The Long Mars Av Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett

<p><b>''Imaginative, sense-of-wonder at its best . . . thrilling stuff from the masters'' <i>Independent on Sunday</i></b><br><br><b>2040-2045: </b>In the years after a cataclysmic eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee to myriad Long Earth worlds. <br><br><b>Sally</b>, <b>Joshua</b>, and <b>Lobsang </b>are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, <b>Willis Linsay</b>. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But he is not what he seems.<br><br>For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their ''long childhood'' in a hidden community located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing ''normal'' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown see