The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While the idea of infinite parallel worlds is not a new one, Pratchett and Baxter manage to give it a new spin, touching not only on the adventurous explorations and dangers that these new world represent, but also on the very real social, economical and political effects that such a discovery would have on our own world. The exploration thread follows mostly Joshua and Lobsang, a man with the ability to step naturally between worlds and a very peculiar AI, as they travel the Long Earth Jules Verne-style, while the social side is presented as vignettes and slices of life of several different characters, whose stories will all come together in the finale of the book.
The ending is maybe the weakest part. It reads very subdued and a bit rushed compared to what actually happens, a bit like the pilot of a TV series where the tables are set for future instalments. This is maybe the part that worries me more, as we don’t know how many years of writing Pterry has left in him and I’m not sure I’d like to read other books written only by Baxter.