TL;DR
If you’ve not already committed to this series, I’d advise you don’t start now…
Review
Book 4 of ‘The Long Earth’ series has thoroughly cemented the series as probably one of the most frustrating sci-fi series I’ve ever read.
This is a somewhat novel feeling for me when it comes to fiction (the grim acceptance that A Song of Ice and Fire will likely never be finished notwithstanding), as normally I just don’t enjoy the book/world/ideas and give up, or I get completely pulled in and can’t put it down. However, in a similar vein to its predecessors, The Long Utopia once again dangles fascinating & exciting ideas in front of the reader in an immensely slow burn setup, before proceeding to tell an ultimately underwhelming story that barely utilises these pieces at all.
In my review of the previous 3 books, I highlighted my concerns regarding the overall pacing and direction of the storytelling, and my hope that things would start to pay off the final 2 books. Sadly, it seems to have doubled down instead on all the elements of storytelling that I didn’t like about the series, and continues to meander aimlessly in a vast world of ideas that feels like the author has no idea how to use. I would say the overall structure of the book breaks down as follows:
Once again, the story sets up a number of interesting plot threads, which it then seems to discard entirely and ends without giving a wholly satisfying story using any of them. Concepts are introduced and then swiftly abandoned, new major characters introduced and then given all of 3 chapters worth of development, and previous plot mysteries are revitalised only to be swiftly resolved in the space of a chapter. Meanwhile the book continues to indulge in exposition that adds no real value, weird subplots that have absolutely no bearing on the story arc, and continues to just pretend unresolved setups from the previous books just don’t exist. I’ve lost count of the number of promising ideas this series has dangled in front of the reader, only to never, ever mention them again!
I think what makes this series so infuriating, is that it does bring all the right ingredients to tell a great story. The world/concept is great. I genuinely care about some of these characters. However the story just elects to meander to and fro, never really finding its feet until the final act, at which point every major point is more or less just summarised in bullet point form and then abruptly ends, ready for the next inevitable timeskip at the start of the next book. It’s like being given the keys to a world class sports car for the day, and then electing to spend the whole time only checking out the viewing angle of the left wing mirror. It’s weirdly baffling, and so unsatisfying.
At this point I’m somewhat unsure if I’ll actually complete the final book of the series. Despite my complaints, I still find the writing style pleasant to read, and I was never at any point bored with what I was reading. That being said, I’m now sadly pretty sure that this series will never have anything even close to a satisfying conclusion. There are more open mysteries at this point than I can even remember, and even the ones that have met some form of closure have been largely unimpressive conclusions. Overall I’m just not entirely convinced that The Long Cosmos will be worth the time investment, which is honestly just a crying shame for a book series that held so much promise.
Score
I guess we’re going to continue with the whole score thing:
3/10
Aside: This is regrettably probably one of the worst books I’ve read to have the late Terry Pratchett’s name attached to it (though I really question how much influence he had at this point).