Discworld
fantasy
Series · science fiction
The Long Earth
The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett has 5 books and is best read in publication order, starting with The Long Earth (2012).
- Books
- 5 books
- First published
- 2012
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: The Long Earth (2012) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
The Long Earth
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Long Earth - Book 2:
The Long War
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Long War - Book 3:
The Long Mars
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Long Mars - Book 4:
The Long Utopia
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Long Utopia - Book 5:
The Long Cosmos
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Long Cosmos
About The Long Earth
When a simple homemade device called a Stepper lets ordinary people 'step' sideways into a parallel, uninhabited version of Earth -- and then another, and another, in a chain of infinite Earths stretching in both directions -- human civilization is transformed overnight. The Long Earth (2012) follows Joshua Valiente, a natural stepper who never needs the device at all, as he's recruited by an artificial intelligence calling itself Lobsang to explore the Long Earth's outer reaches, encountering the strange non-human intelligences already living there and the mass migration of humanity fleeing an overcrowded 'Datum' Earth for endless new frontiers. It's Terry Pratchett's first major sustained collaboration outside Discworld, pairing his character-driven wit with hard-SF novelist Stephen Baxter's love of big, rigorous speculative concepts.
The four sequels -- The Long War, The Long Mars, The Long Utopia, and The Long Cosmos -- expand the premise across decades, following the political, ecological, and existential consequences of infinite frontier: wars over stepping rights, the discovery of other stepping species, generational change as children grow up never having known a non-Long Earth, and a first-contact story that spans far more than one Earth. Pratchett, in the late stages of the Alzheimer's disease that eventually took his life in 2015, worked on the series until shortly before his death, with the final volume published posthumously.
How to read this series
Read in publication order -- this is a single continuous story that follows Joshua Valiente, Lobsang, and an expanding cast across roughly twenty years of Long Earth history, and later books assume knowledge of earlier ones. It shares no characters or setting with Discworld, so no prior Pratchett reading is required. Fans of Baxter's other hard-SF work will recognize his fingerprints in the series' scientific rigor, while Pratchett's voice dominates the character comedy and worldbuilding whimsy.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in The Long Earth series?
Five: The Long Earth (2012), The Long War (2013), The Long Mars (2014), The Long Utopia (2015), and The Long Cosmos (2016).
What order should I read The Long Earth books in?
Publication order: The Long Earth, The Long War, The Long Mars, The Long Utopia, The Long Cosmos. It's a continuous story across all five.
Did Terry Pratchett write all of The Long Earth himself?
No -- all five books are co-written with hard-SF author Stephen Baxter, Pratchett's first sustained collaborator outside his Discworld work with Neil Gaiman.
Is The Long Earth connected to Discworld?
No -- it's an entirely separate contemporary/near-future science fiction setting with no shared characters or continuity.
Was The Long Cosmos published before or after Terry Pratchett's death?
The Long Cosmos (2016) was published just over a year after Pratchett died in March 2015; he worked on the series with Baxter until shortly before his death.
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Reading order last verified .