Stephen Baxter

In 2145AD John Hackett's adventure is just beginning. In Year 30, Mela's story is coming to a close. Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming. A mission which will take him five million years to complete. Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time. Mela's world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass - first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people - and resources - which remain. She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming - but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed. A beautiful, page-turning story which interweaves the tale of these two characters, separated by both space and time, in a hopeful exploration of humanities' future, this is Stephen Baxter at his best.

2070-71. Téměř šest dekád po dni Nazemvkročení pokračuje na Dlouhé Zemi postlidská společnost Příštích ve svém vývoji. Jošua Valienté, kterému táhne na sedmdesát, chce podniknout poslední osamělou cestu do Horních křížení. Jeho dobrodružství se ovšem obrátí v naprostou katastrofu. Ocitne se sám tváří v tvář smrti a jeho jedinou naději představuje tlupa trollů. Zatímco je Jošua konfrontován se svou smrtelností, Dlouhá Země obdrží zprávu z hvězd. Signál je zachycen radioastronomy, ale dalšími způsoby se dostane i k trollům a plavoličům. Dopad zprávy pocítí všichni obyvatelé Dlouhé Země. Zpráva je jednoduchá, ale její dopady obrovské: PŘIPOJTE SE!

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape, and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising. But some changes were not small. The solar system has been altered, changed, shaped in the various realities, and the World Engineers - unspeakably powerful, completely unknown - are still active. Why have they populated this planet with humanity's ancestors and dinosaurs? What is on the moon of Saturn that gives off such an odd light? And even if they can be found, can they be stopped - and should they be? Malenfant, Deidra and the rest of their party must find a way off the planet, back into space, and into the many dimensions seeking the answer...

2045-2059. Lidstvo bylo odvrhnuto Prvozemí a nyní se šíří po Dlouhé Zemi. Ne všude je však světy vítají s otevřenou náručí. Lobsang, nyní už postarší a velmi konzervativní pohyblivá jednotka, odchází v přestrojení s Agnes a jejich synem na odlehlou, tichou Zemi. Je přesvědčen, že v Novém Springfieldu budou žít poklidným a normálním lidským životem. Brzy se však ukáže, že sem byli dovedeni z nějakého důvodu. Jak se šíří podivné zvěsti, ukazuje se, že s tímto světem rozhodně není všechno v pořádku. O miliony Kroků dál zkoumá Jošua vlastní rodinnou historii. Objeví otce, kterého nikdy nepoznal? Pak je ale i on zatažen do událostí kolem Nového Springfieldu. Lobsang totiž zjistí, že onen konkrétní svět by mohl představovat hrozbu pro všechny ostatní v řetězci Dlouhé Země. Tato hrozba bude vyžadovat zapojení všech přítomných ? lidí, umělých jednotek i Příštích. A někdo bude muset přinést oběť nejvyšší...

Trapped on an alternate Earth, the combined crews of a crashed Russian spaceship, a British expeditionary force and a group of strays from the future must work together to survive, escape, and discover what led them to this point. All are from parallel universes where small changes in history led to different realities, and the tensions between the groups are rising. But some changes were not small. The solar system has been altered, changed, shaped in the various realities, and the World Engineers - unspeakably powerful, completely unknown - are still active. Why have they populated this planet with humanity's ancestors and dinosaurs? What is on the moon of Saturn that gives off such an odd light? And even if they can be found, can they be stopped - and should they be? Malenfant, Deidra and the rest of their party must find a way off the planet, back into space, and into the many dimensions seeking the answer...

Rok 2040. Dlouhá Země se zmítá v chaosu. Drtivý výbuch Yellowstonu uštědřil civilizaci zničující ránu. Celé národy hledají možná bezpečná útočiště na myriádách Vkročných Zemí. Sally Linsayová,Jošua Valienté a Lobsang se plně zapojují do úmorné snahy o očištění Prvozemě po erupci. Jošua navíc čelí další krizi, ještě blíže domovu.

It has been 14 years since the Martians invaded England. The world has moved on, always watching the skies but content that we know how to defeat the Martian menace. Machinery looted from the abandoned capsules and war-machines has led to technological leaps forward. The Martians are vulnerable to earth germs. The Army is prepared. So when the signs of launches on Mars are seen, there seems little reason to worry. Unless you listen to one man, Walter Jenkins, the narrator of Wells' book. He is sure that the Martians have learned, adapted, understood their defeat. He is right. Thrust into the chaos of a new invasion, a journalist - sister-in-law to Walter Jenkins - must survive, escape and report on the war. The Massacre of Mankind has begun

2045-2059. After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. Now an elderly and cantankerous AI, Lobsang lives in disguise with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world. He's convinced they're leading a normal life in New Springfield - they even adopt a child - but it seems they have been guided there for a reason. As rumours of strange sightings and hauntings proliferate, it becomes clear that something is very awry with this particular world. Millions of steps away, Joshua is on a personal journey of discovery: learning about the father he never knew and a secret family history. But then he receives a summons from New Springfield. Lobsang now understands the enormity of what's taking place beneath the surface of his earth - a threat to all the worlds of the Long Earth. To counter this threat will require the combined efforts of humankind, machine and the super-intelligent Next. And some must make the ultimate sacrifice...

2045-2059. After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. Now an elderly and cantankerous AI, Lobsang lives in disguise with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world. He's convinced they're leading a normal life in New Springfield - they even adopt a child - but it seems they have been guided there for a reason. As rumours of strange sightings and hauntings proliferate, it becomes clear that something is very awry with this particular world. Millions of steps away, Joshua is on a personal journey of discovery: learning about the father he never knew and a secret family history. But then he receives a summons from New Springfield. Lobsang now understands the enormity of what's taking place beneath the surface of his earth - a threat to all the worlds of the Long Earth. To counter this threat will require the combined efforts of humankind, machine and the super-intelligent Next. And some must make the ultimate sacrifice...

2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang 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, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has ulterior motives...Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth. 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 the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing 'normal' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown seems inevitable...

Dlouhá Země je otevřená. Lidstvo se rozlilo bezpočtem světů spojených flotilami vzducholodí, které podporují průzkum, obchod i kulturu. Jenže zatímco si lidstvo pokouší přizpůsobit Dlouhou Zemi, Dlouhá Země si na oplátku přizpůsobuje lidstvo a začíná narůstat řada kritických situací. Více než milion Vkročení od Země se začíná vynořovat nová Amerika - mladý národ, který se odmítá zodpovídat prvozemské vládě. A trollové, ti úžasní humanoidé s naplňoval celou Dlouhou Zemi, teď najednou tváří v tvář neúprosnému postupu lidstva začínají umlkat a mizet. Jošua Valienté spolu s všudypřítomnou bytostí známou jako Lobsang jako první prozkoumal tyto mnohočetné světy. A je to právě Jošua, k němuž se Dlouhá Země obrátí o pomoc. Najednou se totiž vynoří velmi reálná hrozba války...

2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang 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, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request: he needs her help to trace an advanced alien technology that, he believes, will help mankind's post-Yellowstone recovery. Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth. 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 the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear have caused 'normal' human society to turn against the Next, and the authorities, afraid of anything or anyone not deemed 'normal', order that all Next children be imprisoned. Joshua is determined to liberate the children - and a dramatic showdown over the inhumanity of humans against their own kind seems inevitable...

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science fiction comes the sequel to the phenomenal No.1 bestseller The Long Earth. A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth -- but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new ‘America’, called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth – and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government... Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity'’s thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.

Az ?1800-as évek közepén vívott krími háború fordulópontja volt Szevasztopol eleste. A hosszan elnyúló ostrom végül a jobb utánpótlási vonalakkal rendelkező szövetséges angol–török–francia csapatok javára dőlt el, melyek így megszállhatták a kiéheztetett várost. A mi világunkban. Stephen Baxter regényében a történelem menetét egy rendkívüli felfedezés forgatja fel: a Déli-sarkon egy angol utazó különleges jégre bukkan, amely melegítéskor nem vízzé olvad, hanem erős robbanást idéz elő. Ezt az antijégnek elnevezett anyagot vetik be a britek Szevasztopolnál, jóformán a földdel téve egyenlővé a várost. A felfedezésnek köszönhetően rohamos fejlődésnek indul a technika és a tudomány is, és az éjszakánként rejtélyes ikerholdak fényében fürdő Föld lakói fejüket kapkodva próbálják a lépést tartani a haladás mind sebesebben kattogó fogaskerekeivel. Baxter varázslatos gőzpunk világot épít fel a forradalmak és háborúk szaggatta 19. századi Európa romjain, megidézve Jules Verne szellemét, egyszersmind új politikai és etikai dilemmákkal szembesítve a rettentő pusztító és építő erők mellett eltörpülő ember hőseit.

Středozemní moře se stává klíčovou oblastí pro zdánlivě nekonečnou válku mezi islámem a křesťanstvím. Křižáci bojují proti muslimům na Iberském poloostrově i ve Svaté zemi. Španělská inkvizice čistí zemi od vyznavačů Alláha i Židů a někteří inkvizitoři sní o naplnění strašlivého proroctví, jež by znamenalo definitivní vítězství křesťanů. K němu jim má dopomoci jeden mořeplavec.

1916: the Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No Man's Land gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive - some said mad, others dangerous - scientist - when she finds a curious gadget - a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a...potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world for ever. And that's an understatement if ever there was one..."The Long Earth" is the first in an exciting new collaboration between the creator of "Discworld" Terry Pratchett and the acclaimed SF writer Stephen Baxter.