A new America that has christened itself 'Valhalla' has emerged more than a million steps from the original Datum Earth. Humankind is shaping the Long Earth, but in turn the Long Earth is shaping humankind. Now 'civilization' flourishes, and fleets of airships link the multiple Earths through exploration, trade, and culture. But I digress….Humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by stepping, which Joshua and Lobsang explored a mere decade ago. Raising Steam? Meh…I’m hoping it grows on me. Still, it’s clearly Pratchett doing the writing and that means it’s well written. Making Money was less so based partially on the bold injection of his particular (and rudimentary) economic philosophy. So far I much prefer it to Raising Steam which I am having a heckuva time getting into and enjoying, despite being a fan of Moist. Apart from a few odd or cringey parts, it’s great. And poor Fred, while known for not being the biggest fan of some species (see Men At Arms), has been lazily upgraded to token “racist” to help the moral of the story along.Īgain, I like the story and it’s made my bedtime audiobook list like so many other Discworld books. Without getting too far into it, I’ll just say that some of the monologues were unusually long for Vimes, and there were times when, especially Sybil, Willikins, and Fred Colon make me say, “Huh?” Hearing Lady Sybil bluntly repeat the same curse word within a couple sentences was awkward, out of character, and forced. “He’s known for using, so let’s throw lots of that in!” If only it were that easy to write like Terry wrote. It wasn’t bad, but it often felt forced, like someone without Terry’s skill was trying to sound like Terry. Everything from the style, usage (and extent) of various literary devices, and character behaviors were off. I admit that I haven’t spent much time looking into it, but It’s clear that someone else edited and perhaps did a fair share of the writing.

That said, it’s important to understand (as I’m sure many others have noted) that Terry’s condition at the time meant that the writing wasn’t always up to his typical standards.

It’s a good story and I’m a big fan of the Watch books. Overall, I’m glad to have read–and listened–to it.

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