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    The Long Mars: A Novel
    The Long Mars: A Novel
    The Long Mars: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Long Mars: A Novel

    Written by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

    Narrated by Michael Fenton Stevens

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The third novel in legendary author and Discworld creator Terry Pratchett and award-winning science fiction writer Stephen Baxter's “Long Earth” series, which Io9 calls “a brilliant science fiction collaboration.”

    2040. The Long Earth is in chaos. . . .

    The cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption is shutting down civilization. Whole populations flee to the relative safety of myriad stepwise Earths. Sally Linsay, Joshua Valiente, and Lobsang have all been involved in the perilous post-eruption clean-up.

    But Joshua faces a crisis close to home. From a long childhood hidden deep in the Long Earth, a new breed of young, super-bright post-humans is emerging—but ""normal"" human society is turning against them, driven by ignorance and fear. For Joshua, caught up in the conflict, a dramatic showdown seems inevitable.

    Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman embarks on an incredible journey, leading an expedition to the unexplored limits of the far Long Earth.

    And Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father, Willis Linsay, inventor of the original Stepper device. Ever the maverick, he is planning a fantastic voyage of his own—across the Long Mars. But what is his true motivation?

    For Joshua, for humankind, for the Long Earth itself—everything is different now. Joshua 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. . . .

    The complete list of books in the Long Earth series include:

    • The Long Earth
    • The Long War
    • The Long Mars
    • The Long Utopia
    • The Long Cosmos
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 17, 2014
    ISBN9780062297327
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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    Reviews for The Long Mars

    4/5

    67 ratings24 reviews

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    • 4/5
      good addition to the series. sorta has the same feel as the others where the build up to a plot point has an anticlimactic end. but loved the ideas and worlds that are introduced. if you liked the others you'll like this one as well
    • 4/5
      As the third book in a series I have not read the rest of yet, it took a while to get into this story, but there was enough background provided to catch up pretty easily. I like the concept of the Next, and the idea of stepping and Long Earth/Long Mars, a sort of grown up version of the modes in Piers Anthony's Mode series.

      I did wish that there was more of a cohesive plot structure to this book. It just sort of meanders through 2 different expeditions, simultaneously, where stuff happens, but no particularly climactic events, and when eventually the reader has enough spoon-fed information to know a bit about the Next, that situation resolves itself rather unexcitingly, and the book is over. Thus, this novel presents an interesting thought experiment, but is not a very entertaining novel.
    • 4/5
      This is the third book in the 5-volume Long Earth series from Pratchett and Baxter. Earlier in the series we were introduced to the Long Earth and the ability of humans, ether naturally or aided by a simple piece of electronics, to 'step' between parallel and different versions of Earth. Only on what is now called Datum Earth has humanity evolved. On every other Earth evolution and blind chance have driven the world in different directions. Humans have started to spread across these alternate Earths.In this book three explorers take advantage of a natural phenomena called the Gap to travel to Mars where they begin to step across the alternate versions of that planet. Their objective is to find what one of them has speculated as a piece of technology they were bound to find. On the Long Earth developments in human evolution hold out prospects of an acceleration in the human condition or the potential for war.Like the earlier volumes this book spits out ideas about everything - science, technology, sociology, evolution, aliens, lost civilisations - at a bewildering rate. Hardly a page goes by without some new thought that any other writer would turn into a full book and I think this is the weakness here. There are so many ideas that one wants to read more about or to think more about that the underlying story gets lost. What the characters are up to often palls alongside the artefacts or creatures one meets and wants to learn more about.As always, this is another exciting story based in hard-(wish) science and thinking.
    • 4/5
      Part three in the Long Earth series. Sally Linsay explores Mars, Maggie Kauffman explores further into the long earth than ever before, and Joshua Valiente discovers a new species of human. I found it a little disjointed with the various threads of story being rather too far apart, though they sort of come together in the end. An entertaining read all the same and I will certainly carry on with the series.
    • 3/5
      A slight step up (no pun intended) from the Long War, but still lacking whatever spark the Long Earth had. It's the usual case of "more is less." No longer content to just step into a new Earth, or two, or three, or hundred, now one set of explorers is off to reach several hundred million, for no particularly good reason. As with taking a 4-lane interstate highway at 70 mph versus a back road at 40, the result is you don't see much except the inside of your car. There's some interesting speculation on different paths the history of the Earth could have taken, but that does not a story make. What story does exist in that thread is much smaller and focused on the rise of the next step in human evolution. The other, more interesting, thread follows three explorers stepping through alternate versions of Mars. There is a reason given for doing that, eventually, but it's pretty far-fetched. It would not have worked if it had been given up front, only after its mission was accomplished. By jumping between fewer threads, there's a better narrative flow here than in the Long War.
    • 3/5
      I like this better than book 2, but I still think they're trying to cram too many plot threads into each book. The Mars plot and the yellowstone/Next/250 million expedition could have been separated and both could then be written in more depth! The concepts are all great but some are rushed over too quickly for me.
    • 4/5
      Parallel story lines of human evolution and the exploration of Long Mars. My favourite of the series thus far.
    • 2/5
      Book 3 of the Long Earth, and even more pointless as far as I can tell. I love Pratchett, but this book is a bunch of random ideas (what if there were infinite parallel Marses, a few of which had life/intelligent life?; what if going to parallel Earths created a new posthuman species a lot more intelligent than we are?; what if humans really screwed up an intervention into the lives of a different intelligent species descended from canids?; etc.). Stuff happens, but that doesn’t mean there’s a plot. Most of the characters are mechanisms for stuff to happen, but not interesting or pleasant on their own. If we’re lucky, this is the end of the series, but I suspect I won’t be reading more either way.
    • 3/5
      I had read the first, which was engaging enough, but not the second. I felt that the plot lines of the third one did not really converge; there were several parallel Odysseys with no real meat.
    • 3/5
      As usual, more Baxter than Pratchett, but it kept me turning the pages.
    • 3/5
      This is the third book in the Long Earth series and while it was enjoyable, I did not find it quite as engaging as the previous two. It has the same feel in the writing with a good mix of Stephen Baxter's science literacy and Terry Pratchett's humanity and humor. But with three different sub-plots going on at the same time I wasn't sure what they all had to do with one another, or the title of the book since only one plot was actually about Mars. Overall, I think this might have been better if it focused on just one main plot and saved the others for future volumes. Some of the main characters didn't get as much attention in this book either, which I was a little disappointed about. I'll still look forward to the next volume in the series and will hope they can pull together a more focused plot in it.
    • 3/5
      I want to love this book. I want to love it so much. It's full of ideas, of characters, of wizbang...and it's written by Terry freaking Pratchett (as well as Stephen Baxter).

      (Yes, that is his middle name.)

      And yet, something is lacking that leaves me feeling dissatisfied after finishing. The Long Mars, third in The Long Earth series, is missing the tension that would change it from an idea a minute to a page turning adventure. There's no need to even remove any of the ideas--just the tension to make the reader care. Unfortunately, not only are there too many stories, too many whizbangs, too many characters that get too little screen time or too little sympathy, but there's just not enough to wrap them all together. The world of the Long Earth contains (ironic word, I know) the infinite possibilities for Pratchett and Baxter to work with because not only are there infinite iterations of Earth (and Mars, Jupiter, and so on), but each one is different, opening up nearly limitless potential for stories, adventures, exploration and discovery, and characters. Instead, The Long Mars, not unlike The Long War (The Long Earth #2) before it, feels like a madcap dash of a plot, with Pratchett and Baxter cramming in as many ideas as they can before the editors split the book. Because ultimately, with two more novels in the series to follow, I believe that's what is happening: The Long Earth is really just one long series of ideas and plot lines that the editors have cut up into a five-installment series. As a result, all of the tension that might have lifted The Long Mars is lost with too much going on.

      In short, The Long Mars is trying to do too much at once, and it waters down the impact of any one thing that might otherwise make it better.

      All that aside, I enjoyed the books. There's a lot to like about it. I think exploring all the different possible iterations that the earth's evolutionary track might have taken is fantastic. And what about Mars? How might Mars have gone differently? And what kind of life might have evolved there, or how might life be different on Earth if something had been gone differently here? It's really cool, and that's not even accounting for all of the potential politics.

      There are two more books in the series--The Long Utopia and The Long Cosmos. I look forward to reading both, but I hope that Pratchett and Baxter can do better, or at least be more focused, in these last two novels.

    • 1/5
      Really just read like it was covering some time before the next book in the series and wanted to explore a few questions ~~ if there's a Long Earth how far does it go? if there's a Long Earth is there also a Long Mars? Venus? Saturn? how far do those go? I'm guessing here but am thinking that when it come to the series, this is one a reader could skip.
    • 5/5
      The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter is the third of the Long Earth books. In the first book the gap was first discovered — a place where the Earth has been destroyed. In the second book, the gap is researched and developed into a new Cape Canaveral. Now the race is to explore and claim as much of the Long Mars as possible.As Mars is still uncharted territory, beyond the probes sent up before Step Day, the natural steppers are recruited. It's a chance for Sally to reconnect with her father. As there is mounting evidence that Mars once had an environment that could have supported life (and may very well have), the Long Mars travels are a way to explore the many what-ifs that could have played out under different circumstances.While there are nods to Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom series, the Martian landscapes are pure Pratchett and Baxter. Mars throughout remains an inhospitable environment to Earthlings, but there are some Mars version with thriving alien flora and fauna that remind me of Hal Clement at his best.Back home on the Long Earth, there are a few other side plots. First, there is the continued fall out (literally) from the Yellowstone eruption. Next, there is a joint exploration between China and the United States. Finally, there's a plot about a new breed of humans, ones who are scary smart and seem to have more powers beyond the natural stepping the Joshua and Sally have. This last plot seems to be the stringer for a possible fourth book.When The Long Mars was first announced, the title I saw floating around was The Long Childhood, clearly with the mutant plot being the highlighted one. That title would still work well for a fourth book if one is planned.
    • 4/5
      Once again, the great strength of the series is the wealth of ideas: an infinite number of Earths, and now, an infinite number of Marses, as well. That part is fun.

      Weaknesses: well, there's not a lot of opportunity for character development, the book is distinctly British, even though it's primarily about Americans, and the sudden development of an advanced form of homo sapiens is hideously implausible from an evolutionary standpoint.

      Strengths, again: well I really enjoy seeing how conflicts are settled without weapons. And I like the talking cat. But when I think sadly of no more Pratchett books to come, I won't be thinking so much about this series. They're better than average, but they aren't great.

      Library copy
    • 4/5
      In this novel three separate plots intertwine. An earth expedition sets out to search for a last exploratory twain in the high meggers. Sally gets a mysterious communication from her father who wants her to accompany him on the first stepping expedition sent to Mars. Meanwhile, Joshua is directed by Lobsang to seek out a new race of humanity that seems to be appearing in the Long Earth. Will this next step in evolution be positive? Or will it constitute an existential crisis like so many fear?
    • 3/5
      These books are junk food. You want to keep on reading them, although they are not really all that good. The characters were shallow, yet oddly self-righteous about various events. Certain actions taken by the characters were totally contrary to the most basic common sense. The discussion of the various long Mars's was fun, and a good deal enhanced by the fact that I've been reading about Mars recently. Sloppy plot, but fun science. The way we must continue with the same characters through several books distorts the plot into greater preposterousness as they must always be the ones taking the most important actions.It is hard for people of ordinary intelligence, i.e., the authors, to convey super-intelligence, and they don't do it that well. Iain Banks probably does a lot better in his Culture novels, but then again his super-intelligences are not human.The disparaging remarks made by Sally's father about the activities of the astronaut programs that pre-date the Long Earth are pithy, and may be on target.A copy of Madison gets to come back as the capital of the United States.
    • 4/5
      Parallel story lines of human evolution and the exploration of Long Mars. My favourite of the series thus far.
    • 3/5
      This is the third entry in the potentially ambitious Long Erath series and we start about five years after the Yellowstone supervolcano explosion had brought devastation to datum Earth. The Low Earths have become rather heavily populated and people like Joshua Valiente head out into the deep Meggers but Maggie Kaufmann finds herself heading out to the quarter million step mark with her navy colleagues, where there are some really strange worlds though it's not the local wildlife that gives her the most problems as they find the lost Neil Armstrong twain. The Next, an, as yet, small group of super intelligent youngster appear to threaten the overwhelming masses of homo sap but Lobsang reckons any intelligence is worth saving and he calls in help from some of his contacts. Maggie and Joshua have to decide whether they should nuke the community where many of the Next have congregated but finally decide that it wasn't worth the risk - they'd have missed quite a few with dire consequences.Meanwhile Sally, contacted by her father for the first time in decades, gets invited on a trip to the Mars of Gap Earth where their sojourn through the Long Marses leads to the discovery of a Space Elevator and an intelligent species.Like 'On the Steel Breeze' I found that the various characters all having their own strands of story tended to break up the flow of the story as a whole and while they did finally converge, this part of the book was rather hurried. It will be interesting to see how the Long Earth saga continues in the next book, 'The Long Utopia'
    • 4/5
      In many ways this is a really good series... but I can't love it.Stuff happens. Even some exciting stuff.But- it doesn't seem to happen to a purpose or for a reason. And the various plot threads- while connected by characters- do not tend to enhance each other. I keep expecting them to weave back into each other- and they mostly don't.So, it's pretty much a fail for plotting. The main individual characters are reasonably well-drawn, but tend to do what enhances what plot(s) there are, rather than creating their own. The tech is kinda dumb- is this really what people would do?And the whole idea of the Long Eearth, with multiple accessible alternative Earths to which one could emigrate- alone, or with a like-minded group- while there's some interesting stuff going on with that, it's not as compelling as is could be. There are so many options of ways to create "utopias"! I'm sure people would be trying such! But not here...The Mars aspect was rather extraneous, and its only purpose was to maybe create a context that will develop in the next in the series.Not really recommended, though if you're reading the series you may want to continue. Not a great place to start, though.
    • 5/5
      I really like this series. The idea of seeing so many other ways Earth could have developed, along with other life forms, I'm really inspired by that.

      The Next, an evolution of humanity that seems to have developed in just one generation, was my favorite storyline in this book.

      I'll be ready for the next installment when it comes out!
    • 4/5
      This novel begins just where the last one ended, in a cliffhanger that altered the face of the world. For such a major event, the fallout is not the focus of the novel, but rather the change in society that results from it.And if that doesn't sound like an interesting premise for a novel, well, then it may not be for you. Much like its predecessors and to an even greater extent, this novel is less about characterization and story, and more a premise whose every nook and cranny is explored. I read (and enjoyed) this book for the sense of wonder, of the great expanse of imagination which is opened up for me, one world at a time.I love it. I can't get enough of it, and will be immediately ordering the next in the series when and if it is ever written.However, I must wonder how much longer the series can go, and in what way it could possibly end. As the strangeness and revelations of it grow bigger and bigger, those of earlier volumes are dwarfed in comparison. It's an arms race of oddness, and I worry that the whole edifice will grow top heavy."The Long Mars" reads like a middle volume, which is why I hope so much that the story will go on. There certainly seems to be more to tell.
    • 4/5
      And it`s still great! After reading some bad reviews I`ve started to read this volume a bit worried. but after a few chapters I saw everything was all right. Next to continuing the introduction of the Long Earth we can take a look at the fascinating Long Mars as well. All of this plus the superhuman Next making the book a pageturner. One of the best recent SF series now I can say for sure.
    • 4/5
      As always I love the story. The narration is a bit off putting. American characters with British pronunciations. A little distracting.