The long earth (2012)
The long earth is a 2012 fiction book written by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
Plans for a simple box appear on the internet, and anyone who builds one and flips its switch can step sideways into a parallel Earth, then another, and another, an apparently endless chain of worlds where humanity never evolved. Joshua Valienté steps more easily and calmly than almost anyone, so an ambulatory artificial intelligence named Lobsang, who insists he is a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman, recruits him for a voyage deep into the Long Earth. Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter trade Discworld's jokes for cool, expansive science fiction about frontier, migration, and what infinite space does to a crowded species.
Quick answers
What is The long earth about?
Plans for a simple box appear on the internet, and anyone who builds one and flips its switch can step sideways into a parallel Earth, then another, and another, an apparently endless chain of worlds where humanity never evolved. Joshua Valienté steps more easily and calmly than almost anyone, so an ambulatory artificial intelligence named Lobsang, who insists he is a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman, recruits him for a voyage deep into the Long Earth. Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter trade Discworld's jokes for cool, expansive science fiction about frontier, migration, and what infinite space does to a crowded species.
When was The long earth published?
The long earth was published in 2012.
Who made The long earth?
The long earth was written by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
Similar books
Explore The long earth guides
The long earth in our writing
- Companion guide: Discworld: The Complete Guide to Terry Pratchett's Flat Planet
- Companion guide: Multiverse & Parallel Worlds
- Companion guide: Time Travel
A few thoughts on The long earth
The pull toward endless unexplored worlds runs through Stargate SG-1, where a team gate-hops to a fresh Earth-like planet every week. Sliders built a whole series on stepping between parallel Earths, and No Man's Sky hands you a literally boundless string of planets to wander with the same quiet awe.
Sci-fi about stepping sideways into another version of reality
The Long Earth's premise is disarmingly simple, build a box, flip a switch, step sideways into an Earth where humans never evolved, then another, and another. These share that same hook, a slider, a red pill, a resonance cascade gone wrong, each one opening a doorway onto a whole parallel version of the world.
Expansive science fiction about pushing into the unclaimed frontier
Joshua and Lobsang push past sightseeing fast, mapping, settling, and arguing about what humanity owes the empty worlds it moves into. These lean into the same frontier scale, characters pushing past the edge of the known map into vast, unclaimed territory, where survival and colonization matter as much as discovery.
YA journeys across a landscape transformed beyond recognition
The Long Earth trades danger for wonder, but its core idea, a familiar world suddenly opening onto endless unclaimed land, echoes through darker survival stories too. These follow young travelers crossing landscapes reshaped by catastrophe, holding onto found family and stubborn hope as they push toward somewhere, anywhere, safer than where they started.