LONG MARS, THE

From the combined talents of the UK's bestselling novelist and a giant of British science fiction comes the dazzling new chapter in the extraordinary and bestselling The Long Earth sequence.
     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 which, 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.

Author of the Discworld series, TERRY PRATCHETT is one of the UK's most popular and bestselling writers. His books have sold over 65 million copies worldwide and been translated into nearly 40 languages. Awarded an OBE in 1998 and knighted in 2009 for his services to literature, he lives in Wiltshire.

STEPHEN BAXTER is one of the UK's most acclaimed writers of science fiction and a multi-award winner. His many books include the classic Xeelee sequence, the Time's Odyssey novels (written with Arthur C. Clarke) and Time Ships, a sequel to H G Wells' The Time Machine. He lives in Northumberland.