Here's the thing... I'm wary of science fiction. It's not my favorite genre. But this book is absolutely the real deal science fiction, and in a nutshell, I LOVED IT. Of course, it didn't hurt having Terry Pratchett as one of the co-authors, making everything just a bit less intimidating. Discworld and Good Omens fans may gravitate towards this book expecting broad humor, but I'll tell you right now that while there's plenty of humor, it is nowhere near that overt. No, this is totally legit science fiction. I detect the presence of Stephen Baxter. Who knew these two would collaborate so beautifully?
The story of The Long Earth is a bit of a challenge to summarize. Oddly, I have read a "product description" of this book in several places that bears ABSOLUTELY no relation to the plot or characters of this book. (And I find myself wondering if that is the description of book 2 in what will apparently be a series?) In this book, the citizens of Earth have just learned a new trick. A possibly mad, and definitely mysterious, scientist has invented a device called a "stepper." It's simple enough to be constructed by a schoolchild, and inexpensive enough to be powered by a potato. The scientist puts the plans for the stepper on the Web, and then essentially disappears. Starting in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, and rapidly spreading across the planet, young people are the earliest adopters of this technology. They are the first to discover the multiverse.
"Most of those first-day steppers had come quickly back. Some had not. The poor tended to be more likely to stay away; rich people had more to give up back in Datum. So, out of cities like Mumbai and Lagos, even a few American cities, flocks of street kids had stepped, bewildered, unequipped, into wild worlds, but worlds that didn't already belong to somebody else, so why shouldn't they belong to you? The American Red Cross and other agencies had sent care teams after them, to sort out the Lord of the Flies chaos that followed."
Pratchett and Baxter take their time setting up this premise, and do a fine job of world-building. This is very near future stuff, but they give a realistic look at the socio-economic and historic impact of the discovery of what may well be an infinite number of uninhabited (by humans, at least) earths. It's big. Eventually, though, a plot shakes itself out, having to do with an exploratory expedition to the far edges of the multiverse--the "Long Earth." This trek is undertaken by two uniquely gifted individuals. Joshua Valiente was one of the first steppers, and a natural at it, it turns out. Of him, it is said:
"But of course, Joshua, you do notice. You watch, and listen, and analyze, and inside that roomy cranium of yours you play yourself little videos of all the possible outcomes of the current situation that you can envisage... It's one of the qualities that makes you so useful, that watchfulness."
The "person" to whom Joshua will be most useful is the other major protagonist, Lobsang. "He is unique. He is a computer, physically, but he used to be--how can I put this?--a Tibetan motorcycle repairman." Lobsang was the first computer program to successfully prove in court that he was a reincarnated human. Joshua continues to have doubts: "Was Lobsang human, or an AI aping humanity? A smiley, he though: one curve and two dots, and you see a human face. What was the minimum you needed to SEE a human being? What has to be said, what has to be laughed?"
I won't tell you any more of what transpires, because I was genuinely delighted by the storytelling. As you can see, even from this brief report, there IS plenty of humor to be found in these pages. But this is no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In fact, there are all kinds of hard science on display, ranging from evolutionary biology to quantum physics to planetary geology. Someone did their homework; the science sounds accurate to me. The authors have struck a fine balance between the plausible, the wondrous, and the absurd. They've introduced some characters with whom I was truly delighted to spend time, and with whom I very much hope to have the opportunity to visit in the future. They've crafted a very complete and satisfying tale, while at the same time leaving the door open to future storytelling possibilities... Almost as if there were infinite possible stories that could be "stepped" to from this original world. Where's my potato? I'm ready to explore.
