vastness of the multiverse. Facing both immense physical challenges and existential questions, characters grapple with their place in an ever-expanding reality. Prepare for an epic adventure that tests the limits of ingenuity and the spirit of discovery.
Recommended Reading Order
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, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth – and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government... 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 ... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.
In 2040, following the Yellowstone eruption, society collapses as people flee to alternate Earths. Joshua Valiente confronts rising tensions with emerging super-bright post-humans, while Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman explores the far Long Earth. Meanwhile, Sally reconnects with her estranged father, who has his own secretive plans.
The Long Utopia
- 433 pages
- 16 hours of reading
The dazzling new science fiction adventure from the extraordinary imaginations of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter -- the fourth novel in a collaborative series that has been hailed as 'sense-of-wonder SF at its best' (Independent on Sunday). 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 AI, 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 cosmos
- 480 pages
- 17 hours of reading
La 4e de couverture indique : "2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth, the new Next post-human society continues to evolve. For Joshua Valiente, now in his late sixties, wants to make one last, solo journey into the High Meggers. only it's an adventure that turns into a disaster. Alone and facing death, his only hope lies with a group of trolls. 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 impact will be felt by all who inhabit the Long Earths. The message is simple but its implications are enormous: JOIN US."