The Long Cosmos

Starting at the end I had no problem following the overall story and enjoying the wonderful characters. Now I need to go back to the beginning

The Long Earth was a fantastic concept that has been executed very well by Baxter and the much missed Terry Pratchett. The series to me has been somewhat uneven, I thought there was plenty to explore on the long Earth without adding Mars and the rest of the galaxy which happened in this novel. I also always found Joshua's character a little muddled. In general characters to me quite often acted out of character because well this is how they needed to act or what they needed to do to forward the plot. That's the only reason though for the 4 stars instead of 5. I still really, really liked this series and was NOT let down by the ending as I have been by countless other series. It was an end. It wasn't lazy, no one woke up from a dream. It wasn't a betrayal of the concept, like all of a sudden no one could step. I liked it. Not perfect but what is.

I love this concept.What if you could step to another analog of your local Earth, but couldn't take much in the way of technology with you, then step again, and again ... That is the 'what if' principle upon which The Long Earth was written.In The Long Cosmos, several characters from the original novels get together again some years later. They (everyone, that is; trolls, humans, 'Next' - post-humans) receive the invitation: 'Join Us'. With overtones of Sagan's 'Contact', the Next have decoded blueprints for a device (as big as a State) to make it possible for ??? to happen. But (since both Baxter and Pratchett are writers of people rather than about tech), a small craft is constructed for a few key (and familiar) characters to take a reconnaissance tour.The writing owes more to Baxter than to Pratchett, but there are a few nice touches in Joshua and Lobsang's repartee. A couple of nice back stories to the main idea are developed. Why a bunch of sixty-year-olds (one a cripple) is vital to the mission when there are planets full of able-bodied Navy types available is never really explained. And there is plenty of room for a 'what next?' that will never be realized. But all-in-all a good read for those with a healthy suspension of disbelief.

I dare say I was a bit disappointed by this novel, presumably the last in the Long Earth series.This book picks up a couple of decades after the last novel and as such all of our favorite characters are much older and a bit more jaded than they were before. There is talk of a new expedition interleaved with some kind of "message" that people up and down the Long Earth are receiving, but it's frankly never explorer to my satisfaction. I just felt the book was more filler than substance, and perhaps fleshed out in large from by Stephen Baxter.This is an okay book and if you're a fan of seeing how the series wraps up it's worth getting. It's simply not as interesting or as filled with "new ideas" as the previous books were. I don't really see how there will any more in the series unless they pick up the pace a bit, but we'll see.

Terry Pratchett started me into Sci Fi lit. The disk World Series kept me hooked for some years. This series of the earth existing in an almost endless series of like planets was a perfect platform for me to meet Terry again

The Long cosmos wraps up a lot of loose ends, but also leaves a few untied up. It's a good ending to the series, but there's enough left hanging that it doesn't answer that it doesn't really feel conclusive, so much as wrapped up as best it can be. That said, good story and enjoyable for the vision of the multiple Earths and the characters.

This is the final book in the Long Earth series. This series is unique, well-written, and a good mixture of fun, drama, adventure, and humor. It must be considered an instant classic. This final book is a worthy finale bringing the series to its logical conclusion.The book starts with the receipt of a message to come and "JOIN US". This message is received by all sentients in the Long Earth including humans, the Next, and trolls. The Next also used other electromagnetic detectors to obtain the entire text of the message and determined it was a set of instructions for building some kind of thinking machine. The Next then debated whether to build it. Would contact with advanced aliens lead to the annihilation or to the enlightenment of humanity.The main focus of the book is on Joshua Valiente, but we also meet a slew of characters from the previous books in the series including Lobsang, Sister Agnes, Nelson Azikiwe, Roberta Golding, and Maggie Kauffman.

The Long Cosmos (The Long Earth, #5) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen BaxterHow do you say goodbye? Especially to a beloved author who is now in the next realm. Sir Terry Pratchett, (who had numerous works to his name) left us in 2015. Happily he and Stephen Baxter left us this very satisfying, and yet bittersweet conclusion tho the series.I would decidedly recommend that you do read the entire series, in order, before this. Otherwise, you simply won't get the full emotional impact of the book.Our old, dear friends have one last tourney to make, and hopefully answer an invitation to all sentient beings in the Long Earth cascade. How they do what they do, and the interaction of these people are what keeps this book so close to the heart.So, in the wise words of Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, be happy that it happened!"