The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

"So Joshua found himself sitting with Sister Agnes reincarnate, in a shabby coffee shop in Madison West 5."

It has been a long time between drinks, but I was compelled to move this sequel to the top of my “to read” pile due to the imminent arrival of the next edition of the saga. I had forgotten how entertaining the premise of multiple world stepping could be. It’s a brilliant mix with the satire and sci-fi and did I mention there are trolls – not the kind on the internet either!

Another reason to expedite my return to the land of the Long Earth for a bit of Long War, was the fact that my friend Nicki had just completed reading the first instalment and her enthusiasm was infectious.

My friend, Wikipedia, tells me that this is the 2^nd in a series of 5 novels, the third of which was only just published and is probably somewhere en-route through the mail network, winding its way to my post box from book depository. I imagine there is some robotic evil overlord working for them that is compelling me to spend all my cash on new books ( stop it you!).

Now, back to the book. Well, I confess my memories of the first instalment, while positive, remain a little foggy by distance and so I’ve had to acclimatise with the characters once again. That done, it seems the destructive path of man is such that stepping all over the universe is done with a heavy boot and some damaging consequences. This is particularly highlighted when the Chinese research team is creating planets with genetically modified produce and strange anomalies like the Butterfly Planet – the reference to chaos theory suggesting that catastrophic events cannot be far away.

Ultimately, this just left me clamouring for a little more, lucky the sequel isn't too far away.

let me see you 1,2, step... 4 out of 5.