The Long Earth · 7:20pm Jul 26th, 2013
Who's a fan of Terry Pratchett? I'm sure lots of people here are.
How about Stephen Baxter? Probably fewer, but he's an excellent hard-SF author.
What do these two very different writers have in common? A relatively recent book, The Long Earth. They wrote it together.
Here's a passage from chapter 42:
Lobsang sighed. "Not exactly Rivendell, then, is it, with all these trolls and elves? Tell me, Sally, are there any unicorns in the Long Earth?"
"Chowder's done," said Joshua. "Get it while it's hot."
As they sat down to eat, Sally said, "Actually there are unicorns. Some not too many steps from Happy Landings. I can show you if you like. Ugly devils, and not like the kind that hang out with Barbie. Just bloody great slabs of battering ram, and so dumb they get their horns stuck in tree trunks. Often happens in the mating season..."
I think a crossover is now required, just to show how wrong Sally really is!
(The "Long Earth" of the title is the series of parallel Earths discovered in the story. In this first book, the characters reach somewhere around three million Earths "West" of Datum Earth.)
I keep meaning to read that book. Thanks for reminding me!
1238841
I discovered it through my father. He had been hoping for something like a Baxter story infused with Pratchett humor, but it's more like they averaged their skills together rather than added them: not as much humor as most of Pratchett's work (though there is certainly Pratchett-esque humor throughout), and while it's a Sci-Fi novel, it's far from hard SF. I enjoyed it, though (and we've got the sequel, The Long War, ordered already).