The Long Earth

There's very little Pratchett in this book, unfortunately. It's based on his 30-year old short story, but it feels like Terry had practically no input in growing it into a book. It's really underdeveloped.

If you're looking for an interesting read on parallel worlds, go check out [b:The Family Trade|17861|The Family Trade (The Merchant Princes, #1)|Charles Stross|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408262924l/17861.SY75.jpg|930587] by [a:Charles Stross|8794|Charles Stross|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1355510574p2/8794.jpg] (and frankly, Long Earth reads like a fanfic rewrite of parts of this one).

Mostly entertaining characters in a thoroughly begun-to-be-explored world laid next to our own, I'm both drawn in and worried by how many more books they wrote in this series.

This was solid -- Heinlein-esque worldbuilding+anti-government sentiment, but with less misogyny. Good AI character. Lots of individual storylines that make a satisfying click as they collide. They didn't bother with a proper ending and should've just merged it with the sequel. A little dated; people have cell phones etc but the speech and behavior patterns are very 30+ years ago.

I found "The Long Earth" to be an interesting thought experiment, populated with interesting characters, all in search of a plot. The narrative wandered around from present to past and back, often without warning, but I never really found it jarring. I just didn't feel the story went anywhere, or if it did, it was extremely subtle. Still, it was enjoyable enough that I've already picked up the sequel.