Read: The Long War, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
In some respects, this novel - the second in a pentalogy that may or may not be concluded next year following the death of Terry Pratchett - kind of felt like it was treading water. Not much happens. There’s a grand sense of exploration on display, and I’ll come back to that, but in terms of a coherent plot, there isn’t much to go on.
I think there’s an argument to be made, though, that in a series like this, plot isn’t the point. Which is sacrilege, I know. But these novels are trying to present so much - a multitude of infinite worlds, a populations-spanning geopolitical crisis, an incomprehensible shift in nature - that focusing too strongly on personal journeys would likely feel disingenuous. As a result, while many of the same faces from The Long Earth return, their lives have become vehicles upon which much greater concerns travel. Joshua Valienté, the protagonist of The Long Earth, returns here in a smaller role, a little older, and with a wife and a child to boot. Other new players enter the scene, who will presumably reappear in later books.
There is a grand sense here that something is developing, but it’s always rooted in a perspective, so it becomes a powerfully human book about struggling to get a sense of a world that’s eternally just about to slip out of your grasp. It’s a powerful and deeply unsettling feeling, and this book captures it perfectly.