This book looked more interesting on the shelf than it turned out to be. The plot seems to go nowhere and the writing is disjointed. I'm pretty sure they're setting up for a book two, but I'll give it a miss.

Judging by reviews on Goodreads, the reactions to this novel are greatly polarized: love it or hate it. I felt much the same - polarized (hence a middle of the road rating). This novel is essentially a quest across multiple earths; it is a book about "what if's" with plot being secondary. In many ways it reminded me as to why I was cool to the original "Ringworld" novel. It wasn't until the second half of the novel that it became apparent that there was indeed a plot. But the "what if's" and the nascent plot did, at the end hold my interest. Terry Pratchet fans should note, however, that this is not a typical Sir Terry work. I hesitate recommending either to read it or to avoid it - liking it or not will be totally idiosyncratic

Overall, I enjoyed it, intrigued as i was at the notion of multiple earths. In that respect, i found a similarity to the Dark Materials books. However, i found that the book seemed to have trouble finding a tone, which may have been due in part to the shared authorship & their differing styles.

thought it might have been abook out of sequence in a series that I was not aware of due to the leaving off point.... otherwise fine with a dead-end trail. Woooord'em uppp

It's a shame Terry Pratchett's name is on this.

It's...good science fiction but not great. I'll echo what was said before about the lack of good plot resolution. I also didn't like how they began to develop some of the responses to the discovery of the long earth bit but kept stopping short. There was a lot of untapped potential in this book. One of the hesitations that bothered me most was the fact that they hinted at information and friendship becoming the most valuable "resources" in a world where physical resources no longer matter but that fascinating idea was never developed. I also thought there was a bit too much name dropping. Great that you've read the "greats" in sci fi, but telling me that you have does not improve the story. In its defense you do have to say that it makes some interesting points about what would happen to "value", the pioneering spirit and cultural differences, and I particularly liked the exploration about community and the individual. The subtle exploration of manipulation and choice was also good. And there was a good weaving of legend and their postulated origins within that universe. Overall a good, but not great, read.

Pretty good science fiction of its kind, not exactly fast-paced but with occasional flashes of Pratchett humour.

I don't think it's in any way random that Larry Niven is mentioned in the text of this book - I has a lot in common with some of the Ringworld adventures. The Long Earth is good, but does not even aspire to the delightfully quirky pleasures of the Discworld. The main plot does not resolve in any compelling way and the characters self describe rather than develope.

This is not the diskworld. It is, however, a marvelous though experiment on alternate earths, how to travel in them, and what mankind might do with infinite space and resources. Fascinating, if lacking in Pratchett’s trademark hilarity.

The word "susurration" appeared a few times. I would like to read more about the character Lobsang in another book one day.