When I reviewed the first book in the series, The Long Earth, I called it inoffensive and bland. Now that I have read this, the second book in the series, I take the inoffensive back.
I am actually highly offended by the lack of continuity, consistency, or internal logic. As well as the retconning and the lack of respect for the readers time and intelligence.

A Very Disappointing Read. No plot, no story. Very little in the way of believable characters - quite a few characters are introduced, given a backstory and then dropped again as if the authors don't know what to do with them, and those that aren't seem to change as it suits the authors.

You invented this world, how hard could it be to just.. follow your own rules? ( )

465 ( )

Kept me engaged throughout the story and continually wanting more, although that was never quite satisfied. I really enjoyed it and will likely read more. ( )

There wasn't much of a war really - a lot of jumping between worlds and exploration individually and on twains - airships designed to jump between worlds. Explores what people do when they find new lands and how humans treat other species they encounter, like the gentle "trolls", the not so gentle "elves", "kobolds", and "Beagles". The immortal and omniscient Lobsang acts behind the scenes to pull people into the "war" to ensure humans do not destroy themselves and the new worlds. It was OK, the story was a bit slow and sparse though being set in this vast universe of endless possibilities. The concepts are interesting and I liked the idea that the inhabitants of other Earths stepping in must have been the basis for so many of our folk legends and fairy tales, and perhaps the source of some technology. ( )

Its been a while since i read the first of these but i apparently liked it enough to co-pay for the set ,which i kinda committed to getting through this year. A decision i might come to regret.

This is a bit like the Long-Earth itself, when people explore this infinity of alternate earths they only get to stop in each place for a short period. The story follows that formula presenting a lot of interesting ideas which rarely expand beyond simply being an interesting idea.

Of the 4 or 5 main story arcs most go nowhere. One is a sortof allegorical american war of independence/civil war but has little payoff and its allegorical and sci-fi elements tend to undercut rather than enhance each other.

The main plot or at least the most recognisable (since it features the main protagonists from the last book) is a lot of nothing followed by an abupt ending which is tonally at odds with the rest of the novel.
It also suffers from veering to close to Discworld territory and even reproduces a chunk of The Fifth Elephant but its a poor mirror.

The book is by no means terrible but its charms are always momentary, stepping away in the twinkling of an eye.
After dropping to 2 stars it picked up again right at the end but since that ending is entirely setup for the next book i refused to take it into consideration for my score of this one.

Heres hoping the next one is better. ( )